Kyrie Irving moves to the Mavericks

SALT LAKE – The Mavericks hunted down the real Robin and Luka Doncic’s Batman and found their man.

Kyrie Irving, an eight-time All-Star and averaging 27.1 points this season, was acquired by the Mavericks. It is costly. Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and several future draft picks were traded to the Brooklyn Nets to get 30-year-old Irving.

The Mavericks are also striking a deal with Markieff Morris, a 33-year-old winger, sending the Nets their 2029 first-round pick and second-round picks in 2027 and 2029.

From a purely basketball point of view, this is not a problem for the Mavericks. They get a superstar paired with a superstar. They don’t turn down a single star, even though both Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith were key players in the franchise who made huge contributions to last season’s Western Conference Finals.

The Mavericks are clearly sending a message to the fans, the league and Luke’s camp that they will continue to shoot in the battle to develop the talent around their superstar point guard.

The deal went official Monday afternoon and came after more than a week of speculation about Irving as the NBA trade deadline looms Thursday.

Irving, 6-2, will join Luka in the All-Star Game later this month. He will also become a free agent at the end of this season unless the Mavericks sign him two years early. Irving is making just under $37 million this season, the latest in a four-year, $136 million deal he signed in 2019.

With Doncic and Irving, the Mavericks will have the highest-scoring duo in the league and possibly the most feared backcourt combination in the game.

Irving is one of the top scorers in the NBA and has hit over 40% of three-pointers in half of his 12 seasons. In his career, he shoots free throws at 88.2 percent.

Interestingly, he is averaging 5.3 assists this season, exactly the same as Dinwiddie’s average. And Dinwiddie had no problem going from the unexpected to when Doncic was off the court.

The addition of Irving instantly gives Doncic a more productive sidekick than Dirk Nowitzki has ever played together.

Irving is one of seven players to average 27.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists in the 2022-23 season. Among 40 players using two or more isolated possessions per game, Irving’s 1.28 points per possession leads the NBA and is the highest by any player (minimum 2.0 possessions per game) since the statistics were first tracked. in 2015–2016. The Mavericks now have two of the top five NBA players this season in isolation points per possession, with Doncic (1.16 points per possession) also in the top five.

And yet, all the numbers guarantee nothing, except that it will be interesting to watch the evolution of the Mavericks’ backcourt.

Filling the Mavericks’ remaining rotation will not be easy with two starting players.

Finney-Smith spent his entire seven-year career with the Mavericks after being undrafted from Florida in 2016. He has developed into one of the best 3-D players in the league and has averaged 10.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 38.3 percent 3-D over the past three seasons. And he always covers the best attacking opponent.

Dinwiddy was acquired last year by Kristaps Porzingis and is playing at a high level this season after fully recovering from major knee surgery in 2021.

Interestingly, Dinwiddie had well-founded comments about the impending trade deadline after the Mavericks lost 119-113 to Golden State on Saturday.

Basically, his message was to not worry about things that are out of your control.

“Honestly, kind of ignore it,” Dinwiddie said. – Joke a couple of times. This is part of the business. And you have to be professional. Be ready to play whenever your number is called and for any team your number is called for.

“Basically what I tell everyone, including myself, when I look in the mirror is that it’s an honor to be in a trading rumor. It means other people want you.”

According to him, last year was a prime example.

“Last year I was traded for a unicorn (Porzingis), which is a great guy,” Dinwiddie said. “At the moment it looks like a decent deal. If anything else goes wrong and it affects someone on our team, that will be my message. To be the center piece or couple of pieces that are part of the superstar package, (this is a comment) of your reputation, your work. (This means that your) margin is very high to participate in this conversation. It should be a moment of pride and understanding that business is business.”

Irving won the championship with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 when they defeated Golden State in the Finals.

For the past three years, Irving has teamed with Kevin Durant and, prior to this season, James Harden, but the Nets have failed to achieve serious NBA championship success. They didn’t make it past the second round of the playoffs.

He will be a starter for the February 19 All-Star Game in Utah. Either captain, LeBron James or Giannis Antetokounmpo, could have drafted both Irving and Doncic, which would have given the Mavericks a starting backcourt in the game.

Incidentally, the Nets and Mavericks have already ended their season streak.

Irving is scheduled to wear number 2 for the Mavericks.

Twitter: @ESefko

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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