Nets resisting taking Russell Westbrook in Kyrie Irving trade without first-round draft capital from Lakers

League sources maintain that the Nets are A) focused on trying to assemble a palatable Kevin Durant trade before proceeding to Kyrie Irving scenarios and B) adamant in their resistance to taking back Russell Westbrook in a theoretical Irving swap without, for starters, some first-round draft compensation added by the Lakers. Westbrook, remember, is scheduled to earn nearly $11 million more than Irving next season, which would cost Brooklyn an additional $50 million once luxury-tax penalties are factored in according to a piece earlier this week from my Bleacher Report colleague Jake Fischer.
Source: Marc Stein @ marcstein.substack.com

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Marc Stein @TheSteinLine
The Lakers’ ICY launch in Las Vegas and all the latest on Russell Westbrook and LA’s Kyrie Irving trade prospects … all here via my latest This Week In Basketball column freshly dispatched worldwide: marcstein.substack.com/p/the-lakers-i… – 12:57 PM

Kyle Goon @kylegoon
Reporting from Las Vegas Summer League, where LeBron James and Russell Westbrook went to the same Lakers game but sat on opposite ends and did not approach each other while the public’s eyes were on them: ocregister.com/2022/07/08/lak… – 1:03 AM

Jovan Buha @jovanbuha
Russell Westbrook is here and sitting on the Lakers’ bench pic.twitter.com/yaL8CtoFtH – 10:46 PM

Brian Lewis @NYPost_Lewis
Claxton did say that he’d heard from Durant and Irving since re-signing. Adds the #Nets have “unfinished business” regardless of who is on the roster. #NBA – 8:03 PM

Brian Lewis @NYPost_Lewis
Asked Nic Claxton if he has been re-recruiting Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. He laughed “That’s above my pay grade.” #nets #nba pic.twitter.com/5yt6LtzpAa – 8:01 PM

Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS
Oh my God I just realized there’s like a 1% chance we someday get a Kyrie-centric season of Winning Time. – 7:14 PM

Tommy Beer @TommyBeer
the idea that Harden willingly left $15 million on the table solely b/c he cares about the Sixers and is only focused on a title is humorous.
Harden has seen his value drop dramatically and (unlike Kyrie) he was willing to accept this new reality and frame it as an unselfish act pic.twitter.com/cHWudql1ox – 3:11 PM

Jake Fischer @JakeLFischer
Full episode with @Ian Begley is now live on @getcallin.
Lots of talk on Nets, Knicks, KD, Kyrie, then some questions from around the league on Dallas, Indiana, Sacramento, and more: callin.com/link/HuflxJACtL – 1:25 PM

Steve Popper @StevePopper
Young Nets working hard, but future depends on situation with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving newsday.com/sports/basketb… via @Newsday – 10:02 AM

Brian Lewis @NYPost_Lewis
#Nets youngsters grateful for time with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving – but know they may not get any more. #nba nypost.com/2022/07/08/net… via @nypostsports – 3:28 AM

Eric Pincus @EricPincus
Latest @BleacherReport San Antonio Spurs May Hold Keys to a Kyrie Irving-Russell Westbrook Trade bleacherreport.com/articles/10041… – 3:07 AM

Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS
My preference remains a two-team Lakers-Nets deal for Kyrie Irving because I prefer Joe Harris and Seth Curry to Josh Richardson and Doug McDermott. – 10:02 PM

Barbara Barker @meanbarb
Young Nets working hard, but future depends on situation with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving newsday.com/sports/basketb… via @Newsday – 9:16 PM

The Ringer @ringernba
💯 Rudy Gobert to the Timberwolves
💯 Will the Nets actually deal KD and Kyrie?
💯 Bradley Beal’s humongous deal
#RealOnes: open.spotify.com/episode/1VoFnw… – 6:12 PM

Jorge Sierra @hoopshype
The Nets’ offseason so far.
Aside from KD and Kyrie, do you like what they have done? pic.twitter.com/4n7I3ihaaZ – 4:42 PM

Alex Schiffer @Alex__Schiffer
Not much to take from the Nets’ first summer league practice. Adam Caporn said he hasn’t addressed the uncertainty surrounding Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving with the team. Cam Thomas texted with Durant last week but kept the conversation private. – 4:13 PM

Marc J. Spears @MarcJSpears
“I got a wholehearted plan, a clear plan on how I’m going to use him. I showed it to him, sat down, brought stuff up for him. I think he’s going to flourish,” new #Lakers coach Darvin Ham on Russell Westbrook. Ham also answers whether Russ will start. bit.ly/3nInkUf #nba – 10:26 AM

Marc J. Spears @MarcJSpears
Darvin Ham is bringing his philosophy and a Saginaw toughness to the #Lakers. Former NBA player talks to @andscape about his long road to becoming a head coach, the challenge of coaching LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis, and more. bit.ly/3nInkUf #nba – 8:44 AM

Kurt Helin @basketballtalk
PBT Podcast: Mocking Nets-Lakers Kyrie Irving trade talks nba.nbcsports.com/2022/07/06/pbt… – 11:20 PM

Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS
I doubt he’d do it, but I bet LeBron could ease some of the cost concern on a Kyrie trade for the Lakers by telling them he’ll sign a below-max extension.
He hasn’t played for below the max since 2014, and I doubt he does now, but it might be a way for him to grease the wheels. – 9:43 PM

Sam Vecenie @Sam_Vecenie
GAME THEORY PODCAST: @AndrewKSchlecht is here! We dive deep on the Chet Debut
Then a deeper dive on the Rudy to MIN deal, on why I like Kyrie to LA, and what in the world is happening with Deandre Ayton.
APPLE: https://t.co/hIOdTGnsom
WATCH: https://t.co/z3WHm1DVRQ pic.twitter.com/5901CdSSDo – 7:56 PM

Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS
The latest Durant question I’ve kind of been musing is if the Raptors would give up Scottie if they could also get Ben Simmons. Then the Nets could redirect everything else they get in the deal (plus the Lakers picks for Kyrie) to Utah for Donovan Mitchell. My brain hurts. – 7:30 PM

Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS
I wonder how connected the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving trades are going to be.
If the Nets are determined to take this into camp and beyond with Durant, does that take Kyrie off the table? The risk of doing so is much higher with Kyrie as an expiring contract with health risks – 5:37 PM

Kamenetzky Brothers @KamBrothers
For the sickos who like to watch, Wednesday’s @LockedOnLakers pod, YouTube version. We discuss reported snags in the Lakers-Nets Kyrie trade talks, and our impressions of the young Lakers in the Cali Classic. @LockedOnNetwork @LockedOnNBAPods
youtube.com/watch?v=zNZhue… – 4:07 PM

More on this storyline

My sense is that the Lakers will continue to explore every conceivable option for acquiring Irving, who made his current presence in Los Angeles loudly known earlier in the week when he attended a Sparks game. Management certainly hasn’t promised that it can pull an Irving trade off, since it might well require the participation of at least one other team to provide Brooklyn with what it wants, but Pelinka made it clear in a Friday night TV appearance that he is still pursuing upgrades after his first five moves in free agency (Damian Jones and Troy Brown Jr. have also been signed in recent days). Is that a shooter like Hield or Gordon rather than Irving? TBD. “We’re still not done,” Pelinka said. “We still have more work to do.” -via marcstein.substack.com / July 9, 2022

According to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, some members in the organization prefer trading for Indiana Pacers veterans Myles Turner and Buddy Hield instead (via “The Athletic NBA Show”): “There’s a stalemate right now, really between multiple teams. The league is kinda in a gridlock right now with this whole Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving situation. I think particularly for the Lakers with Russ and Kyrie, from what I’ve heard the Nets’ plan right now is to move KD first before moving Kyrie, so I don’t think you’re going to see a Kyrie deal happen until KD gets moved. “On top of that, they [the Nets] don’t want to take back Russell Westbrook, and they want at least one pick back. The Lakers have been hesitant to give up that draft capital… I know that they’ve looked around at Indiana. ‘Can we get a Myles Turner and a Buddy Hield?’” -via Silverscreenandroll.com / July 9, 2022

Alex Schiffer: Nic Claxton said he’s heard from Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving since he re-signed with the Nets. Said the Nets have unfinished business regardless of who is on the roster. -via Twitter @Alex__Schiffer / July 9, 2022

Our latest around-the-league notes compilation leads off with the first hint of the awkwardness you can expect for LeBron James’ team if it is unable to trade Russell Westbrook this summer. When I chatted Thursday on Spotify Live with longtime Lakerland chronicler Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times, I asked BT to try to forecast how awkward Darvin Ham’s first training camp address to the team will be if Russell Westbrook is still a Laker in late September. -via marcstein.substack.com / July 9, 2022

I’d say we were promptly treated to a glimpse of how that tension might feel Friday night in Las Vegas during the Lakers’ summer league opener. Westbrook and LeBron James ended up in the same gym as spectators for the first half of the Lakers’ heavy loss to the Phoenix Suns’ summer squad … with Russ and Bron staying as far away from each other as possible until Westbrook’s apparent departure at intermission. My pal Kyle Goon from The Orange County Register, one of my beloved former employers, has a scene piece here with more specifics about all the luminaries James visited with — and the unmistakable distance he and Westbrook kept. -via marcstein.substack.com / July 9, 2022

You can safely presume that Westbrook is aware of James’ stance. He surely knows, no matter what Ham says, that the other two starry prongs in last season’s ill-fated Big Three — James and Anthony Davis — are eager for a trade to materialize that essentially swaps Westbrook for Irving, even though both campaigned for the Lakers to acquire Westbrook from Washington last summer despite Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka’s advanced talks with Sacramento on a deal headlined by perimeter shooting specialist Buddy Hield. -via marcstein.substack.com / July 9, 2022