After going through the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Boston Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets, Kyrie Irving will discover a fourth franchise by joining the Dallas Mavericks. He leaves an “all-star” pair with Kevin Durant, to find another in the person of Luka Doncic, with whom he will form a new shock duo.
This is THE big announcement of this period of trading in the NBA. Last year, the thunderclap came from James Harden who joined the Philadelphia Sixers, this year it’s Kyrie Irving who is shaking up the basketball planet. The now ex-teammate of Kevin Durant, failing to obtain a contract extension to the maximum amount from the Nets, joined the Dallas Mavericks.
New shock duo in the NBA, with Luka Doncic
The trade was between the superstar, for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and several draft picks. He leaves behind a team that was doing pretty well, with a fourth place finish in the Eastern Conference. He puts his suitcases in Texas where Luka Doncic is impatiently waiting for him.
The Slovenian stacks up great performances (33.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 8.6 assists on average), and is aiming for the MVP trophy, a glorious coronation he has never won in his young career. The arrival of Irving will help him a lot in the quest for this title, as much as in the race for the play-offs, a help strongly requested by the former Real Madrid.
The big question that arises around this future duo, remains in the offensive device that will be put in place by coach Jason Kidd. The former Cavs player is a player who monopolizes the ball a lot, a facet of his game that he shares with the best Rookie of the year 2019. The 30-year-old point guard will surely be keen to make people forget his disappointing record with the Nets, who since the 2019-2020 season has never crossed the threshold of the conference semi-finals. Especially since he only played 51% of the regular season games (143 out of 278) during his adventure in the Atlantic Division franchise.
So many questions, to which Kyrie and his new team will be able to provide some answers, this Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Arnaud Merciere
