After failing as "the man" on every team prior, Mavs bet on Kyrie Irving to lead them to a title

Part of the Dallas Maverick's rationale for trading their young superstar Luka Doncic away yesterday was that they felt the deal would help them have a better chance to win now. Whenever you're trading for a considerably older player you'd expect that to be the case. So the Mavs are now counting on Kyrie Irving to be "the guy." The same Kyrie Irving who in the Celtics gentleman’s sweep of Dallas in the Finals this past June shot a whopping 38% in those 4 losses. There's actually a decent sample size of Kyrie as the #1 guy and it has resulted in nothing but failure each stint prior. Kyrie's Cavaliers were awful prior to LeBron returning from Miami. Irving leading the Celtics was a collosal failure. Irving with Kevin Durant sidelined in Brooklyn, terrible. As a sidekick to a superstar like LeBron, Durant, or Luka, Irving can be a very good 2nd or 3rd option. The Mavs signed their death notice with this Doncic for Davis trade. AD had zero success as the man either and thus forced his way to Los Angeles to be LeBron's sidekick. Even with LeBron his lone success was as the 2nd banana in the Disney Bubble Finals.

When healthy, Davis is a great second star if playing next to a top 5 player. The Mavs now have two stars who need to be the sidekick next to a top 5 player to win. If everything goes right for Dallas this season, maybe they advance to the 2nd round or conference Finals. So a regression from last season when Luka led them to the NBA Finals.

The fact that the only “experts” one can find who actually think this trade helps the Mavs right now are the ones who have always had the absolute worst hot takes. When you trade the 25 year old superstar coming off five straight 1st Team All-NBA honors, you better have made yourself much improved in the short term, because long term it's going to be a huge L. Even the Mavs general manager said when he talks about the future it's 3 to 4 years. That in 10 years he likely won't even be with the Mavs anymore.

So for this trade to work Dallas needs Davis to be joining a superstar who can be the man and lead the team to a title in the next 3 years. Unfortunately for Mavs fans they are left to now count on Kyrie Irving to be that guy. He's shown time and time again, he's not.

Could the Mavs go a little "Everyone has counted us out, us against the world" run? Sure. And the same moronic talking heads will claim that as proof it was a good trade. Typical prisoner of the moment stuff. But Dallas isn't making the NBA Finals again, and for a team that was just in it, ultimately that's proof that trading Doncic for an older star wasn't even a good short term trade.

Does Doncic deserve blame for the Celtics beating his Mavs 4 games to 1? Yes of course. He could have been in better shape, play better defense, and whine less. But let's nto discount how good that Celtics team was. The Celtics should have won that series and in less than 7 games at that. But also keep in mind that while you need a superstar it still takes a team effort to win a title.

The Mavericks team lost those 4 games, not just Doncic. And while Tatum had Jaylen Brown to pick up the slack when he struggled with his shot, Doncic's #2 guy was Kyrie Irving who shot 31 of 81 in those 4 losses. You can't win a title getting that from your #2 guy. Good luck thinking you can win one promoting that guy to the #1 spot, a spot he's only failed in.

Irving is set to sign a new lucrative long term deal this offseason. No guarantees you'll get the same commitment to the game after he signs it. And if Anthony Davis couldn't win since the 2020 Bubble with LeBron James, expecting to him to now win downgrading to Irving is foolish. This was really one of the worst trades in sports history.


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