The Dallas Mavericks look awfully different now than they did back in June 2024 when they made it to the NBA Finals, and they may not be done dealing.
On that note, the NBA rumor mill never really shuts down, even in early September when most front offices are still talking about training camp and the first month of the schedule. Young players on rookie-scale deals get most of the attention because their next contracts can blow up a salary sheet.
Veterans occupy a different lane. Their names surface because a team is rebuilding, because an injury has lowered the asking price, or because a deadline deal might still make sense after the player has shown he can still play. Kyrie Irving sits squarely in that second group for the Mavericks.
According to Sean Deveney of Heavy.com, Irving belongs on the list of big-name point guards who could hit the market. However, Deveney doesn’t think anything will truly surface until around the NBA trade deadline.
“Marc Stein mentioned him, so we’re putting him on the list, but nothing is imminent,” Deveney wrote. “Like a lot of veterans, the idea is to play him through January, build value and see if something can be done at the deadline.”
That timeline is not an accident. Irving tore the ACL in his left knee in March 2025 and missed the entire 2025-26 season. By the time the 2026-27 opener arrives he will have gone more than a year and a half between NBA games. He is 34. Those two facts cap what Dallas can expect in return right now.
A healthy Irving scoring in the mid-20s might fetch a first-round pick and perhaps a young player, but his age, contract and injury history make a bigger package unlikely. Selling low would be a poor use of a player who was still producing at an All-Star level before the injury.
Dallas has spent the offseason saying it is not shopping him. New president Masai Ujiri and general manager Mike Schmitz have both talked about wanting to see Irving share the floor with Cooper Flagg. That pairing has never happened in a regular-season game.
Keeping Irving through the first half of the year gives the franchise a chance to evaluate the fit and, if it does not work, to shop a healthier, more productive version of the same player in February. Contenders that need a creator off the bench or a late-game shot-maker will still be looking. Miami has been mentioned in circulating trade chatter, though the math of matching salaries and draft compensation has not lined up so far.
The Mavericks are in the middle of a reset that already included trading Anthony Davis, changing coaches and centering the future on Flagg. Irving is one of the last high-salary holdovers from the previous era. Playing him into January does not lock Dallas into keeping him forever.
It simply delays the decision until there is more information: how the knee holds up, how the offense looks with Flagg and Irving together, and whether another team is willing to pay a price that makes sense.
For now the plan is patience, not a fire sale. That is why Irving’s name keeps appearing in rumor columns even while the Mavericks insist he is not available. The calendar, not the present moment, will decide what happens next.
