Luka Doncic puts the nail in the coffin on the wildest trade conspiracy yet

The Dallas Mavericks are vastly approaching the March 6 date where all three of their injured big men are set to be reevaluated. Dallas’ big men coming back ahead of the playoffs could change the trajectory of their season dramatically, as the Mavericks could go from survival mode to trying to put the pieces together to compete for a championship. 

With all three of the injured bigs and Caleb Martin still needing to get fully acclimated with Dallas’ rotation though, the Mavericks will have an insanely short window before the playoffs to get a grip on what their roster will look like when fully healthy. This is taking into consideration that all three big men will make a return this season, and while this seems plausible given recent injury updates, it’s definitely not a certainty in Anthony Davis and Daniel Gafford’s case.

Kyrie Irving is currently the driving force keeping this disjointed Mavericks roster alive, as Irving’s level of play has single-handedly kept the Mavericks in a ton of games recently. Irving has played some of the best and most physical brand of basketball throughout his entire career on both ends recently, and he’s not backing down from having to shoulder this tumultuous workload.

While Dallas’ role players have fluctuated in production from an offensive standpoint over the last few games, they are also competing at a high level to keep this team in the mix, as the Mavs are doing everything they can to shift the narrative of this organization after the Luka Doncic trade. This is a bittersweet pill to swallow though, as the Mavericks are in a position where one more significant injury to one of their main rotation players would almost certainly derail their championship hopes completely. The worst part is this situation could’ve been avoided altogether if Dallas didn’t trade Doncic.

Irving had no clue about the Doncic trade and their bond remains strong

Instead of Irving being forced to take on the burden of the media from this trade as the new face of the organization after the Doncic fallout, Mavericks fans could still be witnessing Doncic and Irving combine for 60 points on efficient shooting on a nightly basis.

Irving and Doncic always had a fond admiration for each other, as they often referenced each other as “hermanos” and had a strong relationship off the court. They recently put one of the silliest rumors to sleep in regard to how the Doncic trade played out, that being that Irving knew Doncic was going to be traded before it broke the news to the public. There was never much substance to this theory, as fans were seemingly just clutching for straws after the trade, and Irving and Doncic silenced this nonsensical conspiracy theory once and for all.

After Doncic’s triple-double versus the Mavericks on Tuesday in his first game against Dallas since the trade, Doncic made sure to give Irving his flowers after the game. Doncic’s tone in this quote almost certainly indicates that he doesn’t have any resentment toward Irving or reason to believe Irving was one of the conniving players trying to ship Doncic out of Dallas in the background of this trade.

“Kyrie is my hermano,” Doncic said.  “We go beyond basketball. It was good to see those guys. We went to wars together, and it was really fun to see them all.”

Doncic not only holds no ill will toward Irving, but he has nothing against any of his former teammates at all, as he knows President of Basketball Operations Nico Harrison was the main proprietor in him getting traded to Los Angeles. Doncic even dapped up Irving with their signature handshake before the game and showed love to him multiple times during the contest, proving to Mavericks fans that there is truly no bad blood there.

The precipitation of dirt being thrown at Doncic by Dallas’ front office over the last handful of weeks has been a PR nightmare, and even Irving hasn’t been able to make up for this despite his forward stance on recognizing how much Doncic meant to the organization and the city of Dallas.

Irving and Doncic’s relationship won’t be going anywhere anytime soon as evidenced by everything they’ve said about each other post-trade. However, Irving and Dallas’ relationship could become haywire if Harrison’s vision for this roster doesn’t work out this season ahead of Irving’s impending free agency.