A Kyrie Irving trade would address Atlanta's half-court scoring need, but Dallas wants to pair him with Cooper Flagg, making any deal expensive and unlikely.
The Atlanta Hawks are coming off a postseason run that left them as the only Eastern Conference team to hand the New York Knicks a playoff loss this season. The Hawks held a 2-1 series lead before being eliminated in the first round. What needs to take place to take the next step?
Atlanta finished the regular season with a 20-6 record after the All-Star break and made the playoffs without needing the play-in for the first time since 2021. Although their first-round loss to the Knicks was disappointing, it didn't overshadow the progress the Hawks made, with young talents like Jalen Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Onyeka Okongwu, and Dyson Daniels to build around. Regardless, the Knicks series exposed how limited Atlanta was offensively in the half-court. When CJ McCollum was shooting well, it worked, but his production declined abruptly. One name that has been floated around in speculation is Kyrie Irving. Should the Hawks pursue a trade with the Dallas Mavericks?
The 34-year-old is a nine-time All-Star and a 2016 champion who averaged 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.6 assists in 50 games before tearing his left ACL on March 3, 2025, against Sacramento. He missed all of the 2025-26 season recovering.
The recovery is going well 14 months into the process. Irving said on a recent Twitch stream, via Dallas Hoops Journal, that he is "definitely close to being over at 100% in terms of my ACL recovery," and Mavericks general manager Mike Schmitz has described him as a near-daily presence at the team's facility who is doing "everything humanly possible" to return at full strength.
Securing a deal for Irving will be difficult because Dallas isn't interested in trading him. Masai Ujiri, the new president of basketball operations hired during the offseason along with Schmitz and replacing coach Jason Kidd, has dismissed trade rumors. He stated he wants to see Irving play alongside No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, praising Irving as one of the top ball handlers, and believes Flagg would benefit from Irving's scoring and gravity. Irving's contract is valued at $39.5 million for 2026-27, with a player option for 2027-28, plus a 15% trade kicker that increases the salary match. He has also been intermittently durable, playing over 60 games only six times in his 14 NBA seasons, and the Hawks faced injury challenges last season.
Draft compensation would be the most effective method to appeal to Dallas. After this year, the Mavericks do not have outright control of their first-round pick until 2032. Draft compensation would be required to entice a deal.
There are names the Hawks are unlikely to part with for a 34-year-old coming off a major knee injury. Johnson, Alexander-Walker, Daniels, Okongwu, and the No. 8 pick should be off the table, and Jonathan Kuminga belongs in that group too. If Atlanta picks up Kuminga's $24.3 million option, the more logical move is to flip him for a younger player on the team's timeline rather than attach him to an Irving deal.
It's easy to visualize the fit if Irving is healthy. He would provide Atlanta with the half-court creation and shotmaking that the playoffs revealed were missing. The main challenges are the cost and the seller. Dallas is interested in seeing how Irving and Flagg perform together. There isn't any incentive for Dallas to do anything other than compete as well as possible, considering losses do not help draft positioning.
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