{"id":50946,"date":"2023-06-21T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T14:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=50946"},"modified":"2023-06-20T15:18:06","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T19:18:06","slug":"kyrie-irving-free-agent-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/06\/21\/kyrie-irving-free-agent-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyrie Irving Free Agent Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Kyrie Irving Free Agent Profile<\/h2>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/irvinky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyrie Irving<\/a><\/strong> is one of this generation&#8217;s best point guards. His on-court talent no doubt deserves the four-year, $220.6 million deal he can get from the Dallas Mavericks. In fact, all NBA teams would improve by signing Irving. So, why is the rumor that the Mavs might be the only team interested in signing Irving not that surprising?<\/p>\n<h3>Background<\/h3>\n<p>The mercurial star enters the 2023 NBA Free Agency as one of, if not the best player available. However, his market will be hampered by off-court drama and a disappointing ending to the Mavs season. Dallas <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/02\/06\/kyrie-irving-to-dallas-mavericks-trade-grades\/\" target=\"_self\">acquired the star<\/a> in February after he requested a trade out of Brooklyn. The team hoped Irving would be the piece that could finally gel with homegrown star <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Doncic<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Irving played great for Dallas in 20 games. The 31-year-old averaged 27 points and 6 assists per game while scoring threes at a 39.2 percent clip. Despite Irving&#8217;s personal success, Dallas&#8217; season cratered down the stretch. The Mavs lost 13 of the final 18 games of the season, finishing the year below .5oo and missing the playoffs. An anonymous Mavericks player called the season a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/4474477\/2023\/05\/01\/kyrie-irving-dallas-mavericks-free-agency\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">F\u2014ing Disaster<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>At this point in Irving&#8217;s career, teams know they&#8217;ll get great production from him when he plays. However, they also know about Irving&#8217;s serious negative baggage and tendency to miss games for whatever reason.<\/p>\n<h3>Strengths<\/h3>\n<p>Irving has become a generational talent because he does most things at a great level. For his career, Irving banks threes at a 39.1 percent clip and makes 88.5 percent of his free throws. A truly elite scorer and ball handler, Irving often gets on a roll where he puts the team on his back, controls the game, and doesn&#8217;t miss a shot.<\/p>\n<p>While he can lead his team to wins, Irving has plenty of experience playing alongside stars. He knows how to share the court and has proven a willingness to play off-ball. This allows younger teammates to continue developing and veteran star teammates to get their typical action.<\/p>\n<h3>Weaknesses<\/h3>\n<p>In terms of legacy, Irving might end up being remembered more for the drama that constantly surrounds him than for his great play. He clashed with his young teammates on the Boston Celtics\u00a0and had a cornucopia of off-court controversies in Brooklyn. Irving&#8217;s headaches became the main reason the Nets decided to not offer Irving the max extension he hoped for.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"m-in-content-ad-row l-inline mm-in-content-ad-row--in-content not-size-a not-size-b not-size-d\" data-ad-group=\"in_content-3\">\n<div class=\"m-in-content-ad not-size-a not-size-b not-size-d\" data-ad-group=\"in_content-3\" data-zone-count=\"7\">\n<div class=\"not-size-a not-size-b not-size-d m-in-content-ad is-loaded\">\n<div id=\"ad-7de59921d7994aa98bbcfce2f4c69862\" data-google-query-id=\"CJ7Cuc_i0P8CFYQHZQod1IoJgg\" data-ad-size=\"300x250\">Although many rumors can be pure smokescreens this time of year, a report from Marc Stein sounds believable. <a href=\"https:\/\/marcstein.substack.com\/p\/how-the-bradley-beal-trade-affects\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stein reports<\/a> that the Mavs could end up as Irving&#8217;s only interested suitors.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-google-query-id=\"CJ7Cuc_i0P8CFYQHZQod1IoJgg\" data-ad-size=\"300x250\"><\/div>\n<div data-google-query-id=\"CJ7Cuc_i0P8CFYQHZQod1IoJgg\" data-ad-size=\"300x250\">&#8220;League sources say that these developments \u2014 especially the latter \u2014 have reinforced the notion that the Mavericks appear to be the only confirmed bidder for Irving&#8217;s services as the opening bell for 2023 NBA free agency at 6 p.m. ET on June 30 draws near,&#8221; Stein reported.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div data-google-query-id=\"CJ7Cuc_i0P8CFYQHZQod1IoJgg\" data-ad-size=\"300x250\"><\/div>\n<div data-google-query-id=\"CJ7Cuc_i0P8CFYQHZQod1IoJgg\" data-ad-size=\"300x250\">Could Irving be so toxic that only the Mavs want him? And would anyone really be surprised if it plays out that way?<\/div>\n<h3 data-google-query-id=\"CJ7Cuc_i0P8CFYQHZQod1IoJgg\" data-ad-size=\"300x250\">Potential Fits<\/h3>\n<p>Despite the horrible ending to the season, Dallas remains interested in retaining Irving. Dallas currently has a guard-heavy roster, but retaining one of the most skilled guards ever makes sense. His free throw prowess fits a roster need. Additionally, Dallas has been searching for a star to help Doncic take the team to the next level. Their chemistry was not good last year, but perhaps a full offseason and preseason can fix that.<\/p>\n<p>Many reports indicate that the Houston Rockets plan to target Irving this summer. Irving would help catapult the Rockets out of a deep rebuild. Additionally, Irving wouldn&#8217;t stunt the development of young Rockets like Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr. Green also seemed excited about the potential of playing with Irving while appearing on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mpLLxpo7vLQ\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Podcast P with Paul George<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to learn from Kyrie,&#8221; Green said. &#8220;He has tapped in with me and I have his number. We have texted each other and talked after games. But that is someone I would love to learn from.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, Irving seems to be Houston&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/04\/22\/james-harden-continues-to-be-linked-to-houston-rockets-by-nba-insiders\/\" target=\"_self\">backup option<\/a> if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardeja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>James Harden<\/strong><\/a> passes on a reunion.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, many rumors during last year&#8217;s trade deadline reported Irving&#8217;s interest in reuniting with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a><\/strong> with the Los Angeles Lakers.\u00a0 Obviously, that didn&#8217;t happen in February, and it doesn&#8217;t seem likely to happen this summer.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN&#8217;s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Lakers want to focus on\u00a0renewing the contracts of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reaveau01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Austin Reaves<\/strong><\/a> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hachiru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rui Hachimura<\/a><\/strong>. Adding a big contract seems unlikely for the Lakers this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kyrie Irving Free Agent Profile Kyrie Irving is one of this generation&#8217;s best point guards. His on-court talent no doubt deserves the four-year, $220.6 million deal he can get from the Dallas Mavericks. In fact, all NBA teams would improve by signing Irving. So, why is the rumor that the Mavs might be the only [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4683,"featured_media":50982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,30,31,26],"tags":[4964,175,333,406,152],"class_list":["post-50946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-rockets","category-lakers","tag-2023-nba-free-agents","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-houston-rockets","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-los-angeles-lakers"],"modified_by":"Wesly Beausoleil, Lead Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}