Dallas made a franchise-altering decision on Sunday when it traded for NBA basketball superstar Kyrie Irving from the Brooklyn Nets. It sent Dorian Finney-Smith, Spencer Dinwiddie, an unprotected 2029 first-round pick and two second-rounders to Brooklyn. In exchange, the Mavericks received the two-time All-Star Kyrie and Markieff Morris. Luka Doncic has his work cut out for him this season.
The deal has many ramifications, but the biggest is that it sets Dallas on an undesirable tightrope as it tries to figure out how to build around the “humbled” Luka Doncic. That doesn’t necessarily mean the trade will be a disaster, but it certainly is going to be a hard one to watch.
BACK TO 2
Kyrie Irving will wear No. 2 for the Dallas Mavericks pic.twitter.com/nrPpT8NDNO
— Playmaker (@playmaker) FEBRUARY 7, 2023
What an interesting time for Dallas Mavericks basketball
Doncic has a high ceiling, but he also has a lot of limitations. He’s not a natural playmaker, and his shot selection isn’t that great. He’s also prone to foul trouble and doesn’t shoot the ball well from deep. It’s easy to see why the Mavericks haven’t been able to build around him, and now they’re going to have to take a huge gamble.
They’ll need to decide whether to re-sign Irving this summer, which will be another big decision. He’s eligible for a two-year extension at $83 million this summer, or a four-year deal worth around $200 million, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
If he signs an extension with the Mavericks, it will likely come with an unrestricted 2020 free agent tag. That will make him a much more attractive target than he would have been as an unrestricted player, and it could also mean he’ll sign a long-term deal with another team.
Will the 2 basketball superstars mesh?
He’s an excellent talent, and he fits in well with Luka Doncic, but his temperament will be a constant threat to the stability of the team he joins. He’s prone to demanding a trade, not showing up to work, not playing well, threatening surgery, sleepwalking through an important game, or doing any number of things that he’ll do when he’s under stress.
Kyrie Irving is bad news
It’s a dangerous path for the Mavs to be on, and if Irving doesn’t fit in well, this is just the kind of deal that might send the Dallas Mavericks into the sunset. It’s a move that might be the most self-inflicted mistake of this team’s entire history, and it could end up costing them everything they’ve earned.
And that’s not to mention the fact that the Mavs could be stuck with him through his entire career and it’s not clear he’ll ever be able to get healthy. He’s never been a player who has been able to stay on the court as long as he’s wanted to, and it’s a dangerous path for a young player like Doncic to be on with an older, less reliable star.
One of the riskiest trades in basketball history
That’s why the Mavs are on the hook for so much of Irving’s contract this year, and it’s a reason why his re-signing is so difficult. His tendency to miss games, to have temper tantrums, to disrupt team practices and even to be the distraction bomb in an anti-Semitic rant will all make it that much harder to build the kind of culture and structure that the Mavs want in their locker room.
What do you think? Will the Dallas Mavericks be a flop? Are they a force to be reckoned with? Will Kyrie Irving create more drama on yet another team? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
