Just two months ago we were talking about how the Dallas Mavericks took the swing of the season with the blockbuster trade of Kyrie Irving.
The move was a huge gamble. The Mavericks traded two of their best rotation players and future draft equity for a player the team thought could complement Luka Doncic well. And, to be quite honest, he has.
Yet, here we are. The Dallas Mavericks are out of the playoffs. And the Kyrie Irving experiment is a failure — and this time it’s not his fault!
The team just wasn’t that good, man. The organization knew it. That’s why even with just a slim shot of hope left to make the playoffs, the team chose to tank by sitting all of its starters for Friday’s game against the Bulls.
That’s what brought us this — the final moment of the Mavs playoff hopes just clanking off the backboard.
Final play for the Mavericks is a work of tanking art. pic.twitter.com/Ou89fcZCZ8
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) April 8, 2023
This is so sad, man. It’s not just the fact that the Mavericks are missing the playoffs. It’s the fact that they’ve got a generational talent in Luka Doncic on the roster who felt like an absolute fixture in the postseason for the last few years. They’ve also got an absolute wizard on the court in Kyrie Irving.
This team should’ve made the playoffs at the very least. But it couldn’t. Things were that bad.
Things can get worse, too. Kyrie Irving could leave this offseason for nothing after the Mavericks took a chance on him. The team is going to have plenty of salary cap space to play with, but Dallas has to convince someone to join the team. That’s always been a tough task.
We’ll see how things go. But in this moment? Everything feels bleak for Dallas. And that’s not good for the team’s future with Luka Doncic.