Pairing up Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving has not worked anywhere close to what Mark Cuban would have thought before teaming up the two top guards in the NBA to form an unstoppable backcourt.
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And now as the Dallas Mavericks are considering shutting down the duo, so as to get themselves a top-10 pick in the upcoming draft, we should assess what really went wrong.
Was it, as usual, the presence of Kyrie Irving? Or is it Luka, who is not where he should be? ESPN analyst believes the latter is true and that Irving has got nothing to do with all the losses of late.
Stephen A. Smith doesn’t have a “SINGLE negative syllable to utter about Kyrie Irving”
The Mavericks have won just 7 out of 19 games when their superstar duo played together. Moreover, they are 8-16 since Irving’s arrival from Brooklyn. However, Uncle Drew isn’t the problem this time. In fact, Stephen A. Smith believes he has nothing to do with it.
“I don’t have a SINGLE negative syllable to utter about Kyrie Irving,” Smith Tweeted recently. “He is not the problem in Dallas…but it’s time to have a conversation about Luka.”
In the First Take, the veteran ESPN analyst talked about how Doncic is not just depressed after the games but also during the game. And he is concerned about the Slovenian sensation’s weight too.
Where do the Mavericks go from here?
As Smith said, they did a huge mistake by letting Jalen Bruson walk last offseason after he was THE reason why they reached the Conference Finals. Mavs should pay up Irving in the offseason and build what they can around these two superstars.
Hopefully, they are shutting down their duo this season while losing all their remaining games to get a shot at a top-10 pick in the 2023 Draft. If they have a chance to get a player ready for the NBA out of it, good enough. If not, trade the pick for a player who can boost their title chances.
Let’s see how Cuban goes about his business.
