The new Kyrie Irving deal in Dallas is a win-win.
Irving gets a three-year payday for nine figures. And the Mavericks actually save enough money to have a point guard this season.
The superstar Irving will miss much of the season with a knee injury sustained late in the 2024-25 campaign. And if Irving had opted in to his player option, the Mavs would've had their hands tied financially.
But the new deal frees up the $5.7 million mid-level exception.
The Mavs plan to use that money to target a fill-in guard, with ESPN's Shams Charania reporting that the options are Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, D'Angelo Russell and Malcolm Brogdon.
All four of those guys were once upon a time varying degrees of NBA stars.
Paul is a first-ball Hall of Famer.
Russell was a peak-level leading man on a middling team.
Schroeder and Brogdon have both been effective starters and dynamic bench players.
If one of them will play this season for $5.7 million from the Mavericks, that's a massive win for Dallas.
They may all warrant more money than that, which would complicate things all over again.
But for now, it's something worth pursuing for the Mavericks.
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