The acquisition of Kyrie Irving by the Dallas Mavericks is going about as well as the Brooklyn Nets would have guessed.
He generates plenty of interesting.
Interesting is one of those words that should apply to join the Four Letter Word Club. It all depends on how you say it.
“The Dallas Mavericks with Kyrie Irving are … interesting.”
For instance, Kyrie had a fan ejected in the Mavs game at Charlotte on Sunday. That’s interesting.
For the second time in as many games, the Mavericks lost to Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Hornets, 110-104. That’s interesting.
The season is over. That’s interesting.
With the NBA’s regular season down to fewer than 10 games, the Mavericks are all-in to achieve something not interesting as much as pathetic.
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Even with “Luka Irving” on the same team, the Mavs may miss the playoffs and thus would be the NBA’s Most Disappointing Team this season. This should go down as the most disappointing season in Mavs history.
Doncic admitted this week he’s not having any fun and that he has a lot going on in his personal life; the addition of Kyrie has generated interest, but not wins.
For a team that made the western conference finals last season, and returns their best player in his prime, missing the playoffs is not easy. Especially in a league where more than half of the teams make the playoffs.
Between 1980 and 2021, 168 teams played in the NBA’s respective conference finals. Only 15 times has a team that made the conference finals failed to make the playoffs the following year. When it does happen, normally it’s because the team was broken up in the offseason, or major injuries occurred.
The Mavericks were not broken up, although the more we learn about the handing of guard Jalen Brunson’s contract and free agency last summer, it was worse than expected.
In a recent interview with Bleacher Report, Brunson admitted his goal was to be with the Mavericks “for the long haul.”
His departure to the New York Knicks isn’t quite like the time when the Mavs let Steve Nash walk to the Phoenix Suns for nothing, but it’s in the discussion.
The Mavs let Brunson go for zero, and took a sledge hammer to the panic button in early February when they traded a lot to Brooklyn for All-Star guard, All-Star philosopher, Kyrie Irving.
After Kyrie’s first game with the Mavs, on Feb. 8 against the Clippers in Los Angeles, the team improved to 30-26. That was good for fourth place in the Western Conference.
Entering Monday’s game with Indiana, the Mavs were 36-39. Right now they would not be in the NBA’s play-in game. In their final seven games, four are against teams that will be in the playoffs.
However you cut it, the Mavs aren’t making it.
The interior defense doesn’t exist. The loss of Dorian Finney-Smith, who was a part of the Irving trade, has been a chainsaw to their defense.
The offseason addition of Christian Wood has been empty stats. The offseason addition of center JaVale McGee has been a waste of time and money.
Luka looks dejected, and it’s not because he’s playing with Kyrie.
The head coach looks like he would like to trade half his roster.
The Mavs are a mess, and everyone needs to be prepared that they will make history and miss the postseason one year after reaching the west finals.
Of the 10 NBA teams in the west that have pulled this off since 1980, the Mavs would be the first team to do it twice.
In 1988, the Mavs reached the western conference finals against Magic Johnson’s Showtime Los Angeles Lakers, and lost in seven games.
In 1989, the Mavs finished with a losing record and missed the playoffs. A giant culprit was the status of talented forward/center Roy Tarpley, who appeared in only 19 games that season because of injury, and a suspension by the NBA for repeated drug use.
These Mavs have no Tarpley-sized tarp that wrapped up, and wrecked, their season.
They’re just not any good.
They’re just interesting.
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