There’s almost no chance it happens, but IF LeBron requested a trade to the Mavericks, here’s what the Lakers could land in return.
Plenty of digital ink has been spilled in the past six months about the possibility of Kyrie Irving and LeBron James teaming up with the Los Angeles Lakers. But Sham Charania spun that on its head a bit with a report that Kyrie reached out to LeBron to try and recruit him to join the Mavericks.
This seems like an absurdly unlikely scenario for a number of reasons — Kyrie isn’t even guaranteed to return to the Mavs, the Lakers would have to agree to trade LeBron and the Mavericks aren’t exactly flush with valuable trade assets. It’s also extremely questionable whether pairing with Luka Doncic and Kyrie would get LeBron any closer to a title, especially if the Mavs have to shed essentially all their depth to make it work.
Still, it’s plausible, assuming LeBron is done with the Lakers and assuming he’s willing to not just ask for a trade but specify that it has to be to the Mavericks (since other teams could make much better offers.
Assuming all of these incredibly unlikely variables lined up here is the most intriguing package the Mavericks could offer the Lakers:
What a Lakers-Mavericks trade for LeBron James would look like:
- Davis Bertans
- Maxi Kleber
- Tim Hardaway Jr.
- Jaden Hardy
- Josh Green
- 2023 first-round pick
- 2025 first-round pick swap
- 2026 first-round pick
- 2027 first-round pick swap
- 2028 first-round pick
In the grand scheme of things, this may be something like 25 cents on the dollar. Trading LeBron presumably kicks off a rebuild and Bertans, Kleber and Hardaway Jr. are subsequently flipped for additional assets. Hardy and Green are the Mavs’ only compelling young players but neither even looks like a guaranteed rotation player. And because the Knicks own the Mavs’ 2024 pick, the draft package they can offer is limited to three first-round picks and a pair of pick swaps.
Another team could and almost certainly would make a more compelling offer for LeBron if it was clear that he was on the table and available to the highest bidder. But if he told the Lakers he wanted to go to Dallas and play with Kyrie, this is probably the best they could do.
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