Kyrie Irving hasn't played an NBA minute since tearing his ACL in March 2025, yet he's somehow still one of the hottest names on the trade market. Per Marc Stein, the Mavericks have been fielding calls on the 9-time All-Star since mid-June and shooting every single one of them down without hesitation.
NBA teams are continuing to monitor Kyrie Irving’s situation in Dallas, per @TheSteinLine “The Mavericks, as we've been writing since mid-June, have consistently swatted away trade interest this offseason in nine-times-an-All-Star guard Kyrie Irving. Rival teams, however, continue to wonder aloud about how firmly Dallas will stick to that stance once the season begins and the next in-season trade deadline on Feb. 11 gradually approaches. The primary factor fueling that curiosity, of course, is that fact that Irving is 34 and Mavericks star forward Cooper Flagg is 19. Not your average age gap between the team's two best players.” (Via t.co/CIKyL7OKRu)
The reasoning from outside Dallas isn't complicated. Irving turns 35 in the middle of next season, he's owed $39.5 million in 2026-27 with a $42.4 million player option riding on top of it for 2027-28, and Cooper Flagg is 19 years old and just entering his prime. That's about as wide a timeline mismatch as you'll find on a single roster, and it's exactly why other front offices keep circling back even after getting waved off.
Dallas' logic is understandable too, at least for now. Irving missed the entire 2025-26 season rehabbing that ACL — the first time in his 15-year career he sat out a full 82-game slate — and by his own account this offseason he's finally trending toward 100 percent as training camp approaches in late September. You don't trade a healthy-again All-Star guard for pennies on the dollar off a lost year; you find out what he looks like first.
That's the tension driving this whole saga. The Mavericks aren't shopping Irving, but they're also not the ones controlling the calendar. The next in-season trade deadline lands Feb. 11, and as Stein notes, that date is exactly what rival execs are circling — the idea being that if Dallas stumbles early with Flagg clearly the franchise's long-term centerpiece, the stance on Irving could soften fast.
For now it's a staring contest. Dallas says he's not going anywhere, Irving is reportedly healthy and motivated to prove it, and everyone else in the league is content to just keep asking the question until the answer changes.