Examining Kyrie Irving's basketball fit with the Dallas Mavericks

Trust me, I know.

Following the blockbuster trade that sent Brooklyn Nets guard KyrieIrving to the Dallas Mavericks, much of the conversationsurrounding the deal focused on risk — how Irving's presence mayaffect the Mavericks' locker room, and especially, Luka Doncic; howthe Mavericks would (struggle to) pivot if Irving were to walk inthe offseason; how Kevin Durant is feeling in Brooklyn, seeing hisco-star total drop from two to zero in a calendar year.

All of those concerns are valid.

There's a reason we immediately got a report from BleacherReport's Chris Haynes saying the Phoenix Suns — who offered apackage headlined by Chris Paul for Irving — are ready to pushtheir chips in for Durant if he becomes available again.

The Mavericks absolutely should be keeping an eye on Doncic'slong-term happiness. And with Irving, he hasn't been the beacon ofreliability or availability. (That's putting it conservatively, forthe sake of this piece and this piece only.)

Let's put that to the side for just a moment.

From an on-court perspective, the Mavericks have added a reallygood basketball player. The entire reason they made this gamble isbecause of the ceiling-raising that Irving's talent signifies.Let's take a look at what things could look like.

ON-BALL USAGE

Frankly, this should be pretty seamless.

Irving is one of the best isolation scorers of the modern era.His free-verse handle allows him to get wherever he wants to,whenever he wants to get there. He's quick enough to speed pastoff-balanced defenders, mixes in deceleration to keep defenders offbalance (and flow into pull-ups on a dime) and has the body controland dexterity to create finishing angles out of mid-air.