Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving‘s left knee injury has been diagnosed as a torn ACL, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). The injury will end Irving’s season.
Irving was injured during the first quarter of Monday’s loss to Sacramento as he drove to the basket and attempted to split Kings defenders DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas (Twitter video link). He lost his balance and came down awkwardly on his left leg, which appeared to hyperextend, before he fell to the court in pain and grabbed at his left knee.
After remaining on the floor for several minutes, Irving was helped to his feet and was able to shoot two free throws as fans in Dallas regaled him with “MVP” chants (Twitter video link). The star guard made both free throws before being assisted to the locker room.
It’s an absolutely brutal blow to a Dallas team that had already been afflicted by the injury bug in a major way in recent weeks, with big men Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively, and Daniel Gafford among the regulars who have missed significant time.
Following the trade of Luka Doncic last month, Irving has been a steadying force in Dallas, assuming the brunt of the ball-handling and play-making duties in the backcourt and helping to guide the team through a tumultuous period.
For the season, he averaged 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.3 steals in 36.1 minutes per game across 50 appearances, with a shooting line of .473/.401/.916. Entering Monday, he had put up 28.1 PPG in 39.3 MPG in 10 outings since Doncic was traded.
With Irving out for the rest of the season, the Mavericks figure to turn to players like Spencer Dinwiddie, Dante Exum, Jaden Hardy, and Brandon Williams to handle point guard responsibilities. Hardy also exited Monday’s game due to an injury of his own, however, having sprained his right ankle in the third quarter.
Dallas has an open spot on its 15-man roster, but can’t add a free agent until April 10 due to its proximity to a first-apron hard cap. That means, barring a last-minute change to its two-way players, the team will have to make do with its current group as it attempts to hold onto a play-in spot.
The Mavericks currently have a 32-30 record, good for 10th in the Western Conference. They lead the 11th-place Suns by 3.5 games and the No. 12 Trail Blazers by four games.
While Dallas’ potential for a deep playoff run this spring has obviously taken a major hit as a result of Irving’s torn ACL, the injury figures to have an impact on the club beyond the current season. Many NBA players who have sustained ACL tears have required upwards of one year to come back from the injury and longer than that to get back to full strength.
A quicker recovery timeline is certainly a possibility, but the Mavericks probably shouldn’t count on having Irving back when the 2025/26 season gets underway next fall and shouldn’t necessarily assume he’ll be back to 100% before next spring or even until ’26/27.
It also remains to be seen how the injury will affect Irving’s contract situation. The nine-time All-Star holds a player option worth just shy of $43MM for next season, but was widely expected to turn it down in search of a lucrative new multiyear deal. It’s unclear if Irving will still decide to opt out — presumably, he would only do so if the Mavericks are still comfortable making a significant long-term investment in the 32-year-old while he recovers from a major injury.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), besides now being ineligible for end-of-season awards (including All-NBA) this spring as a result of falling short of the required minimum of 65 games, Irving will also miss out on a pair of $1MM bonuses in his contract.
Speedy recovery. One of my favorite non-sixers players in the nba.
My least-favorite NBA player ever (besides, maybe, Kurt Rambis).
That’s too bad, but at least he won’t wear out his back now. See you in a year Kyrie!
I’m not ruling out a deep playoff run for the mavs but will they even be able to make the playoffs in the first place with all these injuries???
Spencer dinwiddie is going to have to ball out
I think your last sentence rules out that deep playoff run unfortunately
No Luka, no Kyrie and with AD in and out of the lineup. They’re done. They’ll be lucky to hold of Phoenix for the last play in spot.
you’re high bruh
Can I have whatever you’re on?
Fire Nico Harrison to the moon.
One of the worst years a GM has ever had in North American History PERIOD.
Rico harrison on an all time bender
Not much left to ruin. Might as well stack some picks
Oof…and of all years…this was the risk…
Also, for him, it sucks b/c dude was playing through stuff, and clearly must have been overcompensating. There were a couple of times I’ve seen him walking around like Matt Hardy, but they kept trotting him out there. Hopefully he can take care of all of those issues during the recovery process
I blame nico for this
Fire him immediately!!!
Ultimately you have to blame ownership. Nico didn’t make that trade without them directing he do so. They sure did let him take all of the blame though.
you can blame ownership for allowing him to do so
is there proof they “directed” him? it was his idea wasnt it?
Of course! You do not trade Luka freaking Doncic unless ownership says so. The strategy behind how the trade came to pass is on Nico, the decision to actually trade him was ownership. They said we are not giving him that contract. Period. Go ahead Nico, solve that problem. But there was a bottom line decision that was made and Nico had to execute.
Proof of the trade’s stupidity just manifesting…
AD going down was immaculate comedic timing, and who could’ve foreseen that leaving Irving as your only ball-handling creator might put a toll on him ?
Mavs fans, your suffering has given me glass-half-full perspective on being a bulls fan
This poor fan base. What a blow. Irving has been a league wide bright spot. A guy I love watching
Nico has upset the basketball gods
The owners did. That trade never happens if ownership doesn’t greenlight it. Yet the owner let Nico take 100% of the blame. The ownership group should have publicly had his back and taken full responsibility for the deal/
Ownership doesn’t care about the Mavericks. Nico’s had the green light to do as he pleases and this is the result.
Also what do you mean full responsibility? You think ownership should make a statement saying that Nico screwed the pooch? What?
Ownership should say they were not going to authorize the contract and it was up to Nico to either do it now or do it in the summer, but either way he was going to be traded.
Now… it should have been done in the summer. It should have been public and they should have put him up for auction and said no matter what the fan reaction, we’re doing it. They probably do believe that 70 million per crosses the redline for how much is too much for these players. It’s almost a statement to the rest of the league… the players have way too much power. Teams need to kind of take a little back.
Even if ownership gave the greenlight to trade Luka. It was still Nico’s job to find the best trade. He definitely had a hand in trading their franchise player for an injury prone 32 year old big man.
Yeah, the more I’ve been thinking about it throughout the day, I agree with that last take. Nico gets a massive F for execution of the trade… He should have had the balls to wait until the summer, make it known to all 29 other teams he’s available, and then take the heat that would come his way. It was malpractice.
Dang. Certainly in the short term, this trade looks so bad for the Mavs. I’m not sure that will be true in 5 years… Luka does have a moment where he’s gimpy every single game. AD kinda did too, to be fair. I’m not convinced Luka will have the longevity of LBJ, KD, etc… and at 70 mill per you better be certain the guy is going to hold up… but right now, holy smokes it looks bad. Harrison should lose his job even though ownership drove that deal. Someone has to pay the price and the ownership group hung Nico out to dry.
Luka is not looking at a promising aging curve. They still should have gotten more though.
I’d disagree. Doncic is not heavily dependent on athleticism and doesn’t really play a game that puts a lot of stress on his body. Outside of this year, I think he’s played enough games to hit the NBA’s new threshold for awards every season. In 5 years, AD will be 36 and more injury-prone than ever, and Dallas will be left with only a mid first round pick to show for Luka Doncic.
Saying he won’t have the longevity of guys who are playing at 36 and 40 doesn’t really suggest much about his career. His new deal will probably take him to 30 years old. If anybody in the league is worth 70 million, he’ll be one of them barring a catastrophic fluke
AD won’t be there in 5 years.
Awful news. My sincere best wishes for a full recovery on the Mavs’ contract dime.
Nice to see so called basketball fans. Blaming a serious injury to Kyrie on the GM. If you know anything about Ky. Is he is the one who most wanted to prove this Mavs team. Could make a serious run. He lives for this. Unfortunate for whole team, really. We will all miss out on that.
With his history of injuries. You should be more concerned about his recovery. This injury could take over 9 months to be ready. Then longer to get in game shape. Not a given for anyone. Get well Kyrie. God speed.
Dinwiddie is capable of handling the PG. He is capable of stepping up after sitting for a few yrs. The young man who must step up is Christie. This is his chance to shine. Of course the main component is AD staying healthy. So they better make sure. When he comes back. He comes back to stay.
Maybe he’s already played his last game for Dallas
A veces las cosas no salen como se planean, ya dejen de culpar al Nico; el año pasado fue elogiado por los cambios que hizo. Hay que ser pacientes
This garbage fire of a team just keeps getting funnier…
Going from an easy out in the play in to hoping for lottery luck…
So the NBA’s favorite anti-semite got seriously hurt… what a shame it didn’t happen years ago!