In February 2023, Kyrie Irving revolutionized the NBA landscape by demanding a trade from Brooklyn.
The eight-time All-Star attracted a handful of suitors, including the Lakers, Suns and Clippers. by The Athletic. The Mavericks ultimately landed on Irving, and the pieces they gave up to get him seem surprisingly low in retrospect.
That trade looks pretty good today. The Mavericks are in the NBA Finals and Irving will be the third best player behind Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum in the series. There is no way they could have gotten to this point without making that move.
Here’s our original grade for the trade and what the Nets and Mavericks would receive in a new grade a year later.
What did the Mavericks trade for Kyrie Irving?
The Mavericks get:
- Kyrie Irving
- Markieff Morris
Networks get:
- Spencer Dinwiddie
- Dorian Finney-Smith
- 2029 first-round pick (unprotected)
- 2027 and 2029 second round pick
Original qualities in the Kyrie Irving trade
Irving’s trade received mixed reactions from a national perspective.
At the lower end, ESPN’s Kevin Pelton gave the trade a D grade. for the Mavericks. Our Gilbert McGregor was on the high end, giving Dallas a B+ and Brooklyn a B-.
McGregor wrote that “in a seemingly wide-open Western Conference, the Mavericks have now made a move that could separate them from the middle of the pack and push them into the upper echelon of contenders in the West.”
That ended up being an accurate prediction. In fact, the West was more competitive than ever: Just five games in the standings separated the No. 4 through 10 seeds. The Irving trade vaulted Dallas over the top and into the Finals.
McGregor didn’t like the trade for the Nets as much, predicting that it could potentially lead the team to trade Kevin Durant and go into a downward spiral. He also questioned the acquisition of Dinwiddie, suggesting they should instead push for a young piece like Josh Green or Jaden Hardy. That analysis ended up looking good too.
New category for the Mavericks in the Kyrie Irving trade
Even if this is as far as the Mavs can go with Irving, it was a bargain for the price they paid.
Irving has been magnificent since he arrived in Dallas. He averaged 25.6 points per game during the 2023-24 regular season and finished seventh in Clutch Player of the Year voting thanks to his hard shots at the end of games.
That has been the secret sauce to take the Mavericks to the finals. They’ve beaten extremely good defenses because he and Doncic have been impossible to stop in crunch time.
Irving has also been as focused on defense as ever. He has been considered a target in previous years, but his effort and toughness on that end of the court has remained.
Most importantly, Irving has avoided major injuries in Dallas. He missed 24 games during the 2023-24 regular season, but averaged 40.2 minutes per game during the playoffs and allowed the team to keep one of its stars on the court at all times.
Finney-Smith was a tough loss, but the Mavericks got a steal by signing Derrick Jones Jr. to a minimum contract, absorbing those wing minutes.
This trade is already looking very good for Dallas. If Irving continues to stay healthy and free of distractions, then he could end up becoming an all-time steal.
Mavericks’ new grade: A
Nets’ new grade on Kyrie Irving trade
The Nets were in a difficult position at the time of this trade. Irving’s tenure in Brooklyn was marked more by what he did off the court than on it, and he would likely leave as a free agent that summer if he wasn’t traded.
Still, this was not a good return. The Nets got two veteran players to try to keep the ship afloat, which didn’t happen.
The Nets reportedly wanted Dinwiddie in this trade. The Mavs sold him very well: His 40.5 percent 3-point shooting in Dallas has not been matched since he left. He left Brooklyn on bad terms and was sent away a year later in exchange for Dennis Schroder.
Finney-Smith hasn’t worked out well in Brooklyn either. The Nets acquired too many wings on his roster, leading to a bench spot to start this season. His defensive impact has been muted because the team is a disaster on that end of the floor. He is now a 31-year-old veteran on a team that is going nowhere.
All of this led to the Nets finishing with a terrible 32-50 record, getting the third pick in the draft, and having to immediately send it to the Rockets. It was a disastrous scenario and it’s not over yet: Houston has control over Brooklyn’s picks in 2025 and 2027.
Those Mavs draft picks don’t look very good either. The Nets hoped the Irving trade would backfire, Doncic would ask out of Dallas and those picks would end up in the lottery. Instead, it looks like Doncic will stay put and begin what could be a very long career on a contending team. He will be 30 years old when that 2029 pick is broadcast and will likely still be playing at an extremely high level.
This might have been the best the Nets could have gotten at the time for Irving. But they should have at least prioritized signing younger players to help rebuild his team.
