Former Cavs Kyrie Irving, LeBron James should team up again on Lakers

LeBron James and Kyrie Irving only spent three years as teammates on the Cleveland Cavaliers, but during their short time together, were one of the more dynamic duos the NBA has ever seen, and now in a strange twist, both appear to be in murky waters with their current franchises in the Los Angeles Lakers for James and Boston Celtics for Irving.

In sports, coming up with a winning formula and getting to the top of the mountain in becoming a champion is very difficult to accomplish.

Sometimes you are in the right situation and you have the perfect formula, and the Cleveland Cavaliers appeared to have sort of thing involving the stellar play of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving during the team’s championship run in 2016.

The 2016 NBA finals were historic obviously, because the Cavs are the only team to come back from being down 3-1 in the NBA finals, and in doing so over the Golden State Warriors, ended a 52-year championship drought in Cleveland major professional sports.

Along with that, in the Game 5 of that series, James and Irving became the only pair of teammates in NBA history to both score 40+ points in a Finals game.

We’ve often touched on how Irving would ultimately reportedly request to be traded in the summer of 2017, and would get his wish granted as the Cleveland Cavaliers would eventually trade him to the Boston Celtics.

Since, though, it was reportedly earlier during the 2018-19 season that Irving called James to apologize about what happened in regards to how things ended in Cleveland, and he seemed to better understand the leadership burden James had back when the two were teammates (h/t NBC Sports Boston’s Justin Leger).

It’s kind of bittersweet for the Cavs.

If the Cavs had Irving in the 2018 NBA Finals there is a real chance they could’ve beaten the Warriors, because Golden State wasn’t quite as dominant as their first year with Kevin Durant in the 2016-2017 season.

The Warriors went from 67 wins in the 2016-2017 season to 58 wins (while still very good, but not nearly as much as the previous year), and Golden State’s net rating went from an incredible 11.3 to a still very good, but not nearly the same 5.9, per NBA.com.

Golden State only lost one game during the 2017 postseason, while they lost five times during the 2018 NBA playoffs, including getting pushed to the brink in a seven-game series with the Houston Rockets in last year’s Western Conference Finals.

It’s just fair to wonder if Kyrie didn’t want out, if the Cavs legitimately could’ve won the 2018 Finals.

Yes, the Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games in 2017, but games 3 and 5 were very close, so that series still easily could’ve gone six or seven games.

LeBron and Kyrie are also at a tough spot with their current franchises. After getting to the Conference Finals last year without Irving, expectations were high in Boston, with many seemingly expecting the Celtics to win the Eastern Conference coming into the 2018-19 season.

Things didn’t go according to plan, though, as the Celtics lost in the semifinal round to the Milwaukee Bucks, who really dominated the C’s after the first game of the series, and dispatched Boston in five games following that hiccup.

There was a lot of drama going on with the Celtics this year and that seemed to include a divide in the locker room, at least according to NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Mannix back in January (h/t NBC Sports Boston’s Darren Hartwell).

Recently on an airing of ESPN’s “Get Up!,” show co-host Jalen Rose said why he believes Irving is done in Boston and apparently he believes some players on the C’s can’t wait for Kyrie to leave, further illustrating how Irving, who is almost certainly opting out of his current contract due to wanting to be in unrestricted free agency, is likely gone.

Things weren’t any better for LeBron on the Los Angeles Lakers this year, either.

The Lakers battled inconsistency all year and James missed the postseason for the first time since the 2005-2006 season (per Basketball Reference). Immediately after the season, President of Basketball of Operations Magic Johnson stepped down (per Bill Oram of The Athletic), and LeBron clearly did not seem happy about that, based on what he said in an episode of his HBO show, “The Shop,” (h/t CBS Sports’ Brad Botkin).

It also appears they botched an opportunity to reunite James with a coach who James knows, trusts, and seemingly has a great relationship with in former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue, who Irving and James won a title with, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.

Additionally, on May 8, Stephen A. Smith joined Sage Steele on “SportsCenter,” and said how people told close to Lakers owner Jeanie Buss are “imploring her to trade LeBron James.”

Woah.

Anyway, things haven’t been quite the same at all for either James or Irving as they likely would’ve thought since Irving was traded in the summer of 2017 and James departed to L.A. last summer via free agency.

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Both guys look like they’re in difficult situations, though, so it’s clear they both should’ve stayed together as teammates. This isn’t a situation where Irving just needs James; it’s vice versa.

Even though the Cavs made the NBA Finals in 2018, it was a major struggle. They played two seven-game series against the Indiana Pacers and short-handed Boston  Celtics, while the pieces brought in from the Irving trade, and then eventual trade deadline overhaul of a good portion of that trade didn’t work out.

Things aren’t going to plan the way LeBron likely envisioned, nor for Irving, one would imagine.

James and Irving together as teammates for the three years they were together were one of the better duos in NBA history, as they accomplished a ton and won a championship. Sometimes when superstars team up, there is an adjustment process, because they’ve never played together.

James and Irving know exactly how to play off each other, on the other hand, given their familiarity.

They should also keep in mind that it’s been often reported that Kevin Durant will almost certainly opt out of his player option for next year, and will leave Golden State this summer via unrestricted free agency.

According to longtime NBA reporter Ric Bucher (now of Bleacher Report) in an appearance on FS1’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” last month, KD to the New York Knicks seems to have all kinds of traction.

If James and Irving did reunite on the Lakers, there is no reason to think that former Cleveland Cavaliers’ superstar duo can’t be a serious threat to get back to the Finals with Durant no longer on the Warriors.

It doesn’t look like either guy is thrilled with their current situation, so why not team up again and recapture some of the success they had in Cleveland?

FS1’s Chris Broussard, in a more recent appearance on “The Herd (with Cowherd),” brought up why that would make sense, too.

As far as the financial aspect, according to Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus, the Irving-James pairing would work, too, while L.A. could still have key young pieces, as the “Lakers project to have enough cap space to pay Irving roughly $140.6 million over the next four seasons.”

For that time frame, Irving wouldn’t exactly be struggling financially, and Pincus would also detail that the Lakers would be able to still have Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma, and if desired, L.A. could perhaps make a deal work with the New Orleans Pelicans centered on their young core as the trade chips, which could potentially have Anthony Davis join James and Irving.

Moreover, the Irving-James round two is something the two should strongly consider, because the former Cleveland Cavaliers’ teammates need each other now more than ever.