Reaction to Kyrie Irving trade to Dallas Mavericks from Brooklyn Nets | Colin Cowherd NBA

Instant reaction to a lively deadline in the NBA, which is February 9th. So we've got Kyrie Irving today. Four different suitors liked him. Clippers, Lakers, and LA. Mavs were the three that jumped out to me. And we talked about on our show on Fox Sports FS1 Friday, Clippers had more to give than the Lakers. And we find out that's what it came down to. The Brooklyn Nets liked what Dallas had to offer between draft picks. Spencer Dinwiddie and another forward. You know, my takeaway is, this is really about Luka Doncic, is that the Mavericks won a title previously with a great European player and they could never really get him an equal running mate. Now they did win a title against the Heetles, Miami Heetles, that team with J.J. Barea and some veteran players and some length. And Dirk Nowitzki, in what was dubbed a kind of a stunning upset, is LeBron had his worst series of his career. But one of the things I thought Mark Cuban was starting to feel a little pressure is, OK, what are we going to do with Luka? We got to get him a running mate. Now, Luka's style, as everybody watching this that's an NBA fan knows, is very ball-centric. You know, look at the numbers Jalen Brunson has put up, leaving Luka to go to the Knicks. You end up watching a lot of Luka offense as a teammate. And it can be really frustrating. Now, Kyrie Irving has played with Kevin Durant. He has played with LeBron James. So he has had teammates that have the ball. But there's nobody quite like Luka, who's very offensive dominated. And so I think short term, it would work. Long term, if it was a four-year deal, I think they'd butt heads eventually. Luka's the best arguably offensive player in the league right now. Some say it's not an argument. Kyrie's the best scoring little guy in the league right now. A lethal left and right hand, scoring at the rim. There's not a lot Kyrie can't do. But I read a report before I went on today that Dallas is looking at a two-year deal this year, finishing up, and a two-year deal. That's what I'd be willing to do with Kyrie Irving. Can it work for a year and a half this year and next year? And then, you know, if you have to move them again, there's always a market for elite talent. It could be in tech. It could be in broadcasting. It's in politics. It's in basketball. Art. It doesn't matter. There's always a market for elite talent. A couple of things. Here's why I like it. If you look at the best defensive teams in the NBA, a lot of them are eastern teams. Boston. Milwaukee. Philadelphia. Cleveland. Miami. Toronto. Clippers play real defense out west. But the eastern conference, especially at the top, a lot of really, really good defensive teams. The Warriors have decided this year they're not going to play much. And so between Luka and Kyrie Irving, they're going to score out west. I mean, when they're both on the floor, they're going to be a complete handful. The eastern conference is a better defensive conference than the western conference. That's where I like it. I also like it in the short term. Kyrie is reportedly ecstatic with the move. Luka struggled with Porzingis, who can be kind of a moody guy. But maybe he learned something from that relationship. You know, Luka is now a year older. You know, young players evolve into, you know, older players. They grow up. Stuff that bothered them their first couple of years in the league may not the next time they get a star. So, you know, Luka's a smart guy. He didn't get along with Porzingis. Maybe this time works. Short term, I think it will absolutely work. I don't think what the Nets got. Listen, a bunch of draft picks that are irrelevant for Kevin Durant. You know, Dinwiddie's a nice player. Finney Smith, forward, not a big score. Good locker room guys. Who knows? Maybe it's a better fit with, you know, Harris and Claxton, Ben Simmons. Maybe it's a better defensive team and a better fit. Who knows? Brooklyn, by the way, despite Kyrie, actually plays some decent defense. Like many Eastern teams. So there's a lot I do like about it. Short term, two great scores in the West, a weaker defensive conference. If you can get a two-year deal, I like that. But the other thing that's real is that Kyrie Irving, he missed games in college. He missed games in Cleveland. He missed games in Boston. He missed games in Brooklyn. He didn't give you 82 games. If you can get to 68, 69, 70 games, you'd be happy with Kyrie Irving. He has never played a full slate. He's not going to. As players age, they miss more and more games. So if Kyrie had gone to the Lakers and he's one of three stars, okay, you miss some games. But when you're one of two stars, neither one a good defensive star, Kyrie or Luka, when one's out, you don't get the offense and you get bad defense. That part I don't like. I don't feel like Dallas is a championship-level team. I don't think they have the depth, but they'll score their way to a lot of wins. There'll be a handful to play when they both play. They'll give up a lot of points on the defensive end. But if the deal's two years and not four, that's interesting. Kyrie's an unstable personality, instable. Four-year relationships, you know, that's the old saying. Some you date, some you marry. He's a hard guy to depend on over the course of four years. I wasn't nearly as interested in that. I did think he fit well with LeBron James' game. With Luka, I think they'll wear each other out eventually. But Luka, you got to get him a second star, right? LeBron's got his second star, and Durant had his second star. And Kobe was always better when he had a second star. And Michael Jordan had his, and Bird had his, and Magic had his. And that's the history of the league. And Tim Duncan had his. You know, Dirk didn't get his. And I think Mark Cuban didn't want to go through that again with his top international star. And so he rolls the dice on this. Mark Cuban's an aggressive guy. I mean, this Dallas team, pre-Kyrie, was not winning a championship. I don't know if this one is, but they'll be more dynamic, more electric offensively. You know, I thought this about the Lakers. So when you looked at what Dallas offered, and then you look at what the Lakers offered, Westbrook, Russell Westbrook, and like a number one pick down the road, for, you know, right now in the NBA. Especially a pick two or three years down the road. He's 19 years old. It'll take him four years to, you know, build up to be a top playoff NBA player at minimum, maybe six. But that Westbrook trade from the Wizards, giving up Kyle Kuzma and KCP, did damage in this. What did the Lakers have to give you? A bad contract with Russell Westbrook. Durant probably said, why? I'd rather get Dinwiddie and a good forward. And I mean, they gave up too much for Russell Westbrook. It didn't help this team and it blew this trade. They just don't have enough to give anybody. And the Lakers have shown they're not giving up those, they're not giving up those future picks. Not all of them. They're not. So the other component to this, I wrote this down in a piece of paper, Jalen Brunson is not as good as Kyrie Irving. He's probably a better teammate. But Jalen Brunson is younger than Kyrie Irving, not as expensive as Kyrie Irving, and is healthier than Kyrie Irving. You know, if you polled a lot of general managers and said, you know, and he's got a better contract, Jalen Brunson, Kyrie Irving, I think a lot of them would take Jalen Brunson and Dallas moved him. So now Kyrie's a better player, but you know, Kyrie gets hurt a lot. He's older, the contract, and he's difficult. He's prickly. He's difficult. I wouldn't even say unconventional. He's beyond unconventional. He's erratic. And you gotta be concerned about going into business with people like that. So if Dallas can get this pulled off for a two-year deal at like 80 million bucks, then it's worth it. It'll be fun to watch. They will score. They'll be electric knights. But let's not forget who made the finals last year in the NBA. The Boston Celtics were the number one rated defense and the Warriors, when Draymond Green played during the regular season, were the number one defense. So it was really the two best defensive teams in the NBA made the finals. Kyrie doesn't play a lick of it, either does Luca.