Should the Dallas Mavericks go all in on trading for Kyrie Irving?

Why trading for Kyrie Irving could be an utter disaster for the Dallas Mavericks

Look, this is Kyrie Irving. If you thought the Rajon Rondo fiasco was bad, this has the potential to be ten times worse.

On a graph with talent and controversy as the x and y axis, Irving would be at the very top right corner, peak talent combined with peak controversy. As good as he is, he would undoubtedly attract unwanted attention, and it’s easy to see him clashing with Mark Cuban if things don’t go right immediately. He’s a ticking time bomb and most of the time it is not about if he will cause problems within a team, it’s when.

Irving’s contract is expiring, so unless he has a strangely strong attachment to Dallas that he’s never spoken about, it’s almost a guarantee that he will leave in free agency. It could be argued that this is good because it gives the Mavs cap space to work with, but I’m not comfortable giving up a first-round pick or more for half a season of a second star.

On the basketball side of things, the offense would be undoubtedly spectacular. The defense, though? It’s already fallen off this season and adding another defender that’s barely better than Trae Young would exacerbate these issues. Doncic, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Tim Hardaway Jr. are already a bad defensive trio, so trading one of them for Irving would make it hilarious.