The Mavericks’ offseason has been about more than just a new coach and a new front office. With Dusty May now on the sideline and a new general manager in place, Dallas has spent the summer sorting through a roster that still has one huge question hanging over it: Kyrie Irving.
For now, the signs point to Irving staying put. As SI’s Austin Veazey wrote, “Masai Ujiri and Mike Schmitz have both stated they foresee Irving staying, as they think he and Cooper Flagg can be good fits alongside each other.
However, Irving is 34 years old and is coming off an ACL injury. By the time he takes the floor in October, it will have been 19 months since he played in an NBA game," SI's Austin Veazey wrote.
That said, the noise around Irving has not gone away. The Mavericks have pushed back trade interest all offseason, but that hasn’t stopped rival teams from wondering how long Dallas will hold that line once the season starts and the Feb. 11 trade deadline gets closer.
Marc Stein noted the age gap at the top of the roster, writing, “The Mavericks, as we've been writing since mid-June, have consistently swatted away trade interest this offseason in nine-times-an-All-Star guard Kyrie Irving. Rival teams, however, continue to wonder aloud about how firmly Dallas will stick to that stance once the season begins and the next in-season trade deadline on Feb. 11 gradually approaches.
The primary factor fueling that curiosity, of course, is that fact that Irving is 34 and Mavericks star forward Cooper Flagg is 19. Not your average age gap between the team's two best players," The Stein Line's Marc Stein wrote.
A fresh layer was added by NBA insider Marc Spears, who suggested Dallas would not make things difficult if Irving decided he wanted a change. Spears said, “Masai also has a really good relationship as you mentioned with Kyrie Irving.
I think it's the kind of relationship where if Kyrie says, hey, Masai, like, this isn't for me, I think they could work together to get something done. I don't think would be something ugly.
I think there would be interest in Kyrie if he's as healthy as he looks,” Spears said.
That leaves Irving’s future squarely in his own hands. If he wants to stay, the expectation is that Dallas is prepared to keep moving forward with him. If he decides he wants a different path, the Mavericks may be willing to help make that happen.
For now, Irving wants to be in Dallas. But if the start of the season goes sideways, the possibility of a trade would move from speculation to something much more real.
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There is still plenty to sort through behind him, with Naji Marshall, Zaccharie Risacher, Caleb Martin, P.J. Washington and Jett Howard all in the mix for wing minutes. The Mavericks did lose Khris Middleton in a sign-and-trade to the Washington Wizards, and the next few weeks should help show how the staff wants to piece together that group around Flagg. For Dallas, this is more than a depth-chart exercise, since the answer at small forward could tell a lot about how the roster is going to function once the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]