A couple of decades ago, the Dallas Mavericks traded Robert Traylor for Dirk Nowitzki and Pat Garrity. That wound up being a franchise-defining move, as Dirk became the greatest player in team history and led them to two NBA Finals and one championship.
That's nowhere close to what they got this season when they traded for Kyrie Irving, one of the least reliable superstars in NBA history. They gave up defense and depth to pair him with another non-defender, ball-dominant player like Luka Doncic, and the early returns have been terrible.
The Mavs are 30-30 without Kyrie and 7-10 with him. Their defense is non-existent, and Doncic even admitted he's not having fun anymore. That's why former NBA champion Matt Barnes believes Irving is once again the issue.
Matt Barnes Claims Kyrie Irving Is An Issue
"It just seems like everywhere Kyrie goes, there is an issue," Barnes said on What's Burnin'. "Now, that could be a coincidence, or it could be that Kyrie is the issue. Again, as great a talent he is, a top-five talent no doubt, but it just seems like every time he makes a pit stop, s**t gets f****d up."
Kyrie Still Has Faith In The Mavericks
Even despite their struggles and how they played themselves out of playoff contention, Kyrie still thinks the Mavs could become a championship contender overnight, stating that he's there for the long run:
"I think their realistic view is that when I came here, that this was going to be a growing process," Irving said. "This was for the long term, and this is for something that’s bigger than ourselves, and we can’t just be a championship team overnight, especially me coming here."
"I’ve wrapped my head around that aspect of it; I’m at peace with it," Kyrie added. "It doesn’t mean I’m giving up on this season or any of my teammates, but we know where we realistically are. Our destiny is in other teams hands losing games, so we just have to control what we can."
Regardless of what he says, the Mavs are a much worse team since he got there, and it's not like they can trust him to re-sign — or finish his contract there if he does it. All things considered, this might as well go down as the worst trade in franchise history.
