Kyrie Irving's return creates a pressing Mavericks draft dilemma

There's been widespread speculation that the Dallas Mavericks will be trying to draft their point guard of the future this June to pair alongside Cooper Flagg, but with Kyrie Irving coming back next season, there's definitely a world where Dallas opts to draft a wing instead.

While there's obviously the possibility Dallas drafts someone like Mikel Brown Jr., Darius Acuff Jr., Kingston Flemings, or Keaton Wagler, drafting a point guard could have the opposite effect in terms of maximizing the roster. Dallas is definitely building around Flagg at this point, and a top point guard in the draft would have the ability to get mentored behind Irving, but he probably wouldn't see the floor nearly as much compared to a shooting guard or small forward next season.

Irving's return makes drafting a point guard a challenging proposition

Even being 34 years old and coming off a torn ACL, there's a strong chance Irving will play 30-plus minutes per game next season, and will 100 percent be the second offensive option on most nights behind Flagg, and sometimes even the first option. This won't leave a lot of minutes for a rookie point guard to play, especially if it was someone like Acuff Jr. or Flemings who can't play at the two as much.

Dallas still has the possibility of bringing back Brandon Williams next season as well, who had a stellar year as a downhill attacker, barring his inefficiency from outside. Rookie Ryan Nembhard finished with 23 assists in his last game of the season, further cementing that he should be a piece of Dallas' future around Flagg.

With Irving eating up many of Dallas' point guard minutes himself, it will be very hard to insert a point guard from the draft if both Williams and Nembhard are back next season, and it will still be challenging even if only one of them returns. Drafting a two or three could provide Dallas with a more immediate need in their lineup, even if they may not have Flagg's point guard of the future right away.

Irving will still get most of the minutes at PG for the foreseeable future

Of course, a lot of this depends on where the Mavericks end up in the draft lottery. If they were to land inside the top four, drafting the best available player would be in their best interest, point guard or not. And if they land outside the top eight, it'd probably be smart to draft a wing in that instance as well, as some of the top point guards could already be off the board.

Irving is a true professional and will undoubtedly provide mentorship to an incoming rookie point guard if Dallas goes that route, but Dallas wouldn't see the fruits of that player's labor as quickly as fans are expecting. Irving is one of the top scorers in the game when he's dialed in, and with Dallas having no reason to lose next season, he's going to get the minutes at point guard when it matters most.

Many fans are pining for Dallas to draft a point guard at this point in the pre-draft process, but they mustn't be naive to how this won't be some sunshine-and-rainbows situation in terms of this player getting to play and grow alongside Flagg for the foreseeable future. So long as Irving's production is even somewhat close to what he was doing pre-injury, he's Dallas' best bet at point guard so long as he's on the roster, which could potentially be for the handful of years.

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