The KD-Kyrie era of the Brooklyn Nets has officially reached its conclusion. Coaches were fired, shoe sizes impacted playoff series, and Kyrie Irving was the subject of a new controversy seemingly every week. Also, James Harden was there for a bit. Despite it never amounting to any success beyond the second round, it’s been an action-packed few years since Kyrie and KD signed in 2019, to say the least. Now, we look to the future. The Brooklyn Nets have traded Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks.
What does that mean for all parties involved?
As noted above, the man had his fair share of dramas on the court during his relatively brief tenure with the Nets, in addition to being quite injury prone. After everything, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant only shared the court for 74 out of a possible 298 regular season games (that’s less than 25%). At 30 years old, Irving opted into his fourth and final contractual year with the Brooklyn Nets at the start of this season after both parties failed to agree on terms for an extension.
Kyrie Irving is looking for a team that’ll offer him a four-year $198.5 million maximum extension. Nets owner Joe Tsai and General Manager Sean Marks made it clear that they weren’t comfortable offering him that money. According to Chris Haynes, Senior NBA Insider for TNT & Bleacher Report, the Nets presented Irving with an offer that was contingent on the team winning a championship. Irving, understandably, thought that was ridiculous and requested a trade. Within two days, he was gone.
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If he was ever going to request a trade, he couldn’t have chosen a better time. The Nets kicked the year off with the best record in the franchise’s history. After a turbulent off-season which saw his counterpart in Kevin Durant make, then rescind, his own trade request, the Brooklyn Nets finally looked like bona fide contenders for an NBA Championship.
Because of this, many teams were clamouring for the talents of the eight-time All-Star point guard on their roster, including the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, and Los Angeles Clippers. In the current season, he is averaging an efficient 27.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game. In other words, he’s still an incredibly impactful player, regardless of how you may feel about him personally.
Kyrie Irving’s preferred destination was reportedly the Los Angeles Lakers, which would have seen him reunite with his former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate LeBron James. The Lakers were probably the most desperate for his talents – and were willing to offer a massive trade package that reflected that – but, according to NBA correspondent Marc Stein, Joe Tsai didn’t want Irving to land at his choice of destination. Yikes.
The Dallas Mavericks were the ones to make the successful bid with Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, the 2029 unprotected first-round pick, a 2027 second-round pick, and a 2029 second-round pick in exchange for Kyrie Irving and Markieff Morris. He will now be paired with quite possibly the least problematic man in the NBA: God’s favourite 23-year-old chubby Slovenian man Luka Doncic.
While many are sceptical of how this pairing is going to work stylistically, the Kyrie Irving trade has increased the Dallas Mavericks betting odds to win the 2022-2023 NBA Championship from +3300 all the way to +1100, putting them as the fourth most likely team to walk away with the Larry O’Brien trophy when the dust has settled.
Kyrie Irving is expected to make his Dallas Mavericks debut against the Los Angeles Clippers.
