JULY 7: Irving’s new contract with the Mavericks is official, the team announced (via Twitter).
JUNE 30: The Mavericks and star guard Kyrie Irving have reached an agreement on a new contract within the first hour of free agency, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
According to Charania, Irving will sign a three-year, $126MM contract that will include a player option in the final season. That’s an average of $42MM annually, which is a little below Irving’s 2023/24 maximum of $47.6MM.
While Irving is certainly enigmatic and has missed an alarming amount of games over the past four seasons, there’s no question that he’s an elite scorer and ball-handler when he’s on the court, having averaged 27.1 PPG, 5.8 APG, 4.9 RPG and 1.3 SPG on .491/.395/.914 shooting in 163 games (36.0 MPG) over that span.
Dallas acquired Irving in February after he requested a trade ahead of the deadline. Considering the Mavs gave up two solid role players (Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith) as well as an unprotected 2029 first-round pick to land the 31-year-old, they were always viewed as the frontrunner to re-sign the veteran guard.
A former first overall pick, Irving has earned numerous accolades during his career, including eight All-Star nods, three All-NBA appearances, a Rookie of the Year award, and a championship trophy with the Cavs in 2016.
It will be interesting to see how the Mavs build out the rest of their roster around Luka Doncic and Irving, two incredible offensive talents who don’t always put forth much effort defensively.
Rory Maher contributed to this story.
Mavericks really need depth if they want to contend. I still don’t like doncic and Irving together.
Don’t care what y’all say as a mavs fan i’m happy asf
Let me know how happy you are in March when Kyrie disappears for his birthday (I have the same birthday as him)
As a Nets fan I was ecstatic to get Kyrie. That pink cloud bursted soon after. I hope it works better for the Mavs, but they is a lot of money to pay for drama
Celtics fan. I was also happy about Kyrie at one point.
I’m just happy it’s 3 years. There’s a chance it actually works out if they can fill the rest of the team out. Maybe Kyrie is actually in a happy place the next 3 years.
Idiots
Wow what a great argument. We’re all so glad you could chime in with your great insight. Thanks for being the best analyst ever
I agree. I like the simple, brevity of it all – when everyone who knows ball agrees, we can just say “Idiots” and we all know its true.
Well, at least it’s only 3 years.
That’s a steal
Kyrie won’t finish out his contract in Dallas and wouldn’t be surprised by year 2 the real drama starts.
Kyrie Irving resign 3 years $126 million is a very nice deal!!! Now it’s time for them to put the right pieces around him and Luka Doncic. It’s a great deal because it lets them go out and use the mid level exception.
The 3rd year of the contract is apparently a player option. So Kyrie drama in year 2 is built in.
I thought it was team option. He’ll be drama after year 1 is kinda what I tried to allude to.
No shot he even finishes next season on Dallas. He will be passed around like a joint on this deal the second he becomes eligible.
I’d consider it a small win for Dal they didn’t have to guarantee a 4th year, so down the rabbit hole Cuban goes
Please don’t deal him to the Sixers
Wow. This is truly hilarious.
Start the clock on Luka’s exit
Demands a trade or sits out games by January 2024 smh
I guess that meeting with the Suns didn’t last too long
What happened to all those visits he had lined up???
You mean the visits reported by podcast hosts and day time radio guys? What happened to analyzing the things you read?
It was said jokingly. I previously said he was just looking for attention, and just trying to force Dallas into giving him as much as possible by “faking” interest from other teams.
Houston was the only legitimate threat for Kyrie because they had cap space, but that’s about it. Playing with Luka is an easy decision.
Don’t like offense only “stars”, but it’s not like Dallas had any other options, they had to overpay him.
Mavs suck worse now …….. why do you keep giving him money …..
To keep the cap space open, Kyrie can always be traded and someone extended.
Traded to who ?? He’s at the End
But I get it. Mavs really have no choice. But they will learn. Guys like Kyrie shouldn’t get paid. The NBA should take a stance like they do on bigs. And NFL does on RBs.
The Mavs are the Knicks of the West. Both suck and won’t win nothin.
If you’re a mavs fan be very afraid… with his reputation …he might not show up in his first game… lol! Goodluck.
I thought mark cuban’s a smart person.
Kyrie was right. Nets were wrong. I was wrong, lol. Kyrie knows his value and he got paid. No wonder he will do whatever he wants to do and be a drama. As for Mavs, I suppose they had no choice. They are hoping he can play well, raise his value, and then trade him to get some assets back.
Yup, this is still an idiotic signing. Should have traded Luka.
this guy said, “trade luka.”
If you think he was hard to deal with (off the court) before, wait til you see how he is now – now that he’s got his (guaranteed) money….