According to a source, the unidentified guard and the Dallas Mavericks agreed on a $126 million, three-year contract during the opening hour of NBA free agency on Friday. Since arrangements can only be finalized on Thursday, the individual spoke with the stipulation that their identity be kept secret.
According to the source, the Mavericks had also reached an agreement on a two-year contract with guard Seth Curry, who will be returning to the team for the third time.
Irving, who refused to discuss his future throughout his partial season with Dallas and refused to speak with reporters after the season, appeared to address his choice to return in a one-word tweet with “peace” and “love” emojis.
The Mavericks paired All-Star starters for the first time in franchise history after acquiring Irving from the Brooklyn Nets in a blockbuster trade in February 2018. Still, the team struggled down the stretch and did not make the playoffs for the first time since Doncic was a rookie in the 2018–19 season.
When Kyrie Irving was traded to Dallas, the Mavericks were in the thick of the race for the postseason. However, Irving, an eight-time All-Star, and Doncic, a four-time choice, had a combined record of just 5-11 before Irving’s arrival.
A year after reaching the Western Conference finals, the Dallas Mavericks could only qualify for the play-in tournament after winning their first two games with Kyrie Irving. The Mavericks finished the season with a record of 7-18.
Before their relationship broke down and Irving sought to be traded, the Nets had initially extended an offer of a contract extension to Irving over the previous summer.
General manager Nico Harrison’s second blockbuster move for Dallas did not generate the same spark as his first, a trade in 2022 that sent Kristaps Porzingis to Washington and delivered the Mavs a major postseason player in Spencer Dinwiddie. Harrison’s first deal was a trade that sent Porzingis to Washington and gave the Mavs Dinwiddie.
Dorian Finney-Smith, a dependable defender, and Dinwiddie were the two players that Dallas traded to the Nets. Dinwiddie was one of the two. The defense was one of the primary factors that contributed to the failure of the two-month trial of Doncic and Irving.
On the maximum rookie agreement worth $215 million Doncic signed two summers ago, he has three more years left before the player option kicks in. He stated that he intends to explore the superstar pairing’s potential following the season.
“I wish we could continue that chemistry, relationship,” said Doncic, who finished in second place in the scoring race with a career-high 32.4 points per game. “I wish we could continue that chemistry relationship.” “It’s not going to happen overnight or even in a week. It’s a step-by-step process of building.”
Irving was not active for the Mavericks’ final two games of the season, and Doncic was only allowed to play for the first quarter of those games. As a result, the Mavericks did not have a chance to participate in the play-in round of the playoffs.
Irving, who is 31 years old, and Doncic, who is just 18 years old, did not play in the season’s final game because it was meaningless after the Mavericks were eliminated from playoff contention by a loss to the Bulls in the game in question. The flop came a year after the Mavericks advanced to the Western Conference finals.
Dallas was able to keep the 10th pick in the draft thanks to their 0-2 record, which they used to trade up to choose Duke center Dereck Lively II at No. 12 overall and Marquette’s Olivier-Maxence Prosper at No. 24. If Dallas finished 11th or lower, the New York Knicks would have received the draft pick.
Before being traded, Irving had spent the better part of three and a half seasons in Brooklyn, dealing primarily with the turmoil he had created for himself.
Irving sat out of practically all of the home games in 2021-22 because he refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19. He also sat out of eight games at the beginning of the previous season because the team suspended him after he tweeted a link to a movie with antisemitic content. As a result of the tweet, Nike severed its connection with Irving.
A few days after trading Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks, the Brooklyn Nets made another blockbuster trade by sending Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns. This ended the once-proud partnership of the Nets and the Brooklyn Nets, which resulted in the Nets winning only one playoff series.
Curry, the younger brother of Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, joined the Mavericks for the first time in 2016-17, three years after entering the NBA as an undrafted free agency. During that season, Curry’s career got off to a strong start.
He had only played 50 games before that point in his career, but he managed to put up 12.8 points per game in 70 contests. After that, he spent one season in Portland and then put up another strong year in Dallas.
In 2020, when he was eligible for free agency, Curry left the Warriors once more to sign with the 76ers. Afterward, he followed Irving to the Nets when he was included in the transaction that sent James Harden to the 76ers and Ben Simmons to the Nets in the year 2022.
