The Mavericks are “seriously considering” shutting down Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving for the rest of the season, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter video link via FanDuel TV).
As Charania notes, the Mavs owe a top-10 protected pick to the Knicks as part of the Kristaps Porzingis trade. As things currently stand, Dallas would have a 76.3% chance of keeping the pick, a 13.9% chance of moving into the top four, and a 3% chance of winning the lottery and the No. 1 overall pick, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
Both players have dealt with injuries in recent weeks. Doncic missed five games last month due to a thigh strain, while Irving missed four and continues to deal with plantar fasciitis in his foot, Charania adds.
Dallas has been in a tailspin, losing seven of its past eight games to currently hold a 37-42 record with only three games remaining. The Mavs trail the Thunder by one game for the No. 10 seed and the final spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament, but the 38-41 Thunder hold the tiebreaker, making it essentially a two-game lead.
The pick the Mavs owe is top-10 protected through 2025, so if they keep it this year it will just push back the obligation until ’24. They would be able to trade the ’23 pick after they make the selection if they want to make a win-now move, but the only other pick they’d be able to trade is their own ’27 first-rounder due to the Stepien rule.
Despite a very disappointing stretch after the All-Star break after trading for Irving, Charania believes the team’s top offseason priority will be re-signing the veteran point guard, who was named to his eighth All-Star team this season (Twitter video link via FanDuel TV). Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report has heard the same thing, with sources telling Haynes that Irving plans to wait until free agency to maximize his potential earnings (his extension eligibility is limited after being traded).
This is pretty hilarious, Dallas went for it and crashed. How could you trade to get better and fail? There must a different reason this failed… if only there was a demonstrated pattern of behavior with any of the individuals on the team.
It really has nothing to do with Irving. He has honestly been nothing but professional since coming to the Mavs. They have zero defense (thanks to awful roster construction) and an extremely incompetent coach.
Agreed 100%. As to the poor coaching … gosh, I would love to see Danny Hurley run the Mavs as I’m watching the NCAA championship … he just gets it. The poor roster construction has the worst supporting cast in the NBA. Combine that with Luka’s complacency (no desire to play defense, inconsistent playing shape, brilliant offensive plays followed by bone head turnovers and jacking up step back 3s at will) and you see why this has been the worst team in the NBA over the past several weeks.
First thing, 100% agree, Space Jam does suck!
Lots of trades to get better end up failing, and nobody should be surprised that this did either.
This isn’t even a shot at Kyrie, it’s Mav’s management trading for the one thing they didn’t need, a ball dominate backcourt player. Why would a team add anything but shooting and a better big man to a team that has Luka as it’s star player?
I said this as soon as this trade went down, the Mavs are dumb, that’s why.
We traded defense to get Kyrie while unloading contract years. It was a long term plan. We are losing because we can’t defend the paint. It’s that simple.
I’m not sure how this happened either? They did hire a Nike Exec – that’s not the problem.
Ironically Irving is the player playing the hardest on this team today!!!!!
Luka and Kidd mailed it in awhile ago is what I’ve seen watching the last couple games –
If they could go 3-0 (not a difficult schedule) I see the Thunder goin 1-2 giving them the 10 spot, I guess that doesn’t interest them
* Nba is difficult, sometimes (Chi and ATL) you can do all the right things and it still goes upside down. Dallas doesn’t fall under this umbrella. They have taken all the wrong turns that have led them down this dark road. It’s a stage 4 disaster today in Big D
I’ld rather have a 10th deaft pick than a 10th play-in seed …
It certainly makes sense for DAL to do this in the current (tanking is fine) environment. It would obviously disappoint me as a Knick fan if they get to #10 or below. But as long as the Knicks aren’t getting the pick either way, I’d still root for DAL to beat the odds and win the lottery. I’d prefer to see VW go to a team that intentionally lost games for a week, than one that’s been doing it year over year. Some team like CHI or WSH would be preferrable to the perma-tankers as well.
The Mavs have literally never moved up in the lottery before. Trying to field a title contender only to unintentionally tank should absolutely be rewarded by the lottery gods vs the other teams you mention/allude to.
Actually, Knick fans should be rooting for any one of the teams that get eliminated from the play-ins to be drawn in the top four if the Mavs don’t make the play-in and don’t get drawn. That would knock the Mavs to the 11th pick.
You can speculate on all the things the Mavs have done in the past but the major reason they won’t make the playoffs is the fact that this team refuses to play defense and has no shot blocker or rim protector. It’s as simple as that.
Cuban should swallow his pride and do it. I’m generally against tanking, but I’d rather watch that than the abomination that was the Hawks/Mavs last night. Yuck.
What a joke the NBA is
Facts
Cuban has mo clue. Need help mark?
Certainly don’t want to give up that pick to the Knicks. Bunch of woozies……
Three gms left. Then the Mavs are done. I just can’t see Kyrie wanting to play in Dallas. Woods is not staying either. Mavs would be smart to go after Jerami Grant. He’s a better mix with Luka and he plays D. Unlike Kyrie.
Kidd is incompetent as a head coach. I was actually shocked to see him get another shot anywhere after the Milwaukee debacle.
Luka / Kyrie could work, but Dallas would have to stack their front line with a shot blocking big and a solid wing defender. Also, fire their head coach.
Mark from Cuba is incapable of building a winner for Luka… He’s too cheap…
Even the move for Kyrie was a cheap move… It certainly wasn’t an upgrade but it looks like they tried..
This is what happens when you get rid of your whole core for one guy. This is the GM’s fault through and through.
core? they traded a 1st, two 2nds, and two 29 year olds in Dinwiddle and Finney-Smith. Thats not the “core”