Kyrie Irving officially ended his tumultuous time with the Brooklyn Nets when he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks.
The deal occurred Sunday, February 5th before being made official the following day.
Markieff Morris was joining Irving as part of the package being sent to the Mavericks.
In return, Dallas sent Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, an unprotected 2029 first-round pick, and two second-round picks to Brooklyn.
BREAKING: The Brooklyn Nets are trading Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a first-round and multiple second-round picks, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 5, 2023
The deal was first reported by Shams Charania.
Here is one winner and one loser from the deal.
Winner: Luka Doncic
It is hard to find a clear winner in this deal.
Brooklyn finally rids themselves of the constant headache that was Kyrie Irving.
But they also lose his exceptional on-court talent and any chance of competing in the Finals.
Especially so now with Kevin Durant gone.
The Mavericks get a supremely talented player but also lose their best perimeter defender.
For a team that has a defensive rating in the bottom 10 on the year, that could be detrimental.
So, in this case, we will say Luka Doncic (for now).
Irving’s antics could eventually sabotage any hopes Doncic has of winning a title but if he behaves, he certainly makes life easier for Luka.
Doncic currently sports a Usage Rate of 38.47% – the fifth-highest mark of all time for a single season.
“For 82 games, it’s no way that he can play at this level, the usage is just way too high. No one can. You know, the things that we ask him to do on the offensive end and then asked him to defend on the other end. It’s a lot.”
– Jason Kidd on Luka Doncic
(Via Yahoo) pic.twitter.com/f2zrFkZxlq
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) December 6, 2022
He is essentially single-handedly powering the Mavericks’ offense.
While his stat line is otherworldly, it does not seem feasible to ask him to carry this load all season.
Bringing in another superstar offensive talent in Irving should help ease the burden.
Doncic could become even more efficient and the two combined could generate the league’s best offense.
Loser: Brooklyn Nets
An argument could be made the Nets are the winners of this trade.
And from an off-court perspective, that is certainly true.
Irving was a constant distraction who missed more than half of all possible games he could have played for the Nets.
And yet Brooklyn still looks like the loser in this deal.
As big of a distraction Irving was off the court, he was equally talented on the court.
Through 40 games, he averaged 27.1 points and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 48.6% from the field.
When Irving made the request, Brooklyn was 32-20, sitting in fourth in the Eastern Conference.
Nets’ lineups featuring Irving with Durant on the bench outscored opponents by 2.9 points per 100 possessions.
Bring Durant into the fold, and that number jumped to 6.0 points per 100 possessions.
On the court, Brooklyn finally seemed to be putting it together and was primed to make some noise in the playoffs.
Now they are left with only hypotheticals of what could have been.
NEXT: Speculation About Kyrie Irving’s Future Has Already Begun
Brooklyn is not a loser in this deal!
The got rid of a major pain that did nothing for them!!!