The Dallas Mavericks made a big gamble last season, trading for one of the most controversial players in NBA history. Notably, it didn’t take long before some bad narratives followed Kyrie Irving with him to Texas.
The Mavs slid in the Western Conference standings and didn’t even make the playoffs. It wasn’t Kyrie’s fault, although losing some key defenders in that trade obviously had something to do.
Even so, team owner Mark Cuban was adamant about pairing him with Luka Doncic for years to come. And now that he’s signed to an extension, Cuban claims Irving is well aware of the fact that the Mavs are Luka’s team.
Kyrie Irving Knows The Mavs Are Luka Doncic’s Team
“I think Kyrie is mature to the point now where he knows it’s Luka’s team,” Cuban told SiriusXM NBA Radio. “Luka knows this. He knows, and that’s what’s important, and he’s willing to play more of a shooting guard role. When Luka is out, we have a point guard who can score and create for other guys, they’re both players who make their teammates better, and we didn’t have that before.”
“Once Luka went out we struggled, we struggled mightily, and Luka had to do too much we put a lot of pressure on Luka,” he added. “We did struggle defensively after the trade, but that was for a lot of reasons, it wasn’t Luka or Kyrie, but offensively you know, we had one of the top lineups, we were the top two or three in the NBA.”
There have been rumors about Doncic not being happy in Dallas, so it’ll be up to Kyrie to prove that he’s willing to play Robin to his Batman. But given his history of unpredictability, one never knows what could happen there.