NBA Rumors: The Dallas Mavericks will not sign and trade Kyrie Irving to any other team this offseason.
Under immense pressure heading into the offseason, the Dallas Mavericks almost have to re-sign Kyrie Irving once free agency opens. However, even after considering what the team gave up for him at the NBA Trade Deadline and the fact that he only played 20 games for the Mavs before he was shut down for the final few games of the year, there’s no guarantee that will happen.
Kyrie is one of the most unpredictable players in the league and who knows what his mindset will be once free agency opens. And perhaps in a way to protect that, the expectation, according to a recent report, is that the Mavs don’t anticipate helping Kyrie at all this offseason by facilitating a sign-and-trade move to a non-Mavs team where he wants to sign in free agency.
In other words, if Kyrie is going to leave Dallas in free agency, he’s either going to have to sign the big-money deal that he’s likely going to be seeking with a team that has open cap space or he’s going to have to take a significant pay cut to sign with a contender – i.e. the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Dallas Mavericks clearly don’t want Kyrie Irving to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers
If we’re being honest, the Lakers are the biggest threat to the Mavs when it comes to Kyrie. The problem for the Lakers is that they probably can’t give Kyrie a big offer without sign and trade help. If the Lakers were to clear their salary cap deck, they can make a fair offer but nothing close to what he could make year-over-year with the Mavs if he re-signs.
Assuming the Mavs follow through on this “threat” to Kyrie, it would make a path to the Lakers that much more difficult for him. And, quite frankly, it could also force the Lakers to pursue other avenues toward upgrading the team.
Either way, this is not the only move that the Mavs will be monitoring this offseason. In addition to re-signing Kyrie, there have to be other moves that Dallas makes to upgrade the roster. But navigating the Kyrie situation is probably the most difficult one that Dallas will need to figure out.
The offseason could be chaotic. And there’s a good chance that Kyrie ends up being at the center of this summer’s headlines.