NBA’s CBA Could Thwart A LeBron James And Kyrie Irving Reunion

It’s become increasingly clear that LeBron James and Kyrie Irving are interested in a reunion this summer. Making that happen is another story entirely.

On Monday, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported Irving had reached out to James to see if he’d be interested in joining the Dallas Mavericks. However, a Los Angeles Lakers source characterized that as “unrealistic” to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, while multiple sources said the Lakers “aren’t interested in what Dallas could offer in a trade.”

James is heading into the first season of the two-year, $97.1 million extension that he signed with the Lakers last August, while Irving is set to become a free agent in July. It would be far easier for Irving to join James in Los Angeles than vice versa, although that doesn’t appear particularly likely, either.

The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement may deserve some of the blame for that.

James ($46.9 million), Anthony Davis ($40.6 million) and Max Christie ($1.7 million) are the only three players whom the Lakers currently have on guaranteed contracts for the 2023-24 season. They also have a $16.5 million team option on Beasley, while Mo Bamba’s $10.3 million salary is fully non-guaranteed until June 29 and only $300,000 of Jarred Vanderilt’s $4.7 million salary is guaranteed until June 30.

Between James, Davis, Vanderbilt and Christie, the Lakers already have $89.5 million on their books against a projected $134 million salary cap. Even without factoring in anyone else, they don’t have enough cap space to sign Irving to his $46.9 million max salary as a free agent. He’d have to take far less than his max to sign with the Lakers outright.

A sign-and-trade is the far more likely path for Irving to land in L.A., but the CBA complicates that. Teams above the first salary-cap apron (projected to be around $169 million next season) cannot receive players via sign-and-trade, which means the Lakers would have to keep their payroll below that threshold through June 2024 if they acquired Irving that way.

Even if the Lakers talked Irving into taking less than his max in a sign-and-trade—let’s say $35 million, just as an example—acquiring him would force them into making difficult decisions across the rest of their roster. In that scenario, they’d already have $124.5 million committed to James, Davis, Irving and Christie, leaving them roughly $44.4 million to spend on 11 players.

That might end up costing them at least one of Austin Reaves or Rui Hachimura, both of whom are set to become restricted free agents this summer.

Hachimura’s upcoming foray into free agency is relatively straightforward. As a former first-round pick coming off his rookie-scale deal, he’s eligible to sign a four-year contract with any other team or a five-year contract with the Lakers with a starting salary up to 25% of the salary cap ($33.5 million). If Hachimura signs an offer sheet with another team, the Lakers will have the ability to match it.

Reaves is also set to become a restricted free agent, but his case is a bit trickier. Since he has only two years of NBA experience, the Lakers don’t have his full Bird rights. Instead, they have his Early Bird rights, which allows them to sign him to a deal with a starting salary worth 175% of his current salary ($1.6 million) or 105% of the estimated average salary in the previous season, whichever is greater.

The estimated average salary for the 2022-23 campaign was roughly $10.8 million, so the Lakers could offer Reaves a four-year deal starting at $11.3 million with 8% annual raises. That would top out at around $50.8 million, which isn’t likely to be enough to keep him in L.A. after he averaged 16.9 points, 4.6 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game during their run to the Western Conference Finals.

The Lakers could also use their $12.2 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception to re-sign Reaves, although they’d be limited to giving him 5% annual raises if they went that route. That offer would top out at four years and roughly $52.5 million, which isn’t much better than what they can offer him via his Early Bird rights.

The CBA limits how much other teams can offer Reaves as well. He’s subject to the Gilbert Arenas provision, which means regardless of whether he signs with the Lakers or another team, he’s limited to no more than the non-taxpayer MLE in the first year of his new contract and a 5% raise on that in the second year. He can then receive up to his max salary in his third year ($36.85 million) and a 4.5% raise on that in the final year.

All together, another team can offer him a four-year, $100.4 million contract. However, the Lakers are allowed to match any offer sheet he receives, and they reportedly plan to do just that.

“League sources continue to say that L.A. is determined to retain Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura in free agency,” longtime NBA insider Marc Stein wrote in late May. “There is frankly no scenario, based on what I know, that Reaves won’t be a Laker next season.”

It wouldn’t be a surprise if both Reaves and Hachimura receive contract offers with an annual average value north of $15 million this offseason. Even if the Lakers are fine with waiving Beasley and Bamba and letting Russell walk, re-signing Reaves and Hachimura alone could push them dangerously close to the first apron.

The Lakers could decide to release Beasley and Bamba and renounce their free-agent rights to Russell, Hachimura, Lonnie Walker IV and Dennis Schroder to give themselves enough wiggle room under the apron to acquire Irving and re-sign Reaves. Since Reaves can earn no more than $12.2 million next season, the Lakers still could have the non-taxpayer MLE and the No. 17 pick to round out their roster beyond veteran-minimum contracts. However, that would make them far more top-heavy than they were over the final few months of the 2022-23 campaign.

It’s fair to wonder whether that’s the best way to build around James and Davis, both of whom have missed considerable time in recent seasons. Irving has also missed at least 15 games in each of the past six seasons, many of which weren’t because of injuries. Whether it was missing most of the Nets’ home games in 2021-22 because he refused to get a Covid-19 vaccine or a team-issued suspension after he shared an anti-Semitic film on social media, Irving tends to be as much of a headache off the court as he is an asset on it.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst recently cautioned against doubting the plausibility of an Irving-LeBron reunion in Los Angeles, so no one should entirely rule it out. However, the Lakers would arguably be much better off re-signing Reaves and Hachimura and attempting to re-sign Russell or sign-and-trade him elsewhere to round out their rotation.

Avoiding the hard cap and having more flexibility to tweak again ahead of next year’s trade deadline could outweigh the star power of a James-Davis-Irving triumvirate.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac or RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.