Getty Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks.
Retaining Kyrie Irving is the No. 1 priority for the Dallas Mavericks this summer, without question. Dallas made a trade for Irving back in February, ahead of the trade deadline. The hope was that he and Luka Doncic would provide an unmatched scoring punch as the Mavs stampeded into the playoffs.
Instead, things went so poorly that they decided to tank the final two games of the season in order to keep their first-round pick.
Irving is set to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent this summer, allowing him to sign with any team that’s willing to offer him a contract.
Oddly enough, the Miami Heat, a team with no cap space, but some juicy trade assets, reportedly have interest in landing the star guard.
According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Miami tried to make a move for Irving before Dallas did, and may try again this offseason.
“Just to give you a glimpse of what they’ve looked at over the last several months, they made an offer to the [Brooklyn] Nets for Kyrie Irving at the deadline from what I’m told, right before he got traded to the Mavericks before the deadline,” Charania said of Miami. “They’re going to explore seeing what the star market is out there… Do they circle back on Kyrie Irving?”
Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving Previously Linked to Heat
Charnia’s report isn’t the first that’s labeled Miami as a potential destination for Irving this summer. Back in March an anonymous Western Conference general manager told Heavy Sports‘ Sean Deveney that the Heat will look to land the 10-time All-Star this offseason.
“Kyrie will have to decide what he wants to do next—does he want to pick where he wants to go and take a taxpayer exception (about $7 million) or does he want to make as much money as he possibly can? Because the Mavs will give him more than anyone else will, so if that is the decision, then it is pretty simple,” the source explained to Deveney. “But, we have seen how Kyrie is with teaming up with players. Could he take $7 million to go play with LeBron and the Lakers, or take $7 million to play in Phoenix? Miami was interested, too. They would be again. Sure, he has said that money is not that important and this would be how he could show it, I suppose.”
Of course, in the above mentioned scenario it sounds like the thought was that Irving would take less money to head to Miami. Since then, it’s been reported that Dallas has interest in giving him a solid pay day.
Kyrie Irving Reportedly Wants to Stay With Mavericks
Plus, back on June 5 NBA Insider Marc Stein shared that he has heard that Irving would like to stay with the Mavericks.
“Yet two sources close to the process insisted Monday that Irving has consistently expressed a desire to remain a Maverick and actually wants to shut down the notion that he’s angling to get to L.A.,” Stein wrote as part of his newsletter. “‘He wants to stay,’ said one source. The clear signals Monday out of Dallas suggest that the Mavericks believe that. With or without a LeBron [James] reunion.”
