Kyrie Irving Believes Mavericks Will Contend For NBA Title Once He Returns

Kyrie Irving has a new deal with the Dallas Mavericks and believes the team can contend for an NBA championship next season once he returns from a torn ACL.

The West Orange, N.J. native is declining his $42.9 million player option for the 2025-26 season and plans to sign a three-year, $119 million extension with the franchise, per ESPN’s Shams Charania. The deal includes a player option for 2027-28.

Irving, 33, believes “in this team’s ability when he’s healthy and whole again, potentially in January, February and beyond, to compete for a championship,” Charania said Wednesday on SportsCenter after speaking with Irving.

With Dallas expected to take Duke phenom Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick in Wednesday’s NBA Draft, Dallas could feature a “Big 3″ of Irving, Anthony Davis and Flagg going forward.

“Of course, that’s a championship-level team,” former NBA player Markieff Morris said Wednesday on “Get Up.”

“I’m going to go with Dallas [as the biggest threat to Oklahoma City in the West]

,” he added. “When we see them all healthy, if they are healthy….They have a ton of assets. You got guys like PJ Washington, like Naji [Marshall] you got guys like that on the bench with the starting five, I don’t see a better team than them if they’re healthy.”

Of course, Dallas — which reached the NBA Finals with Luka Doncic in 2024 — will have to compete in a rugged Western Conference that features the newly-minted NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder along with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, L.A. Lakers, L.A. Clippers, Golden State Warriors and a new-look Houston Rockets team featuring Kevin Durant.

Irving isn’t the only one who’s high on Dallas.

Kevin Boyle, who has coached four No. 1 NBA Draft picks including Irving and Flagg, believes Irving will come back strong from the ACL injury and that Flagg will get better and better as his career progresses.

“I think Kyrie, the type of player he is, I think he can bounce back and be [a] great player again, without question,” Boyle, who could have five former players drafted this week, said in a phone interview.

“Especially, the pace he’s played at, he’s so crafty…I think his game translates into being able to play several more seasons successfully [if] he recovers fully from the injury, which I’m sure he will. That’d be interesting, but I guess that’s going to take a full season.”

As for the 6-foot-9 Flagg, who stands to be the second-youngest No. 1 pick after LeBron James, he led Duke in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.

He was also part of an undefeated Montverde (FL) Academy team in 2023-24 that could produce four first-round picks on Wednesday.

“There’s no question in my mind, Cooper is going to end up having a terrific NBA career,” Boyle said. “I think, off the bat, he’s young, it’s going to take some time to get to that incredible stardom status.”

Boyle predicted that Flagg might start out averaging something like 18 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists “and then grow those numbers.”

“And I think he’ll become a better and better scorer each year. And I think he’ll grow from that 18-19 [ppg] guy to a 22 guy to 24-25 a game, and then he’s in star status. And I think he’ll be, eventually, your top five guy in the league.”