Dallas Basketball

Mavs Want to Sign Kyrie Irving Long-Term After Trade, Says Stephen A. Smith; LeBron Says 'Duh!'

“I’m told (the Mavs, Suns, Lakers and Clippers) will pay Kyrie Irving,” Stephen A. Smith says. “They’d give him more than Brooklyn would give him ...''
Mike Fisher|
Mavs Want to Sign Kyrie Irving Long-Term After Trade, Says Stephen A. Smith; LeBron Says 'Duh!'
Mavs Want to Sign Kyrie Irving Long-Term After Trade, Says Stephen A. Smith; LeBron Says 'Duh!'

DALLAS - Kyrie Irving is putting himself on ice. And/or the Brooklyn Nets are doing the same, all part of the jousting involved in the controversial star's attempts to exit Brooklyn ...

And maybe land with the Dallas Mavericks, who are prepared to not only trade for Irving, as we have reported - but are also prepared to give him a new long-term contract, according to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.

“I’m told (the Mavs, Suns, Lakers and Clippers) will pay him,” Smith said Saturday on NBA Countdown. “They’d give him more than Brooklyn would give him ...'' 

The Nets have offered Irving a contract extension, but one that he found unsuitable enough to make clear his desire for a trade.

Irving is in the final year of his deal with Brooklyn and will be a free agent after the season if no extension agreement is reached. He is due to be eligible for a four-year extension worth about $200 million.

If the Mavs (or anybody else) traded for him without the extension, it would of course amount to him being a rent-a-player. If on the other hand the Mavs (or anybody else) forges the pricy long-term deal and the relationship ultimately doesn't work?

His new team would be in the same unenviable position that his present team is in.

Having said all of that: The Lakers being one of the interested bidders is worth watching, and maybe worth comparing notes with. LeBron James was asked on Saturday if Irving could help a team “get to the finish line.”

“Obviously that’s a - what’s the word you use? - ‘Duh’ question when you talk about a player like him.''

"Duh'' means "yes,'' at least to LeBron. And if Stephen A. Smith is right about Dallas' financial willingness here? "Duh'' might mean "yes'' to Luka Doncic's Mavs as well.

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Mike Fisher
MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NBA and the Dallas Mavericks since 1990. He has for more than 20 years served as the overseer of DallasBasketball.com, the granddaddy of Mavs news websites.

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