Kyrie Irving in Dallas: short-term boost that gives long-term doubts / News - Basketnews.com

Kyrie Irving will join Luka Doncic in Dallas. The idea of seeing two players of that caliber playing together is definitely exciting. However, Irving's behavior outside the court leaves a lot of questions for the Mavericks moving forward.

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Since the departure of Jalen Brunson this summer, the Dallas Mavericks have been looking for opportunities to add another backcourt creator next to Luka Doncic.

Free throws this season

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Only last season, with the partnership between Brunson and Doncic, the Mavericks were able to reach the Western Conference finals in the first season under the new management.

However, this season hasn't been easy for Luka Doncic and his teammates. The team currently sits in sixth place in the Western Conference with a 28-26 record.

The offense has been working just fine, especially when Doncic is on the floor, but on the defensive end, the Mavericks have shown many issues, becoming one of the worst defensive teams in the entire league.

In addition to that, Doncic's workload has been almost unsustainable. Without a true no. 2 star next to him, Doncic has been forced to play many minutes and has been carrying the entire offense on his shoulders.

At BasketNews, we touched on this point just a few weeks ago, and we mentioned that, at some point, the Mavericks would need to find an alternative because relying only on Doncic's talent wouldn't have been sustainable.

So when Kyrie Irving decided that he wanted to leave the Brooklyn Nets immediately, the Mavericks decided to act fast.

In order to acquire Irving, Dallas offered Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, an unprotected first-round pick in 2029, and two second-rounders in 2027 and 2029.

The Nets had offers on the table, too, of course, but they thought the Mavs' one was the best for its combination of players and future assets involved.

As it was reported by Marc Stein, in the hours leading to the deal, Dallas had received permission from the Nets to speak with Irving's representative. Those conversations helped accelerate the process and convince Irving that Dallas could be the right move for him.

Dallas Mavericks / Schedule

Dallas Mavericks Detroit Pistons111-105 Dallas Mavericks New Orleans Pelicans111-106 Golden State Warriors Dallas Mavericks119-113 Utah Jazz Dallas MavericksTue02:00 Los Angeles Clippers Dallas MavericksThu03:00 Sacramento Kings Dallas MavericksSat03:00 Sacramento Kings Dallas MavericksSun03:00

The now-former Nets point guard has been a long-time admirer of Jason Kidd. Nico Harrison, the GM of the Mavericks, already had a relationship with Irving back when he was still working as a Nike executive.

The price paid to acquire Irving wasn't a steep one. Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith are two good players, but they weren't deemed essential. In terms of future draft picks, a first-round one and two second-rounders are an affordable cost for a player like Kyrie Irving.

The fit between Doncic and Irving is a very intriguing one. In the past, Irving has already played with other ball-dominant players like LeBron James and Kevin Durant, but Doncic is probably the single most-dominant offensive force in the league and, so far, has never shared the backcourt with a player of Irving's caliber.

Irving's arrival will reduce the workload that Doncic has to sustain, especially during the regular season.

As we noted before, Dallas' offense is simply the best in the league when Doncic is on the floor (120.8 points per 100 possessions), but when the Slovenian superstar is not around, the situation changes completely.

Dallas has lost all 7 games in which Doncic didn't play this season, and their offense drops to the worst in the league when he's on the bench. Irving will help balance this situation, and Kidd will have the opportunity to build some lineups around Irving while Doncic rests a little bit.

Defensively, though, the issues that were already in place won't improve for sure. Dallas already had one of the worst defenses in the league, and now they lost their best defensive player in Finney-Smith.

Unless the Mavericks will make another move before the trade deadline, and that's something that cannot be ruled out entirely, their situation on the defensive end will not be any better.

However, the main problem with adding Irving is not necessarily situated on the court. Irving will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, so his future remains uncertain.

Irving's value on the court is not up for debate when he's fit physically, as he remains one of the best players in the league. But in March, Irving will turn 31, and in the past four seasons, he has played only 143 games.

He often left the Nets hanging during his time in Brooklyn. First, by refusing to take the vaccine against Covid and, most recently, by having extremely questionable takes on Jewish people.

He also decided to leave both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics after stating multiple times that he was there for the long run.

Outside of the court, Irving is probably the most unpredictable player in the league. Would the Mavericks be willing to commit almost $200 million in the next four years to sign him to a long-term deal?

But after failing to re-sign Jalen Brunson last summer, Dallas was forced to take a risk on Irving because Doncic's patience will not be unlimited. Even though the Slovenian star is under contract for multiple years, in the past, we saw already how many superstars became discontent with how their teams were running things.

In an ideal world, the Mavericks would not have needed to make such a move; they could have continued to work with the Brunson-Doncic pair and tried to strengthen around them.

But since Brunson now plays in New York, there was a need to make a move that would shake things up. Irving is certainly a player who can improve the Mavericks immediately and bring the kind of help Doncic needs.

However, looking at the future of the Texas franchise, this trade probably leaves more questions than answers.

When or if, as his history tells us, Irving shows the first signs of negligence, how long will it take before Luka Doncic goes to Dallas management and asks for a solution?

These are some of the doubts the Mavericks will face in the coming months. It will be worth it if Irving's arrival leads Dallas to success; if not, Mark Cuban and his men may find themselves in a limbo from which it will be very complicated to get out.

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