ESPN reveals Mavericks' controversial Kyrie Irving plan after firing Nico Harrison

ESPN's Tim MacMahon reported that Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving is making "great progress" in his recovery after tearing his ACL back in March, but "his return is very much in question for other reasons."

Irving's recovery has been going well for months now, as rumblings have indicated that he is "ahead of schedule," despite Jason Kidd's denial of that, but he may not even come back this season to begin with. MacMahon didn't reveal what the "other reasons" were, but it can be assumed that those reasons he was referring to had to do with tanking.

After 16 games, the Mavericks are 4-12 on the season, and the playoffs seem like a long shot to say the absolute least. With 2026 being the last draft that they own their own first-round pick until 2031, tanking may be in the cards, or fully underway, by the time that Irving is ready to return to the floor.

The real reason Kyrie Irving may not play a single game this year

Irving may not be ready to return until late January or February, and by that point, Dallas may be too far back in the standings to have any real shot at making the playoffs. At this point, they're already one of the bottom teams in the West, and things aren't projecting to get much better.

Even with Anthony Davis back on the floor.

Davis is out of the lineup right now due to a calf strain, but even once he returns, this won't necessarily lead to many more wins. The Mavericks were 1-3 in the four full games that Davis played in at the beginning of the season, and it's time to pivot to the Cooper Flagg era.

Ever since they fired former general manager Nico Harrison last week, Dallas has made it clear that they are set on building around Flagg, which simultaneously throws Harrison's former three-to-four-year championship window out of the picture. Flagg has proven that he is going to be a superstar for years to come if he continues this upward trajectory, and the Mavericks would be doing wrong by him if they didn't do whatever they could to put the best possible roster around him.

It's already known that they are going to shop Davis on the open trade market, even though Mark Cuban denied this yesterday, and if they want to keep Irving around and not trade him, their best bet to keep him healthy for next season while prioritizing draft positioning would be to shut him down.

Even though bringing back Irving and stacking some wins alongside Flagg at the end of the regular season would be a good building block for next year, the risk of compromising your spot in the lottery while also risking Irving getting re-injured isn't worth the reward of a couple of extra wins.

Tanking after being in the NBA Finals less than a year and a half ago would be a controversial plan, especially since Irving is only getting older, but every game that they lose gives them less of a reason to bring him back.

Irving has made it clear that he wants to play this season, and shutting him down for the year may not go over well with him, but they have to do what's best for the team.

Having better odds to land a player like Darryn Peterson or AJ Dybantsa to pair with Flagg should be in the Mavericks' crosshairs if they continue losing, and this may come at the cost of Irving making his long-awaited comeback this season.