Kyrie Irving is thriving with the Dallas Mavericks alongside Luka Doncic and has spoken out about his trade from the Brooklyn Nets.
The Mavericks sit with a 23-19 record in the Western Conference and recently snapped a three-game losing streak by defeating the high-flying Oklahoma City Thunder.
In the absence of Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving has stepped up to the plate and top-scored with 25 points, five rebounds and five assists.
They handed the Thunder just their second defeat in their last 16 games and the Mavericks owe a lot to Irving.
Irving’s trade to the Mavericks
Irving and Doncic have teamed up to incredible effectiveness and have quickly become one of the league’s strongest duos.
While Kyrie appears to have found his home in Dallas things haven’t been so simple for the star in previous years.
The NBA Champion with the Cavaliers has used some of the lessons he learnt in the tougher periods of his career to aid his current game.
Kyrie’s time at the Nets, while being impressive in numbers, was far from the favourite run of his career.
On Feb 6, 2023, Irving was traded from the Nets to the Mavericks in exchange for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and draft picks. Markeiff Morris was also sent to the Mavericks as part of the deal.
Asked by a reporter who won the trade, Irving wasted no time in giving his response. He laughed as he stated: “Best trade in the business baby. We won that trade! We won that trade! I was bad goods.”
Irving is certainly right about trade winner
It’s quite clear to see that Irving has hit the nail on the head with his trade comment especially considering the current locations of the two Nets acquisitions in the trade.
While Irving and Morris both remain playing for the Mavericks the Nets stars have already moved on.
Finney-Smith recently joined the LA Lakers in a trade which saw the Nets acquire D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks.
While Dinwiddie is once again a teammate of Irving and Morris as he is now a Mavericks star, it’s safe to say that the Nets were the losers of this trade.
Giving up Irving is tough enough, but also losing all of the acquisitions for him less than two years on is quite something.
The two teams are sitting with very contrasting records and perhaps this trade was a big indicator of the team’s future successes.