The NBA trade deadline was a wild and exciting time for the league and was probably one of the most eventful in the history of the association. What looked like one of the quieter trade seasons in recent memory turned into one of the craziest when the deadline was within 48 hours of passing. Now, in the aftermath of the trade deadline, there are reports to explain why certain moves happened or didn’t happen.
One of those reports was that the Brooklyn Nets were not interested in a Russell Westbrook trade when Brooklyn was trying to trade Kyrie Irving, according to Brian Windhorst and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN. At the time before the deadline, multiple reports stated that the Los Angeles Lakers were willing to trade Westbrook along with their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks to the Nets for Irving.
However, according to the ESPN report by Windhorst and Shelburne, Brooklyn wasn’t interested in any Westbrook trade because of Westbrook’s relationship with Kevin Durant (before Durant was traded to the Phoenix Suns of course) and the Nets would either have to incur a higher luxury tax bill because of Westbrook or would have to complicate the trade by adding a third team to the deal which would give more chances for the deal to fall through at some point.
In the end, despite multiple reports that Irving preferred to be traded to the Lakers, Brooklyn traded Irving and Markieff Morris to the Dallas Mavericks for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2027 unprotected first-round pick, and second-round picks in 2027 and 2029. ESPN’s report had more details on what led to the Irving trade:
“While the Lakers’ draft compensation was formidable, the Nets preferred the players they were getting from Dallas because of their value around the league, particularly [Dorian] Finney-Smith, and the simplicity of the deal. Any Lakers deal would’ve needed a third team to take on Westbrook. In the end, it wasn’t that hard of a choice to decide the preferred offer to move on Irving.”
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