Kyrie Irving Seen as Key Mentor for Cooper Flagg in Mavericks’ Long-Term Plan

Kyrie Irving has been out with an ACL injury for almost a year now, but he could make his return soon. When he comes back, he will be on a wildly different Dallas Mavericks roster. There will be no Anthony Davis, and the rookie Cooper Flagg will be a focal point of the offense. 

After the Mavs decided to trade Davis to the Washington Wizards, they signaled the beginning of a potential rebuild. Now they will look to build a roster around Flagg as the rookie continues to blossom. And they see Irving as a big part of his development.

In fact, the interim GM, Michael Finley, recently said that he sees Kyrie as the ultimate professional and that he will play a major role in mentoring Flagg. 

“Kyrie [Irving] is the consummate pro. Any young guy would want a guy like Kyrie on their team,” Finley told the Dallas media. “Kyrie has the ultimate respect for Cooper [Flagg]. He loves the kids work ethic, he loves the kids love for the game, and I think Kyrie is embracing his role as a mentor to Cooper.”

Kyrie has been in the NBA for 14 seasons. He’s also approaching 34 years of age. There’s no question that after this injury, his absolute best days will be behind him. That isn’t to say of course that he can’t still play at an All-Star level. But it sounds like the Mavs want him to be a big part of the plan moving forward. 

Michael Finley on how much Kyrie Irving is part of the future vision:

“Kyrie has the ultimate respect for Cooper, he loves the kid’s work ethic, he loves the kid’s love for the game, and I think Kyrie is embracing the role of a mentor to Cooper…I think Cooper can learn a lot… pic.twitter.com/RQ8RZjTpI7

— Noah Weber (@noahweber00) February 6, 2026

Later on, the former player concluded with a hearty statement about Flagg.

“I think Cooper can learn a lot from Kyrie because of the type of player he is and what he brings to the table.”

Finley did admit that it might be a bit of a challenge for Kyrie to embrace the role. But the GM is looking forward to the challenge. It’ll be interesting to see how his role changes when he returns. 

At the end of the day, the Mavericks needed to move on from Davis and build around Flagg. He’s already shown flashes as a potential star, and he’s only going to get better. Dallas might be bad for a little bit because of it, but it’s a risk they needed to take.

Pairing Kyrie with Flagg will be interesting to watch. They could play well off of one another and form chemistry that could pay dividends down the road. As of now, Kyrie could make his return as soon as February 10th, but he’s expected to be on a heavy minutes restriction throughout the end of the season.