Kyrie Irving’s latest surge has made the trade chatter feel a lot thinner.
Dallas just handed Houston its first loss of the season in an NBA Cup matchup, and Irving was right in the middle of it when the Mavericks closed strong. He finished with 35 points, 9 assists and 4 rebounds, going 12-for-19 from the field. Cooper Flagg was part of that late offensive push too, and the Mavericks’ strong start has only added to the sense that Irving is no longer looking like a realistic trade target.
That matters because Houston has opened 7-2 without him. The Rockets have gotten major production from their guard group - Fred VanVleet, Amen Thompson, Marcus Smart and even Reed Sheppard - and that backcourt mix has helped drive the team’s early success on both ends. From where Houston sits, adding Irving would be exciting on paper, but it would likely mean giving up one or two of those pieces.
And that’s where the conversation gets tricky. The Rockets have been good enough that breaking up the core feels like a hard sell right now.
The flaws are still there, especially when you look ahead to the postseason, but the current formula is working. In a league defined by parity, that kind of stability is not easy to walk away from.
Irving also comes with a long trail of baggage that still shapes how people view him. One personal memory from 2017 captures that split well: as a 16-year-old in Massachusetts, waiting on a new phone, I got a notification from my tickets app that said, “Kyrie Irving will make his Boston home debut on 10/18”. That was the moment it became clear the Celtics had traded Isaiah Thomas for Irving.
That’s the backdrop for why his name always sparks a reaction, especially in Boston, where he is not exactly embraced. I’ve been to plenty of games at the Garden, and there’s no denying the artistry of watching Irving play. But after what happened in Boston and later in Brooklyn, the controversy followed him everywhere.
Still, the noise has quieted some. Irving remains a highly skilled scorer, and his 23 points per game this season underline that. At this point, it doesn’t feel like he’s going anywhere, and if he stays put, that only helps someone like Cooper Flagg.
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The account owner pushed back on the speculation and insisted he was not Durant, just a regular fan from London. Even so, the episode fit neatly into the larger pattern around Durant, whose online presence has repeatedly fueled debate and kept his old Thunder ties in the conversation long after he left Oklahoma City. [Read more 🡒]