Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[mvossman]

The one thing regarding all of the controversy around Kyrie is that there was never a single thing that he's done that called out teammates or had teammates call out him.  Every issue with Kyrie was directed toward the Nets front office and then all of the off court stuff.  You will never find an interview with Kyrie where he talks down about someone like coach Pop or Tony Parker.

I think the other side of this is what F Gump said.  Kyrie is just a MUCH better player than Murray so I don't really understand what we're doing here anyway.  We have a great fit between Luka and Kyrie, how many times do reset a star pairing together?  That is just going to force us to start building chemistry from the beginning again.

This is all true, and I don't really see the Mavs moving from Kyrie unless a great opportunity came up that they can't pass up.  

The argument for swapping out Kyrie for Murray does make some sense though.  We have an urgency right now, almost entirely due to Kyrie.  He is about to turn 32 and has a history of missing a lot of games (including big ones).  How much longer can we count on him being elite.  Most of the arguments for win now moves that may play havoc with our future are tied to Kyrie timeline.  We also have the issue that every move we make needs to focus on defense in order to fit with the Luka/Kyrie combo.  

Murray may not be the right answer, either due to attitude concerns or an inability to be a high level defender again, but the idea does make some sense.  If there was a way to replace Kyrie with a younger, more defensive oriented player who could still do a lot the same things offensively (although not at the same elite level) and was more likely to be on the court in general, it would be tempting to do it.