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Kyrie Irving trade gamble backfiring for Mavericks amid disastrous losing streak

The Mavericks are now 7-13 since trading for Kyrie Irving. The Dallas Mavericks have lost four consecutive consecutive games to Charlotte and are on the verge of falling out of the West playoff picture altogether due to a disastrous losing streak. Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic have been unable to provide a co-star for Irving, leaving the Mavericks with a depleted supporting cast and declining morale under head coach Jason Kidd. Irving is set to be a free agent this summer and he's clearly going to keep his options open if things don't turn around in Dallas, which ends Sunday in the 11th seed in the Western Conference play-in tournament. The team is 36-39 and a full game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the No. 10 seed. Irving still has a couple of weeks to help Dallas turn the tide around, but the franchise will need two wins to even make a postseason series even in a best case scenario.

Kyrie Irving trade gamble backfiring for Mavericks amid disastrous losing streak

Được phát hành : 12 tháng trước qua Brian Robb | [email protected], brobb trong Sports

Kyrie Irving was supposed to provide a co-star for Luka Doncic upon his arrival with the Mavericks at the trade deadline. After another ugly loss to the Hornets on Sunday afternoon, the Mavericks with Irving are on the verge of falling out of the West playoff picture altogether.

Irving underwhelmed yet again on Sunday, shooting just 33 percent from the field while scoring 18 points in a 110-104 loss against a tanking Charlotte squad. It was the fourth consecutive loss for the Mavericks who have dropped two straight games to Charlotte and are just 3-7 in their last 10 games.

Dallas sent the Brooklyn Nets two quality role players (Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith), a 2029 first round pick and two second-round picks for Irving days before the trade deadline but the trajectory of the franchise has turned for the worse since then. The Mavericks are just 7-13 since the trade and while injuries to both Irving and All-Star Luka Doncic may factor into some of that ugly record, the team’s play with both stars on the floor (3-8) hasn’t been much better.

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Instead, the Irving and Doncic pairing looks like a bad match on the floor thus far especially from a defensive standpoint, leaving the Mavericks with a depleted supporting cast and declining morale under head coach Jason Kidd.

The Mavericks were a desperate team when they made the decision to trade for Irving but this was a decision that seemed like the risk always outweighed the reward for a player in Irving who has not been reliable for years now from a durability standpoint along with other issues in his Brooklyn tenure. Irving was never going to turn the Mavericks into a title contender even in a best-case scenario and now it looks like Dallas is just a team with further depleted assets to build around with Doncic.

Irving is set to be a free agent this summer and he’s clearly going to keep his options open if things don’t turn around in Dallas, which ends Sunday in the 11th seed in the Western Conference. That would mean Dallas gave up three future draft picks and two good players for a half season rental.

The question now for Dallas is whether Irving and Doncic have time to turn things around and even sneak into the Western Conference play-in tournament. The team is just 36-39 and a full game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the No. 10 seed in the West. They also have already lost the head-to-head tiebreaker to OKC, making the true deficit more like 1.5 games. Oklahoma City has one of the three easiest schedules remaining in the NBA while six of Dallas’ final seven opponents will still likely be fighting for playoff positioning.

Irving still has a couple of weeks to help Dallas turn the tide but the franchise will almost surely need two wins to even make a postseason series even in a best case scenario. Given the price Dallas had to pay to make the move, this is a gamble the franchise is probably regretting less than two months into Irving’s tenure.

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Chủ đề: Sports Figures, Dallas Mavericks, Kyrie Irving

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