Fans have been clamoring for Luka Doncic to get help all year. That help just arrived in the form of Uncle Drew.
Two days after Kyrie Irving demanded a trade, the Brooklyn Nets sent him to Dallas for a package of players and picks. Point guard Spencer Dinwiddie returns to his old team in the deal and should take Irving’s place as the lead point guard. The Nets also add Dorian Finney-Smith, a prototypical “3-and-D” wing who plays tough defense, rebounds, knocks down open threes and doesn’t need the ball.
As for the draft pick compensation, Brooklyn will have to be patient, because those picks aren’t coming for a while.
While the Lakers were considered a front-runner for Irving’s services, they wanted Irving to sign a two-year extension as part of the trade. Irving wanted to become a free agent, because his path to the long-term max deal he wants is to get to free agency, with a team who has his Bird rights (an exception that allows teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own players). L.A. refused to deliver its best trade assets for a possible half-season rental, and that allowed the Mavericks to swoop in.
Dallas has one of the NBA’s best young players, the 23-year-old four-time All-Star Doncic, but he’s been shouldering a huge offensive load this year, with a usage rate of 38.3 percent. That would be the fifth-highest number all time. Irving can take over some offensive responsibilities, not letting defenses key on Doncic quite as hard. Fit aside, the capped-out Mavericks didn’t have a lot of ways to get a second star, and while Irving is unreliable and unpredictable, he’s decidedly a star.
For the Nets, they were resolved to deal Irving but wanted to stay competitive for when Kevin Durant returns from injury. They’re in fourth place, 4.5 games behind the Boston Celtics, and Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith should both be strong contributors, if not the offensive force that Irving is. Dinwiddie thrived in Brooklyn before, setting team records for bench scoring and backing up Irving until he tore his ACL in December 2020. Finney-Smith could help turn the Nets into a top-10 defense, while not stepping on anyone’s toes offensively.
Will Dallas give Irving the extension he wants? Given what the Mavs gave up to get him, it’s pretty likely, as owner Mark Cuban hasn’t shied away from risky
long-term
deals in the past.
Overall, the Nets did well given the trade pressure, the Mavericks took a calculated risk on a superstar, and the losers would have to be LeBron James and the Lakers. We have feeling we will be seeing more cryptic social media posts from James in the near future.
