After missing an entire season, the veteran guard nears a full recovery from ACL surgery, sparking questions about his fit alongside Cooper Flagg or his value as trade bait.
DALLAS - Kyrie Irving has announced that he is "close to being 100-percent'' recovered from the ACL injury that has sidelined the Dallas Mavs superstar guard since March 2025.
Assuming that is true, it leads to the next natural question: When "Kai'' returns to the court in 2026-27, will it be in a Mavs uniform?
The update matters because Irving has already missed an entire season while rebuilding his body. Dallas has had to wait for one of its most important players, and his latest comments finally sound like a real step toward the next phase.
Irving is not only talking about being healthy. He is talking about learning how his body works again after one of the toughest injuries in basketball.
In a recent Twitch livestream, Irving, 34, talked of his recovery and about what he's learning about his body.
“I am definitely close to being over at 100 percent in terms of my ACL recovery. It’s been a while now,” Irving said. “I’m so grateful that I’ve had the time to heal and just experiment with my body more on the court and off the court in the weight room and just pushing myself to the limit.”
Irving, who tore his ACL on March 3, 2025 and then missed the entire 2025-26 season while continuing his recovery, is viewed by some in the Mavs organization as a fine fit with 19-year-old Cooper Flagg, the NBA Rookie of the Year who has yet to team up on the floor with Kyrie.
But there is another angle here: As the Mavs rebuild - a likely slow and long process - are they better served by retaining the aging star, or by flipping him for draft picks that aid the future?
The rumors in that regard are just now being stirred up.
At his best, Irving - who helped Luka Doncic and the Mavs to the NBA Finals just a couple of years ago - is among the greatest ball-handlers in the history of the sport. He's a clutch shot-maker and a brilliant late-game creator.
He is, no doubt, a commodity. ... a fact that is increasingly true as he gets increasingly healthy.
Whether he becomes a commodity for the Mavs or in a trade remains to be seen.
