The internet continues to believe Kyrie Irving is on his way out, and South Beach is among the rumored destinations.
Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving is gearing up to return for his 16th year in the league after missing the entire 2025-26 schedule with the torn ACL he suffered late in the prior season.
It's obvious how, at 34 years old, Irving isn't - and shouldn't be - the Mavs' long-term focus. That player is 19-year-old phenom Cooper Flagg after his record-breaking Rookie of the Year campaign last season.
Still, Irving is an All-Star-caliber player who is under contract and has a player option for the 2027-28 year.
Dallas will see how he and Flagg play together to start the year, and other teams will monitor his health after an extended recovery from injury.
Until the trade deadline rolls around, however, Irving will continue to see his name in rumors as the Mavericks weigh whether or not to initiate a full rebuild and youth movement on their core starters.
The debate isn't new, and this offseason has seen several projections of Irving being dealt because of the new front-office leadership's roster attentiveness.
The Miami Heat have seen the most traction in Kyrie trade talks online, but veteran Heat beat writer Ira Winderman says there isn't much behind the smoke.
"The math and common sense seemingly would make that unlikely, if not impossible (let alone getting into the politics of it all)," Winderman wrote recently in The Sun-Sentinel. "With Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo accounting for so much of the Heat's cap, the remainder of the roster offers limited options in terms of matching salary."
Miami is certainly in win-now mode, which explains their fervent interest in signing Mavs ex Klay Thompson once he was bought out in Dallas. The veteran sharpshooter will provide much-needed spacing next to the big man duo of Antetokounmpo and Adebayo, and the Heat appear to be interested in a point guard to control the offense, too ... but with however much cap space is available.
Irving brings a $39.4 million cap hit this season, so that's a figure much too steep for how Miami is currently booked up. Together, Antetokounmpo and Adabayo account for over 65 percent of the Heat's cap at $58.4 million and $49.4 million, respectively.
Like Giannis, Heat forward Andrew Wiggins is extension-eligible, which could alleviate some of that pressure. Winderman hints at Wiggins' position being even more important than Irving's in Miami, and thus a more important to-do item than seeking a trade.
The easiest prediction is that Miami would include Bobby Portis, Nikola Jovic and Davion Mitchell in a deal for Irving. Dallas could be interested in Jovic and Mitchell here, but that would leave the team void of a true floor general. The Mavs also have no roster space to be netting players in a trade.
Jovic and Mitchell are young and promising guard pieces, but their addition would force Dallas to sell off at least one of the young prospects it already invested in this offseason, like Tarik Biberovic, Marcus Sasser or Zaccharie Risacher, before they even put on the uniform.
"So, yes, there is math that could be argued (albeit not argued very convincingly)," Winderman says. "But common sense, and the lack of remaining Heat draft capital after the Giannis trade, speak otherwise."
