The Dallas Mavericks unveiled Wednesday morning that Kyrie Irving will not make his long-awaited return this season. Irving has been on the sidelines since a torn ACL in March of 2025. Heading into this season, the Mavericks left the door open for a possible return from their veteran guard, but that door just slammed shut.
“This decision wasn’t easy, but it’s the right one,” Irving mentioned in the Mavericks’ statement. “I am grateful for the Mavericks organization, my teammates and our fans for their continued support throughout the process. I am looking forward to coming back stronger next season. The belief and drive I have inside only grows. And I wanted to send a huge shoutout to ALL of my brothers and sisters out there who’ve torn their ACL or gotten injured doing what they love to do every day. Thank you for the inspiration. No fear!”
Having Irving sit the rest of the season is in the best interest of everyone involved at this point. The Mavericks aren’t contending for a playoff spot, and are better served losing games to improve their draft positioning. For Irving, it takes the pressure off of having to return too quickly and risking any complications to his injury recovery. The only positive that could have come was to see how he and Cooper Flagg worked together for a stint of games. Other than that, there’s no point in risking the health of someone who will be 34 by season’s end to come back too early.
With no Irving return on the horizon, the last two months of the season now becomes about Flagg’s development and looking ahead to the offseason. With a 19-25 record, the Mavericks head back to the draft lottery, where they have a chance to land another high profile talent from the collegiate ranks. Pairing Flagg with another top-end talent now becomes the priority, and with Anthony Davis no longer on the roster, Dallas can now put all its efforts into building around their superstar rookie.
It’s certainly not the season the Mavericks hoped for when it started. Back in October, there were hopes of making the playoffs with Anthony Davis part of this core and Nico Harrison still running the team. But that plan quickly went out the window once Harrison was fired in mid-November. Dallas then further ditched Harrison’s plans when Davis was traded in February for a lackluster return. But the return didn’t matter as much as what it meant for the team: a chance to finally turn the page on the Luka Dončić/Davis trade debacle.
Having Flagg as their new franchise centerpiece provides a path back towards contention for a Mavericks team that looked doomed to spend several years in lottery purgatory once it traded Dončić. Lucking into landing Flagg gave Dallas a get out of jail free card, now they have to do the equally difficult step in building around him going forward. The first step in doing that is hiring a general manager. The role has temporarily been handled by Matt Riccardi and Michael Finley, both of whom have been with the Mavericks’ organization for some time. Both are being considered for the position, but if the Mavericks want to avoid another catastrophe like the Dončić trade, it would be smart of them to hire outside of the organization and not someone who most recently worked under Harrison.
With Irving not returning until next season, it sets up what could be a bounce-back season for the Mavericks. Not only will Irving be fully healthy, they also get back big man Dereck Lively II, who underwent season-ending surgery in December. Having that pick-and-roll duo at their disposal, as well as Year 2 of Flagg and whoever they land in the draft will be a far more competitive roster than what they’ve had for a majority of this season. And that’s not even including what the Mavericks do on the trade market this summer. PJ Washington becomes trade eligible in the summer, and the interest in players like Naji Marshall and Daniel Gafford may only increase as this season ends. If Dallas nails its general manager hire, lands an elite rookie in the draft and gets key guys back healthy, they might be able to fast track a rebuild around Cooper quickly.
