NBA free agency 2023: Kyrie Irving agrees to re-sign with Dallas Mavericks
Eight-time NBA All-Star point guard and one-time champion Kyrie Irving will return to the Dallas Mavericks on a three-year, $126 million contract, sources told Yahoo Sports' Vincent Goodwill.
The Mavericks traded Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2029 first-round draft pick and two second-round picks for Irving in February, following the 31-year-old's most recent trade request.
Irving averaged 27 points (51/39/95 shooting splits), six assists and five rebounds over 20 games in Dallas, despite suffering from plantar fasciitis in his right foot at the end of last season. In their 27 games following Irving's debut, the Mavericks finished 9-18, falling from sixth place in the Western Conference to 11th and out of the playoff picture for the first time since superstar teammate Luka Dončić's rookie season in 2019.
Dallas outscored opponents by 4.2 points per 100 possessions in 444 minutes with Irving and Dončić sharing the floor, registering an offensive rating (119.2) better than the league's most efficient scoring team.
The main problem was the depth Dallas sacrificed to acquire Irving. The Mavericks began to address the talent drain on draft night, trading the No. 10 overall pick and the $33 million left on Dāvis Bertāns' contract for Richaun Holmes and two first-round picks. They selected Duke freshman Dereck Lively II at No. 12 and Marquette junior Olivier-Maxence Prosper at No. 24. Lively is a rim-protecting center who rated as the top prep prospect in the Class of 2022, and Prosper is a versatile wing who wowed at the NBA Draft Combine.
Dallas entered free agency with 10 players under team control, including Lively, Prosper and recent draftees Josh Green and Jaden Hardy. Irving was the Mavericks' top priority. They also face decisions on several more players, notably Christian Wood and Dwight Powell. General manager Nico Harrison has the non-taxpayer midlevel exception, bi-annual exception and minimum salaries to upgrade shooting and defense.
Retaining Irving is no surefire solution to Dallas' efforts to return to the Western Conference finals. He is one of the greatest ball-handlers in league history and a wildly creative scorer from everywhere on the court. He has also been one of the most erratic stars the game has ever seen off the floor for seven seasons running.
Irving asked off the Cleveland Cavaliers after a third straight trip to the NBA Finals alongside LeBron James in 2017. He told a crowd of Boston Celtics season-ticket holders in October 2018 that he would re-sign, only to begin planning his partnership with Kevin Durant on the Brooklyn Nets within months, if not weeks. Three years and just 103 games into his Nets tenure, Irving sought permission to find a sign-and-trade deal that never materialized, only to formally request a trade months later, when the Mavericks acquired him.
Since his famed championship-winning shot in 2016, Irving has finished three seasons healthy — Cleveland's 2017 Finals run, when he reportedly went days without speaking to teammates during the postseason before requesting a trade; Boston's second-round loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2019, when he actively sabotaged his team's on-court execution before leaving in free agency; and the first round of the 2022 playoffs, when the Celtics swept his Nets and he requested another trade shortly thereafter.
In between, he has had season-ending injuries to his left knee (2018), right shoulder (2020), right ankle (2021) and right foot (2023). He has also missed time for reasons not disclosed to his team in January 2021 (seven games), an anti-vaccination protest during the 2021-22 season (53 games) and his repeated refusal to apologize for promoting an antisemitic film on his Twitter account in November 2022 (eight games).
For all his talent, Irving's teams have consistently yielded better records without him in the lineup. By all accounts, he was a model teammate on the Mavericks in the lead-up to a second unrestricted free agency. If Irving returns to his concerning trends, this latest payday — after he had already earned $233 million in NBA salary to this point — could be Irving's last big contract (until the next team decides he is the answer).
