The Dallas Mavericks are still not listening on Kyrie Irving. According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the Mavs continue to shut down trade calls on their 34-year-old point guard even as other teams keep dialing.
“There has been no change in Kyrie Irving’s status in Dallas from what we reported on June 12,” Stein wrote on The Stein Line. “The Mavericks have continued to rebuff trade feelers for the 34-year-old who has nine career All-Star nods. The working expectation since our report last month is that Irving should begin next season in Dallas alongside Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg to at last launch his long-awaited comeback from knee surgery in late March 2025.”
That is a very deliberate hold from the front office. Irving missed all of the 2025-26 season while rehabbing a torn ACL. He is on the wrong side of 30. The Mavs have Cooper Flagg locked in as their franchise cornerstone. The natural read of the situation is that Dallas should be at least willing to listen if the right offer comes in.
They are not. Not yet, anyway.
Part of that is the money situation. Irving signed a 3-year, $118.47 million deal with the Mavericks in July of 2025. The contract carries a $42.42 million player option for the 2027-28 campaign. That is a heavy number for a 34-year-old guard coming off a major knee injury, and any team calling on Irving is factoring that in when they make offers.
The other part is the on-court fit. Dallas envisions a starting lineup with Flagg, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson (if he is still there), and Irving as the primary ball handler. The Mavericks won the 2024-25 draft lottery for a reason. They want to give Flagg the best possible landing pad, and that includes a proven playmaker who has already been the closer on a Finals team.
The problem is that the calculus changes fast if Irving looks off in the fall. A 34-year-old guard coming off a full ACL rehab is not a low-risk player. If early-season Kyrie looks anything less than the guy who dropped 30-plus in the 2024 Finals, the calls will get louder, and the Mavericks will not be able to keep ignoring them forever.
For now, though, it is Dallas standing pat. Nico Harrison already burned a chunk of his fan base with the Luka Doncic trade. He is not looking to do it again with Irving before he even sees the payoff.
The play is simple: put Flagg and Kyrie on the floor together in October, see what the team looks like, and re-evaluate at the deadline in February. Anything can happen between now and then. But the door is closed for the offseason.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
