Hoops Tonight - Why Kyrie Irving joining LeBron James would make Lakers NBA title favorites

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all if you guys are having a good weekend. We are up in Breckon Ridge getting ready to hit the slopes on the road. Yesterday. We had planned on doing one show on this trip tomorrow morning, because there's a jam packed slate tonight. We got the Lakers in New Orleans against the Pelicans. We got the Warriors against the Mavericks, that heat against the Bucks. A bunch of good games to cover. But then Kyrie Irving decided to drop a bomb on the entire NBA and the entire NBA trade

deadline right as I was pulling into Albuquerque yesterday. So I've had a night to kind of marinate on it and sleep on it, and I had some thoughts, and then I have some quick thoughts on that Clippers Bucks game from Thursday night, which I thought was super super informative on a bunch of different levels. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you

guys don't miss any show announcements. And then, last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them, you can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So first, my first instinct here is that this is super fishy, and the main reason why is I had put the Brooklyn Nets into my top tier of contenders

coming into before the season. I kind of had these tears set up and I had the Clippers, the Bucks, the Celtics, and the Warriors on the top. And then the next two teams I had were two teams that I thought were super talented, but that had a million different things that could have knocked them off the rails. And ironically, both of them have had seasons where things have gone right. And I had at fifth the Philadelphia seventy sixers and at six the Brooklyn Nets, and both

of them have stayed healthy. You know, James Harden has had a great year, Kyrie Irving has rehabbed his image, Joel Embiid for the most part, has been healthy, and Kevin Durant's been arguably the best player in the world. And so both of those teams have been kind of whopping everyone's ass this season. And so what's really strange about this is, you know, looking back at Kyrie Irving's

trade request last summer, the Nets were in shambles. They had an incredibly disappointing loss in a sweet keep against the Boston Celtics. Things looked really discouraging. You could see why Kevin Durant might want a different basketball situation, why Kyrie Irving might want a different basketball situation. But that's not the case now. And what now we know that Kyrie for good reason, was trying to plan his next destination.

This is just pre planning. We talked about this a lot the other day when we were talking about Draymond Green in his contract situation coming up. Acknowledge the realities of the business and start prepping to advocate for yourself, right, And what Kyrie is understanding now is that he needs to start planning his next destination. If if it's Brooklyn, great, If not, then he needs to start prepping somewhere else.

So he reaches out to the Nets about a contract extension before the trade deadline, because if he can get the deal he wants, then everything's great. He's with Brooklyn, we just keep playing basketball. But if they can't give him the deal that he wants, if there's too big of a gap there, then he needs to start thinking about where he's going to be next. And when it comes to the summer, there's a lim atation with a

number of teams that have cap space. But if you can trade for Kyrie Irving, then it's not a matter of cap space anymore. It's a matter of matching outgoing salaries. And once you do that, now he lists his list of options of different places he can go becomes infinitely wider. So, for instance, Kyrie really wants to go to the Lakers to play with Lebron and Anthony Davis. We learned about

this last summer, but in free agency it's unrealistic. Even last summer, if he wanted to do it, he would have had to sign a mid level exception, which was a little over six million a year. That's not going to get the job done, right. But if it's a trade,

now it's a Russell westbrook for Kyrie Irving swap. Now he can get a get to l a and they will have the option to pay him exactly what he made in Brooklyn plus a certain amount of There's there's different cap machinations they have to work out, but the point is that he can get more money long term with the Lakers through a trade than he came through

free agency. So we can look at all of the different elements of this trade demand as it pertains to the offer that he got from Brooklyn, and he's upset and whatever differences he might have between the front office, but really this comes down to money. He's just trying to set up his next deal, and it's clear that

he wants it to be a guaranteed deal. In Brooklyn, they're looking at it more as an incentive based deal for good reason, because Kyrie is literally time and time again over the last couple of years, gone out of his way to disrupt the continuity of the team. And he's done this three years in a row now between you know, straight up leaving the team for personal reasons multiple times two years ago, to the COVID situation last year, to the anti Semitism stuff this year, so they have

good reason to feel that way. Now, Kyrie irvings camp is like, Hey, he's the top twenty player in the world, and and that's the thing I want to say before we get any further into this. We can say what we want about Kyrie. And look, if you're one of those fans that's like, I'm not touching this guy with a ten foot poll, I get that. I'm with you. I I have no problem him with that take. But it can't be Kyrie sucks and I don't want him.

You have to understand that he's playing basketball at a higher level than most of the players in the league this season, and if you choose that you don't want him, it's because of the off court stuff, not because of his en court impact. To give you guys some examples, Kyrie Irving this year and over four hundred pick and rolls is averaging one point one point points per possession including passes. There are forty five players in the NBA

this year that have run at least four hundred. He's eight out of those forty five players, so he's been one of the best pick and roll ball handlers, pick and roll ball shot creators in the league this year. Isolations Kyrie isolations are averaging one point one nine points

per possession including passes. That second out of eight teen players in the league to run at least two hundred this year, So he's been the second best isolation player in the entire NBA this year spot up possessions, which would be vitally important, alongside guys like Luca don Hitch or Jimmy Butler and bamat a Bio or Lebron James and Anthony Davis. One point one nine points per spot

up possession. That's third, you first out of a hundred and nineteen players um that I've run at least that have run at least I believe one hundred of them. So if you don't want him, that's fine, but don't act like he's not good. And there's gonna be a lot of teams that are gonna talk him, talk themselves

into being interested. Now, my first instinct, to be clear is I think cooler heads will prevail, and I think that Kevin Durant will get involved and the Nets will make him a better offer, and Kyrie Irving will sign an extension, and I believe he will stay with the Brooklyn Nets. I believe there's reason to try to make that work. I believe Kyrie has been good enough to justify the deal. And in Brooklyn they have a great

basketball situation. They're not my championship favorite. There's some matchup luck that they're gonna need to get, but they're certainly capable of winning the title. There's good reason to try

to make that work. But if for whatever reason, it degenerates and he needs to go elsewhere, I want to quickly touch on a couple of teams uh that I think he might end up because where he might end up, because the risk here Kyrie Irving essentially just amounts to a high risk proposition in terms of the talent He's going to make your team a lot better. There's a legitimate case to make that he's been a top twenty

player in the NBA this year. His specific skill set would help a lot of teams that desperately need what he does. There's a huge upside, and then there's the downside of all of his antics and his unreliability. Right, so, they're going to be teams like the Denver Nuggets, for instance, where it's like, yeah, you could trade for Kyrie Irving and he might make you a lot better, but the

risk doesn't make sense because they're very well established. The same thing goes for teams like the Boston Celtics or the Philadelphia seventy sixers or the Milwaukee Bucks. Right but then we get to these other teams. They have a lot of different pieces that they feel good about for the chances to win the title, but they know they're not good enough on the margins. Teams like the Lakers, teams like the Mavericks, teams like the Heat, teams like

the Phoenix Suns. Now for them, they're considering the risk because right now they're not good enough and they some urgency, whether that's Luca and his potential future with the Mavericks, or it's Lebron James and his twentie season, Jimmy Butler aging and has dealt with some injuries over the years, they're experiencing some urgency. And then the same thing goes with the Phoenix Suns with their current predicament with Chris Paul and some of the stuff going on with him

so really quickly. I think the Lakers make the most sense, and Kyrie wants to go there, and it's the most likely to happen because of the behind the scenes ability that Kyrie has to manipulate his way there, So Kyrie should If you're Kyrie Irving and you're leaving Brooklyn, do you want to go play with Luca don Chitch and

a roster that doesn't have much else? Do you want to go to Miami where they're not going to put up with anything that Kyrie does that's off the book out like you know, off the beaten path, so to speak. Or do you want to go to Phoenix where it's kind of similar type of situation. They're gonna the team and it has a funky chemistry. They've been dealing with a bunch of issues all year. Or do you want to go with the Lakers where it's Lebron James, Anthony Davis.

It's a little bit of a ship show anyway, so you can Kyrie is gonna kind of feel like he's got a little bit more freedom there. It's in Los Angeles, the team automatically becomes like a top tier championship contender with the three of them on the roster. I can see why he wants that, and so then from there he can behind the scenes have his agent manipulate the situation. Go to Dallas and be like, don't trade for him. If you do, he won't extend. Go to Miami and

say don't trade for him. If you do, he won't extend. Go to Phoenix and say the same thing. So he can do some things behind the scenes to push him towards the Lakers. Now, for the Lakers, there's two elements to it that make it vitally important. One, if I'm breaking down the Lakers roster, they're incredibly physically imposing. We saw that two nights agoing against the Indiana Pacers. They have a massive front line with Lebron James, Anthony Davis Chimura.

They've got good uh guards that play good defense, guys like Troy Brown j and your guys like Austin Reeves. They have ball pressure guards, they've got downhill guards. They've got all these things. But there's one thing that they are missing, and it the real reason why the Lakers

have struggled so much. At the end of games. They don't have anybody who likes to take in is good at making jump shots, either on the catch or off the dribble, and so because of that, at the end of games, there's a lot of looking around, a lot of teams packing the paint, and nobody feeling comfortable taking the shots you need to win the game. Kyrie Irving

automatically fixes all of that. He gives you another great ball handler at the end of games who loves to shoot jump shots both off the dribble and off the catch, that will be able to succeed in crunch time, alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis off the ball or on the ball. It's a no brainer. That automatically fixes their biggest flaw. And then this is the biggest the second side of it that is not being talked about enough. What have I been talking about with Russell Westbrook all year?

He's been a net positive in the middle portions of games, when the game is loose and it's up and down and he's going against lower level bench players. But at the end of games, for the most part, he's been a disaster. And Darvin Ham wants to go to him, and he will continue to go to him, and as long as he's on the roster, there's a chance he'll go to him in a playoff series and it will

get the Lakers beat. So there's the other element to this, which is the the addition by subtraction element of getting Russ off the roster, because he isn't net positive if he's played properly in the rotation, but if he's played

in crunch time, he quickly becomes a net negative. So that one of the one of the things that's become an issue with the Lakers this year is they've got so many rotation players now because of a lot of their lower level rotation players that are playing well, that if you flip Russell Westbrook for three players coming back from the Charlotte Hornets or three players coming back from the Utah Jazz, you start to have even more of a log jam in your rotation. And so that kind

of made a Russell Westbrook trade unlikely. But Kyrie Irving coming onto the scene makes a very simple one for one swap. You can send Russ out, you can send Lonnie Walker out, you can get back Kyrie Irving and Joe Harris or whatever. The structure of that is. It's fewer players coming back, which makes it a simpler swap, and it gets Russell Westbrook off the roster. So for me, the Lakers may the most sense. I think they should

throw everything at this to try to get it done. Yes, Jennie Buss is gonna have to figure out some stuff with the luxury tax. But Kyrie Irving, Ruby, Hodger Mura, Lebron James, Anthony Davis. That's three really good players that are thirty or younger and Lebron James, who is aging very well. That's a good core for you to build around in the future, even though it would be expensive. With Dallas, the case is very simple. They don't have any legit backup ball handling or a legit costar alongside

uh Luca don Che. Their team that I think should be aggressive because I think Kyrie's game compliments Luca very well. When we get to Miami, similar type of deal. We've talked a lot about how Jimmy Butler is the only guy who can create his own shot on that team. Bam is making some improvements this year. He's getting better, looking to score, looking to be more aggressive. But their guards, when you get to Max Strus and Gabe Vincent and Kyle Lowry, those guys are not doing a good job

this year of creating offense. Tyler Harrow ironically has been very very good, especially when he's coming off of screening actions. But they could really use one more guy that can that kind of stuff. So it makes sense. The one team that I really don't understand, and I get it because it's a new owner and he's coming in and he wants to make that splashy move and he wants to get his team on the stage is the Phoenix Suns.

But it's a redundancy thing. What's the one thing that Devin Booker is better at than most people in the league, creating his own shot off the dribble. What's the one thing that Kyrie Irving is better at than most of the players in the league. It's creating his own shot off the dribble. You get the point. There's a redundancy there. I don't think they necessarily need what he does. What they need is someone who does what Chris Paul does

in a more reliable way on a playoff stage. So I don't I understand the splashyness of it and the new owner thing and the being aggressive thing, but I just don't necessarily think that that team makes a ton of sense as a fit. So again to tie a bon on it, my guess is that he stays in Brooklyn. Cooler heads prevailed. They've got too good of a team. They try to make this work. But if he ends up going elsewhere, there's too much behind the scenes that the Lakers and do. There's too much or that I

should say that Kyrie Irving can do. And there's too much basketball sense with Kyrie Irving with the Lakers for that not to happen. So I would consider that to be the most likely outcomes should Kyrie actually get traded, and then really quickly before we get out of here today.

I don't want to spend too much time on this, but I watched that Celtic or the Clippers Bucks game on Thursday night, and the reason why I thought it was super interesting is if you guys remember last weekend, Nicola Yokich and Joel Embiid had a battle on ABC

and Joel Embiad embarrassed him. And during that game, for the first three and a half quarters, Luke Nikola Yokis was the better player because his possession by possession impact is higher than Joel Embiads and Joel his shot making hadn't really taken off at that point in the game, and the Nuggets were winning, and Yokichi stat line is pretty pedestrian, but it was classic yokis ball and they

were winning. But then what happened. Joel Embiad got just obnoxiously hot with his pull up junction and just barbecued Nicola yo Ki every time down the floor. The end of the game looked wildly better and the Sixers won. Well, what happened in that Clippers Bucks game was the exact opposite of that dynamic. For the first three and a half quarters of that game, Kawai and Paul George were clicking,

knocking down all these tough pull up jump shots. The entire Clippers roster just incredible shot making every time down the floor. But then down the stretch they those shots stopped falling. Janice kept barreling his way to the rim. Janice kept generating offense and defense on both ends of the floor. The Bucks slowly climbed back into the game. And what did you see down the stretch. You saw Paul George pull up jump shot top of the key shot. He works really hard on airball short of the rent.

You saw Kawhi Leonard working on Wesley Matthews getting to a couple of turnarounds and step backs and fadeaways and they just didn't go in. And that's the other side of that story. Like I told you guys after that Yo Kitchen, bad game, those are just different archetypes, the shot making and the possession to possession impact or two different archetypes. And if you watch them on one night and the shots are going in, the shot maker guy

looks better. But if you watch him on another night and those tough shots that even though they work really hard on are below fifty, usually sometimes they don't go in. And when they don't go in, suddenly the other guy looks better. And I thought that was a good indication or a good example of the fact that it's not always about that one game sample and who makes what

shot when you get to the postseason. That's why I value those possession to possession guys, because in a seven game sample, it's far more likely that they will be able to make more impact then the guy who could get hot in game two and get hot in game four, maybe pretty mediocre outside of that and end up losing this series. I said before the season that Janice was my pick for m v P. I think he's the best player in the league. He's been an absolute wrecking

ball over the last couple of the weeks. The Bucks are on a run. I hope some of you guys jumped on those odds when they were significantly higher, because I do you think j honest has a chance to kind of work his way back into this conversation. He has the ability to hit the Jets for a month or two average forty and fifteen, win every game, and just look better than everybody else. And so that was always something that could happen down the stretch of the season.

That's why I never gave up. Gave up on them all right, guys, that is all I have for today. Will be back tomorrow morning with some breakdown of those three games that I mentioned. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support and we'll see you guys next time. The volume