Mavericks rumors: Kyrie Irving’s contract status gets update as he rehabs from injury
The Dallas Mavericks are hoping to have a smooth offseason, even with the Luka Doncic trade backlash still continuing. Now, the Mavericks are going to have to try to put that behind them and focus on the players they have on the team, and the first person to come to mind is Kyrie Irving.
Irving missed the past few months of the season after tearing his ACL, and it’s uncertain when he will be back for next season. The next step for Irving and the Mavericks is to see what a contract extension will look like for him. From the sound of it, the Mavericks plan on working out a deal with the point guard, according to Marc Stein.
“Rumbles of a new three-year deal for Irving were fairly commonplace before the Dončić trade. The Mavericks’ need for an elite guard like Irving is obviously even more acute now post-Dončić, resulting in the widely held expectation that Dallas will indeed re-sign the nine-time NBA All-Star in hopes of ultimately pairing Irving with Anthony Davis,” Stein wrote.
With Doncic gone, the Mavericks will definitely need to keep Irving around for as long as they can, especially if they want to compete at a high level.
When do the Mavericks expect Kyrie Irving to return?
The Mavericks will be without Irving for the first part of next season, and the next question is when they expect him to return.
“Kyrie Irving’s return, that’s the big question now,” ESPN’s Sham Charania wrote. “The expectation is that he will play a good chunk of next season. There’s optimism that he’ll be back by January.”
When Irving does return, it shouldn’t be expected of him to play heavy minutes to start out. He’ll most likely be on a minutes restriction and won’t play back-to-backs until later in the season, and the hope is that he can come back and be close to his normal self on the court.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Mavericks try to find a point guard in free agency or the draft that can play in place of Irving. The Mavericks are looking to be competitive next season, and the hope is that they’ll have a good record by the time Irving returns.
