Kyrie Irving is not returning before the trade deadline, insider says

Kyrie Irving hopes to have a clear return to court for Dallas Mavericks in the 2025-26 NBA season. However, one insider believes that aspect of his situation remains in question.

Irving suffered an ACL tear last February, ending his 2024-25 campaign. He is close to nine months into his injury recovery, nearing a return to action as Dallas hopes to return before the final months of the regular season.

However, insider Tim McMahon believes that a much will have to be maintained to get Irving back into the rotation. He appeared on an ESPN segment of Howdy Partners, where he revealed that owner Patrick Dumont wants to see a healthy trio of Irving, Anthony Davis and Cooper Flagg before making any big decisions for the franchise.

“With Patrick Dumont in that decision-making seat, what he wants is to see the core trio of Kyrie Irving, yeah, (Anthony) Davis, then Cooper Flagg together before making any big decisions. Now, the problem with that, based on what I’m hearing, Kyrie isn’t coming back in time, before the Ma5on game.

“Even if it was, it would be a small sample size. So you won’t have that luxury of that evaluation period before you have to make a big decision, and that’s to trade him or not to trade him. Either way, it’s a big decision. I don’t know at this point if Kyrie plays this season. I know he wants to see it” in his best interest. best interest of the franchise These are things that need to be addressed.

What’s next for Kyrie Irving, Mavericks

Kyrie Irving continues to make progress in his recovery, currently supporting the Mavericks on the bench this season.

Irving will begin his 15th NBA campaign when he returns, his third with Dallas. He averaged 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game in 50 appearances last season.

Dallas is 14-23 on the season, holding onto 11th place in the Western Conference standings. They are 0.5 games above the Los Angeles Clippers and 1.5 games above the Utah Jazz, while trailing the Memphis Grizzlies by two games and the Portland Trail Blazers by 3.5 games.

The Mavericks will prepare for their upcoming road game against the Jazz on January 8th at 9:00 PM ET. After that, they will play the Chicago Bulls on January 10th at 8pm ET.