Mavs Don’t Plan To Offer Irving In-Season Extension
Kyrie Irving demanded a trade when he couldn’t reach an extension agreement with the Nets. Some may assume the Mavericks, who agreed to acquire Irving on Sunday, have given the temperamental star guard some assurances that they’d sign him beyond this season.
That would be a false assumption, according to Marc Stein in his latest Substack post. League sources told Stein that Dallas has not promised Irving a new contract, since the team wants to see how Irving will mesh with franchise player Luka Doncic before making a long-term commitment.
It’s an obvious risk for the Mavericks to take that approach, even though The Athletic reported that Irving now prefers to head into unrestricted free agency with the hope that his new team, which also gains his Bird rights, will sign him to a four-year, $198MM maximum salary deal.
Dallas is counting on Irving’s relationships with coach Jason Kidd and president of basketball operations Nico Harrison, a former Nike executive, to facilitate a fruitful partnership. The Mavericks are also looking to make other moves with the aim of making a serious run at the title this season.
If the Irving gamble doesn’t pan out for Dallas, the club would have to strike gold in free agency to minimize the trade’s impact. The Mavs are giving up two solid rotation players in Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith, an unprotected 2029 first-round pick, a 2027 second-round pick, and a 2029 second-round pick. The Nets threw forward Markieff Morris into the deal.
Stein also offers up some other interesting tidbits:
- The Mavericks initially attempted to send the Nets Christian Wood‘s expiring contract or one of their two burdensome long-term contracts — Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dāvis Bertāns. Wood, who is headed to free agency unless he signs an extension, could still be moved before the trade deadline.
- A source suggests to Stein that one of the presumed objectives of Nets owner Joe Tsai was to not trade Irving to the Lakers — his preferred destination.
- Doncic signed off on the deal, not only because he was intrigued by the prospects of playing with another star but also because he’ll no longer have to shoulder the offensive load.
- As Stein previously reported, the Clippers have shown some interest in Wood, along with Timberwolves point guard D’Angelo Russell, who is also on an expiring contract.
Southwest Notes: Doncic, Wood, Valanciunas, Branham, JJJ
Luka Doncic is out tonight against the Warriors and Monday against the Jazz, but the Mavericks are optimistic that his right heel contusion won’t sideline him much longer, writes Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News. Coach Jason Kidd told reporters that Doncic underwent an MRI on Friday, and the team hasn’t ruled out the possibility that he might play later in its five-game road trip, which runs through next Saturday.
“Luka — right heel contusion —healing, day to day, doing better, but will not join us in Utah,” Kidd said. “We’ll see where he’s at after that Utah game.”
Kidd also provided a few other injury updates, saying that Christian Wood participated in a 5-on-5 scrimmage Friday without a setback and could be ready to play by Monday. Maxi Kleber took part in a 1-on-1 workout for the first time since having surgery on his right hamstring in mid-December. Kidd said Davis Bertans will “probably” be sidelined through the All-Star break after straining his left calf in Thursday’s game.
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- The Mavericks appear willing to discuss a two-year extension with Wood, but probably nothing longer, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said on Zach Lowe’s podcast. MacMahon is skeptical that a better deal exists in free agency, saying the teams he has talked to are showing limited interest in Wood. He also identifies Wood as the rotation player that Dallas is most likely to trade before Thursday’s deadline, although he’s not sure the team can find equal value in return.
- Pelicans center Jonas Valanciunas will undergo an MRI Sunday morning after leaving tonight’s game with a right knee injury, tweets Andrew Lopez of ESPN.
- Spurs guard Malaki Branham reached new career scoring highs twice this week, notes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. San Antonio has seen a lot of progress from Branham, who was selected with the first-round pick the team received when it sent Thaddeus Young to the Raptors at last year’s deadline. “Things are just slowing down, picking my spots on the court, and doing what I know how to do,” Branham said. “That’s just as simple as it gets.”
- In an interview posted on the Memphis Commercial Appeal website, Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. talks about the excitement of heading to his first All-Star Game and a possible matchup against teammate Ja Morant.
Trade Rumors: Irving, Lakers, Walker, Rozier, Mavs, More
Many around the league believe Kyrie Irving‘s preferred landing spot is the Lakers, according to reports from Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports and Marc Stein at Substack, among others.
Count Lakers legend Magic Johnson, formerly the team’s president of basketball operations, as a supporter of acquiring Irving.
“Personally, I’d love to see Kyrie in the purple and gold,” he said (via Twitter).
Irving, of course, won a championship with LeBron James while the two were on the Cavaliers in 2015/16. James also acknowledged Irving’s trade request, cryptically tweeting out an eye emoji and a crown.
However, the Nets are expected to be a buyer at the deadline, which could complicate matters, Stein notes. It’s hard to imagine getting equal value for Irving considering the market for him is reportedly pretty thin.
The Lakers do indeed have interest in Irving, sources tell Jovan Buha of The Athletic. The likely framework would be Russell Westbrook and their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks in exchange for Irving and Joe Harris, per Buha’s sources.
L.A. would push to lottery-protect at least one of those picks, according to Buha, who suggests a third team might have to be involved, depending on Brooklyn’s goals. The Lakers don’t have interest in trading Austin Reaves or Max Christie in a potential Irving package, sources tell Buha.
Interestingly, Lonnie Walker and Patrick Beverley could be involved in an Irving deal or in another trade in order to upgrade the rotation, Buha reports. Beverley’s inclusion is no surprise, but this is the first time this season I’ve seen Walker’s name involved in trade rumors.
Here are more trade rumors from around the NBA:
- The Lakers have reportedly had preliminary talks with the Jazz regarding Westbrook, but they remain interested in Hornets guard Terry Rozier, sources tell Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports.
- Executives with knowledge of Dallas’ plans tell Goodwill that the Mavericks would definitely take Irving, the question is at what cost. Head coach Jason Kidd is a proponent of acquiring the star point guard, according to Fischer’s sources. Dallas has “confidence in Kidd’s coaching ability to connect with Irving,” Stein writes.
- There isn’t universal agreement within the Mavericks‘ organization about adding Irving, however. Some front office members have concerns about Irving’s long-term fit with Luka Doncic, according to sources Tim Cato of The Athletic spoke to. The concern is centered on how they’d mesh in the locker room, as they have “drastically different off-court personas.”
- According to Stein, the Nets are believed to be interested Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith in a potential Irving deal, but the Mavericks “would surely insist” on trying to shed the contract of either Tim Hardaway Jr. or Davis Bertans. Dinwiddie played for the Nets from 2016-2021, so they’re very familiar with him as a person and player.
- The Mavericks are also interested in Hawks swingman Bogdan Bogdanovic, as “they’re desperate and determined” to get help for Doncic, says Goodwill.
Mavs’ Doncic Out With Heel Injury, Wood Nearing Return
Just days after returning from an ankle sprain that sidelined him for a game, Mavericks star Luka Doncic has been ruled out for Saturday’s contest in Golden State after sustaining a right heel contusion, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
The injury occurred in the third quarter of Dallas’ Thursday win over New Orleans when Doncic drove to the basket for a layup and collided awkwardly with Brandon Ingram and Jonas Valanciunas, landing hard on his right heel (video link).
Although Doncic didn’t travel with the Mavericks for the start of their five-game road trip and won’t play on Saturday, head coach Jason Kidd told reporters on Friday that the four-time All-Star wasn’t being ruled out for the entire trip.
“It’s too soon today to give an update on that,” Kidd said, per MacMahon. “As we get the MRI, we’ll be able to give an update on status.”
Like Doncic, Davis Bertans (left calf strain) has been ruled out for Saturday’s game and didn’t accompany the Mavs for the road trip, but the team did have a pair of positive health updates on Friday.
Big man Christian Wood, who has been on the shelf due to a fractured left thumb, went through a full practice on Friday for the first time since suffering the injury and said he’ll be “ready to go” after a bit more conditioning work. He won’t play on Saturday, but believes he’ll be cleared to play on Monday in Utah or in Wednesday in L.A. against the Clippers.
Meanwhile, forward Maxi Kleber has progressed to 1-on-1 workouts as of Friday, according to Kidd (link via Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News). Kleber underwent surgery on December 20 to repair a torn hamstring and has expressed hope that he’ll be able to return at some point this month.
Injury Updates: Anunoby, Simmons, Warren, James, Doncic, Young, Butler
OG Anunoby is one of the bigger names churning through the trade rumor mill, so the latest injury news regarding the Raptors forward could complicate those discussions.
The team has ruled out Anunoby for the remainder of its road trip, a seven-game journey which concludes with stops in Utah, Houston and Memphis this week, Michael Grange of Sportnet.ca tweets. He sprained his left wrist against Golden State on Friday.
We have more notable injury updates:
- The Nets’ Ben Simmons (left knee soreness) and T.J. Warren (left shin contusion) sat out Monday’s win over the Lakers, Brian Lewis of the New York Post tweets. Coach Jacque Vaughn is hopeful both will be “ready to go” for Wednesday’s matchup against Boston, Adam Zagoria tweets.
- LeBron James sat out that game with what Lakers coach Darvin Ham describes as “some really significant soreness” in his left foot, Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register tweets. The Lakers play against the Knicks on Tuesday.
- Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic returned to action after a one-game absence due to an ankle sprain and continued his scoring rampage. He notched 53 points against Detroit, his league-best fourth 50-point game this season, Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press notes (Twitter link).
- Hawks guard Trae Young sat out Monday’s game against Portland due to right ankle soreness, Lauren Williams of the Atlanta Journal Constitution tweets. He had 31 points in 36 minutes against the Clippers on Saturday.
- Heat forward Jimmy Butler (right quad contusion) is listed as questionable for Tuesday’s game against Cleveland, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald tweets. Butler scored 28 points against Charlotte on Sunday.
Injury Updates: Davis, James, Doncic, Wiggins, Gobert, Haliburton
The Lakers will play without both of their superstars against the Nets on Monday, Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times writes.
LeBron James has a sore left ankle ankle, while Anthony Davis will rest his right foot. It’s the first game of a back-to-back, so they both could return on Tuesday against the Knicks.
We have more notable injury updates:
- Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic is listed as questionable to play against Detroit on Monday, the team’s PR department tweets. Doncic suffered a left ankle sprain three minutes into their game against Phoenix on Thursday. He missed their loss to Utah on Saturday.
- Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins, who missed the last two games due to a non-COVID illness, is not listed on the injury report for Monday’s game against Oklahoma City, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets.
- Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert is listed as questionable to play against Sacramento on Monday due to right groin soreness, the team’s PR department tweets. Gobert played 36 minutes in Minnesota’s victory over the Kings on Saturday.
- Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton hopes to practice Tuesday and Wednesday with “the aim to play this weekend,” according to coach Rick Carlisle, Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star tweets. Indiana plays home games against the Lakers, Kings and Cavaliers later this week. Haliburton has missed 10 games due to knee and elbow injuries.
Southwest Notes: Doncic, Mavs, Daniels, Pelicans, Bane
Mavericks star Luka Doncic, who sustained a left ankle sprain on Thursday, has been ruled out for Saturday’s game in Utah, the team announced (via Twitter). However, the expectation is that Doncic won’t be sidelined for much – if any – additional time beyond that game.
Appearing on NBA Today on Friday (video link), ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said that a worst-case scenario for Doncic would probably be missing two games: tonight’s contest in Utah and Monday’s vs. Detroit. After that, the Mavericks aren’t back in action until next Thursday, when they host New Orleans, so Doncic would have had a full week to rest an ankle sprain that Woj describes as “mild.”
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- As the trade deadline nears, it will be tricky for the Mavericks to balance their desire to improve this year’s roster with a “future-focused approach,” writes Tim Cato of The Athletic. As Cato outlines, a deal for a veteran like Bojan Bogdanovic would upgrade this year’s roster, but Dallas likely won’t be inclined to move a future first-round pick at the deadline for a player who would only serve the club’s short-term interests.
- After spraining his right ankle on Tuesday vs. Denver, Pelicans rookie Dyson Daniels is expected to be out for “a little bit of time,” head coach Willie Green said this week, per Andrew Lopez of ESPN (Twitter link). That timeline is pretty vague, but Daniels missed Wednesday’s game and has been ruled out for Saturday.
- Last season’s CJ McCollum trade buoyed the Pelicans down the stretch and helped them earn a playoff spot. Given that the team has so many trade assets still on hand, Christian Clark of NOLA.com wonders whether another in-season trade is inevitable.
- Grizzlies wing Desmond Bane was unavailable for Friday’s game against Minnesota due to right knee soreness, per Evan Barnes of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. Bane missed time earlier in the season due to a right big toe injury and sat out one game with right ankle soreness, but this is the first time his knee has prevented him from suiting up.
Luka Doncic Day-To-Day After Spraining Ankle
11:01am: Doncic’s sprain is considered “mild” and he’ll be day-to-day going forward, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
7:43am: On the same night that he was announced as an All-Star starter, Mavericks guard Luka Doncic exited his team’s win over Phoenix early in the first quarter due to a sprained left ankle, per Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News.
Doncic sustained the injury when he stepped on the foot of Suns forward Mikal Bridges about three minutes into Thursday’s game. He checked out of the contest shortly thereafter and didn’t return.
Any injury to a team’s franchise player is a cause for major concern, but the Mavericks expressed optimism after the game about Doncic’s outlook. As Tim MacMahon of ESPN writes, X-rays on the ankle were negative and head coach Jason Kidd said the Mavs star was in “good spirits.”
“He looked good, he looked fine,” Kidd said. “But we’ll see how he feels as we go forward.”
Doncic’s backcourt partner Spencer Dinwiddie told reporters, including Caplan, that Luka’s injury doesn’t appear to be one that will force him to sit out for an extended period.
“I don’t know if he’ll be back next game, or if he’ll miss a couple or something like that,” Dinwiddie said. “But it ain’t no cause for where we’re like, ‘Oh no, we’re about to go on a 10-game stretch without LD.’ He’s going to heal up nicely. He’s a young kid. Although he likes to think he’s old, he’s not.”
While the Mavs wait for further clarity on Doncic’s outlook, they can expect to be without another key player for the next few games. Kidd said on Thursday night that Christian Wood (fractured left thumb) will remain on the shelf for at least another week, according to Caplan. Wood has missed Dallas’ last four contests.
“I think it’s just week to week, just to see how the healing goes,” Kidd said before Thursday’s game. “It’s been a week now, so we’ll give you another update in a week just to see if there’s been any healing or improvement there.”
Antetokounmpo, James Head All-Star Starters; Embiid Falls Short
Lakers forward LeBron James tied Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Thursday with his 19th NBA All-Star selection. James, who currently shares the record with Abdul-Jabbar for most All-Star Games played with 18, was chosen as a starter, according to a league press release.
All of the starters were revealed on Thursday night.
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Mavericks guard Luka Doncic were the other starters chosen out of the Western Conference. James will serve as a team captain for the sixth straight year, since he received the most votes.
Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, named a team captain for the third time, heads the list of starters out of the Eastern Conference. Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, Nets forward Kevin Durant, Nets guard Kyrie Irving, and Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell will join him, but the league’s second-leading scorer, Sixers center Joel Embiid (33.4 PPG), didn’t garner enough votes.
The starters are selected by a weighted voting process with the fan vote accounting for half of the final outcome. The player and media portions of the vote each counted for 25 percent. Three frontcourt players and two guards were selected from each conference.
Embiid finished third in the player and media voting among Eastern Conference frontcourt players but fourth in the fan voting. All voting results can be found here.
The game will be played Feb. 19 in Salt Lake City. James and Antetokounmpo will choose their teams shortly before the game begins. James will set the league record for most All-Star appearances if he plays, since Abdul-Jabbar did not play in the 1973 game after being chosen.
The reserves, which are chosen by the league’s coaches, will be announced Feb. 2.
Southwest Notes: Mavs, Doncic, Jackson, Brooks, Rockets
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd isn’t pleased with the team’s effort on defense, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN, who notes that Dallas’ defensive rating, seventh in the NBA last season, has plummeted to 25th in 2022/23.
Two solid defenders, Dorian Finney-Smith and Josh Green, returned to action on Wednesday following injury absences, but it was still the third consecutive game in which the Mavericks gave up at least 130 points.
“It’s attention to detail and focus,” Finney-Smith said. “It’s everything. I tried to come out here with some energy, but we still end up doing the same thing. It’s everybody. It ain’t just one person. We all gotta take the challenge and start guarding. Gotta be about the care factor. We’ve got to care about stopping somebody. You should get mad if they keep scoring.”
The Mavericks’ offense, which ranked 14th last season, is up to fifth so far in ’22/23, but Kidd told reporters on Wednesday that he doesn’t want his club to get in the habit of trying to outscore its opponents in shootouts.
“Tonight, we gave up 130 points and a team shot 57 percent,” Kidd said after the loss to Atlanta. “It’s a shootaround. In this league, if you do that, no matter if you have Luka or Kareem or LeBron, you’re going to lose. It doesn’t matter how many points you score, you’re always going to be short.”
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Echoing Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Luka Doncic denied a report that suggested he has “strongly indicated” he wants the team to make roster upgrades by the February 9 trade deadline, writes Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. “Obviously, I know, the people who are next to me, who I talk to, they know that’s not true,” Doncic said. “I didn’t say nothing about that. I talk to (president of basketball operations) Nico (Harrison). I talk to Fin (assistant GM Michael Finley) more than I used to. But that’s just not the way I talk to them. We have great communication and that just stays between us.”
- Grizzlies guard Ja Morant isn’t just advocating for one of his teammates to win Defensive Player of the Year — he thinks two of them should share the award. As Evan Barnes of The Commercial Appeal writes, Morant believes Jaren Jackson Jr. and Dillon Brooks both deserve DPOY honors, jokingly suggesting that voters (who can pick just one winner) write in “Jaren Brooks.”
- Responding to John Wall‘s criticism of the Rockets and their culture, head coach Stephen Silas said he understood the veteran’s frustration about how his time in Houston played out, but pushed back against the notion that the team let its young prospects get away with too much, per Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle. “As far as holding them accountable, some of it is learning from mistakes, learning through adversity, and learning from film sessions,” Silas said. “It’s important for me to lay out what the expectations are. But to expect young kids not to make mistakes is unrealistic.”