The Dallas Mavericks have a message for the rest of the NBA. Kyrie Irving is not available.
Multiple reports this week confirmed Dallas has been telling interested teams Irving is not on the trade market. The Pistons and Timberwolves have both made calls. The Rockets have not. Other teams are circling, but the front office is not biting.
This is the right call, even if the optics of holding a 34 year old guard during a rebuild look weird on paper.
Here is the math that matters. Irving is owed $39.5 million for the 2026-27 season. He has a $42.4 million player option for 2027-28. That is a lot of money to pay a player coming off an ACL tear that cost him the entire 2025-26 season. But it is also a contract that aligns perfectly with the next two years of Cooper Flagg’s rookie deal, and that is the part Dallas is protecting.
Flagg is the franchise. He won Rookie of the Year. He is the reason Masai Ujiri left Toronto to take the Mavericks job. The new president has been clear about wanting Irving and Flagg to share the court while the rookie develops, and the basketball case is real. Irving is one of the most skilled offensive players of his generation. He can take pressure off Flagg as a creator, a closer, and a teacher. Even at 70 percent health, he gives Dallas a closing lineup that no other young roster can match.
And then there is the off court reality. Trading Irving in the immediate aftermath of the Luka Doncic disaster would have signaled the Mavericks were tearing it all down. Ujiri does not want that perception. He wants Dallas to look like a competitive rebuild, not a teardown. Keeping Irving is the easiest way to say the right things to the fan base while still resetting the roster around younger talent.
The Timberwolves and Pistons interest is real. Minnesota wants a guard who can create off the dribble for Anthony Edwards. Detroit needs a veteran scorer for Cade Cunningham to lean on. Both teams could put together a respectable offer headlined by young players and draft picks. Neither team has enough to make Dallas reconsider, because Dallas is not selling.
What is interesting is the players Dallas has reportedly made available. Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, and Daniel Gafford have all surfaced in trade conversations. That tells you Ujiri is willing to move secondary pieces for younger talent. Irving is not in that bucket because Irving is part of the plan.
The risk is obvious. Irving is 34. He just missed a full year. ACL recoveries for guards in their mid 30s have a mixed track record. He could come back at 80 percent of who he was, which is still a difference maker, or he could come back at 60 percent, which makes that contract a problem.
But the Mavericks do not have a better path. Flagg needs a veteran star next to him during the most important developmental years of his career. There is no free agent equivalent on the market this summer. Trading Irving for picks delays the timeline. Keeping him compresses it.
Dallas is going to play the long game with one short term bet. Kyrie Irving is the bet. The Mavericks are right to make it.
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.
