Report: Lakers are no longer interested in signing Kyrie Irving

For a number of reasons, the Lakers avoided a potentially messy offseason with their rout of the Grizzlies in Game 6 on Friday. On top of the avalanche of noise that would have come from multiple directions had they failed to close out the Grizzlies, a certain courtside visitor for the contest would have certainly been a talking point throughout the summer once again.

Watching from the front row was Kyrie Irving, who embraced LeBron James before the game. A free agent this offseason, Kyrie has been pursued by the Lakers for large portions of the last 12 months. A loss in the first round that would have included blowing a 3-1 lead? That would have reignited the noise of needing to pursue Kyrie.

Instead, the Lakers took care of business in dominating fashion and silenced lots of noise. And now, it appears the team is ready to finally move on from the divisive point guard.

According to Tim Cato of The Athletic, the Lakers are no longer interested in pursuing Kyrie given the success they’ve had since the trade deadline and in the postseason.

Of course, there’s nothing notable about an out-of-season basketball player attending a basketball game in the city known as this league’s summer home. And no matter how close Irving might be to James, the Lakers are disinterested in pursuing him in free agency, say league sources, who like all unnamed sources in this article were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. To acquire him would require jettisoning several deadline acquisitions who have helped revitalize their season and land them in a second-round series against the Golden State Warriors.

There is simply no easy way to acquire Kyrie this offseason that doesn’t involve either parting with the majority of its newfound depth or handcuffing themselves by hard-capping them and requiring salary cap gymnastics that might cause them other players as well.

And, perhaps most importantly, the current iteration of the Lakers has been successful. They haven’t just won a playoff series, they did so while being together for basically only the final six weeks of the regular season. Give this team more time, like a training camp and preseason together, and it certainly feels like the potential is there for a title-contending team.

Blowing all that up for Kyrie, a person who leaves franchises broken in his wake, seems insane. Fortunately, it appears the Lakers are finally seeing that same picture as well.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.