After losing to the 76ers, Kyrie Irving sounded off on his frustration about the current status of this Mavs team and their struggle to make the playoffs.
After the Mavs’ recent loss to the Sixers, Kyrie Irving described his frustrations about being traded midseason and the current struggles the Mavs have had, including calling the playoff race in the Western Conference a “clusterf***.”
A lot of his frustrations seem to be very fair. Moving to a new system, new city, etc is a lot to adjust to in a small bit of time. As mentioned in the quote, Irving didn’t expect to leave Brooklyn at the beginning of the season.
Once contract negotiations broke down again, Irving decided to make his trade request and that is how he ended up in Dallas. With five games left in their season and a game out of the 10th seed in the West, it seems questionable that Dallas will be able to make the postseason run that they were hoping to make when they traded for Irving.
Kyrie Irving and the Mavs have a lot of questions to answer
Dallas has a lot of questions if they aren’t able to make it or lose in the play-in this season. This team on paper has the potential to get to the second round of the playoffs. If they can’t even make it to the play-in, then things in Dallas could go off the rails this offseason.
The Mavs gave up two good role players on solid contracts and an unprotected first-round pick way down the line to get Irving. While that is a bit of a steal for an All-NBA player (yes the noise that surrounds Irving reduced that price to that), if they don’t resign this offseason the trade is a big loss. The problem is you can’t give Irving a full four-year max if you didn’t make the play-in.
Assuming Irving still wants his full four-year max (which is why he left Brooklyn) that leaves him back in the same situation, that was happening with the Nets. From being in a “gap year” to making the boat very rocky, the Mavs are at a very interesting fork in the road. How the Mavs respond this offseason to the Irving question may decide whether Luka Doncic stays in Dallas long-term.
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