{"id":91588,"date":"2024-08-21T06:14:36","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T10:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=91588"},"modified":"2026-01-28T18:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:46:08","slug":"mavs-kyrie-irving-injury-update-klay-thompson-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/21\/mavs-kyrie-irving-injury-update-klay-thompson-emerges\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavs\u2019 Shot-Creator Gets Injury Update, Klay Thompson Emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After undergoing hand surgery in July, Dallas Mavericks guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/irvinky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyrie Irving<\/a> is now \u201cdoing limited work\u2026 and remains on course to be cleared for the start of training camp in Las Vegas on Oct. 1,\u201d per The Stein Line\u2019s Marc Stein.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Newly acquired Klay Thompson is also participating in the Mavericks&#8217; LA player gathering this week, with sources adding that Irving is doing limited work now and remains on course to be cleared for the start of training camp in Las Vegas on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n<p>More: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/A6ycVmnrjq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/A6ycVmnrjq<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XUakeSWrtc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/XUakeSWrtc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheSteinLine\/status\/1825986912923906463?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 20, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The eight-time All-Star was recently seen attending a voluntary team workout. However, Irving is \u201cnot yet cleared to play 5-on-5.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Mavs\u2019 Kyrie Irving Injury Update, Klay Thompson Emerges<\/h2>\n<p>In 2023-24, Irving turned in one of his better regular season performances.<\/p>\n<p>He wasn\u2019t as healthy as he would\u2019ve liked, playing in just 58 games. However, the silky shot-creator averaged 25.6 points, 5.2 assists, and 1.3 steals per game, marking his fifth consecutive season averaging at least 25 points, 5 assists, and 1 steal per game. Furthermore, he just barely missed the cut for the 50-40-90 club, posting .497-.411-.905 shooting splits last season.<\/p>\n<p>Though running mate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Doncic<\/a> rightly deserved the lion\u2019s share of credit for the Mavs\u2019 success, Irving play shouldn\u2019t be understated. This is particularly true with Irving scoring a team-high 83 points in the clutch.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"In Kyrie We Trust \ud83e\udd1e| 23-24 Kyrie Irving Mixtape #mffl\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tpp6Wo4lFHc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The wheels began to fall off during the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>On the whole, Irving was mightily impressive. Not only did he nail tough shots, he was an intent facilitator and began to pick up his defense. Averages of 22.1 points, 5.1 assists, and 1.0 steal per game are nothing to frown upon. His .467-.390-.849 shooting splits were substandard, but elite.<\/p>\n<p>The problem lies in how he played in the 2024 NBA Finals. In what his worst Finals series, he averaged 19.8 points per game on 41.4 percent shooting from the field and 27.6 percent shooting from 3. To make matters worse, many of the shots he missed weren\u2019t affected by the Boston Celtics defense. Irving shot 29.4 percent on \u201copen\u201d 3s and 14.4 percent on \u201cwide open\u201d 3s, per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/player\/202681\/shots-dash?OpponentTeamID=1610612738\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NBA Player Tracking<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Irving has to shake back not just from that series but a broken hand. On top of that, there are at least three other Western Conference teams who significantly improved their roster this offseason (the Oklahoma City Thunder, Sacramento Kings, and New Orleans Pelicans). The path ahead won\u2019t be a walk in the park.<\/p>\n<h3>The Klay Thompson Show<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompkl01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Klay Thompson<\/a> was in attendance for the team event as well.<\/p>\n<p>A four-time NBA champion, Thompson is Dallas\u2019s most <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/20\/dallas-mavericks-offseason-a-review-to-date\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">notable offseason addition<\/a>. Subsequently, him getting an early start on building on-court chemistry with his teammates is particularly valuable. Having played with the Golden State Warriors every season up to this point, he needs to familiarize himself with the Mavs\u2019 system and personnel. Conversely, as one of the greatest catch-and-shoot artists in NBA history, they need to know how and where he likes the ball.<\/p>\n<p>With Irving sidelined until training camp, there will still be kinks to work out. Furthermore, it\u2019s unclear if Doncic attended, as he\u2019s set to be in Slovenia this weekend <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/17\/nba-retired-stars-suit-up-goran-dragic-event\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">for an exhibition game<\/a>. Nonetheless, Thompson getting a jump start is undoubtedly a positive development for Dallas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After undergoing hand surgery in July, Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving is now \u201cdoing limited work\u2026 and remains on course to be cleared for the start of training camp in Las Vegas on Oct. 1,\u201d per The Stein Line\u2019s Marc Stein. Newly acquired Klay Thompson is also participating in the Mavericks&#8217; LA player gathering this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":91596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[30,1608,62,3],"tags":[70,406,4745,4557],"class_list":["post-91588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mavericks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-klay-thompson","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nba-offseason"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91588","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\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91588"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174973,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91588\/revisions\/174973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}