Ex-Mavs Employee Haralabos Voulgaris Says Kyrie Irving Trade 'Didn’t Make Sense’

The jury is still out on whether the duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving will work for the Dallas Mavericks but a former Mavs employee has his doubts.

At times, to get your team over the hump, you have to make a big splash in the form of a blockbuster trade. For the Dallas Mavericks, that big splash came from trading for Kyrie Irving prior to this season's deadline. But the Mavs’ 2022-23 season didn't go as planned, as they missed the postseason after making the Western Conference Finals a year ago. 

For Dallas, this trade came at an opportune time to add another superstar around Luka Doncic, and yet, the pairing failed to make the playoffs. Haralabos Voulgaris, the former director of quantitative research and development for the Mavericks, wasn't a fan of the move. 

"Did I think it would've gone off the rails this bad? No," Voulgaris said on The Bill Simmons Podcast on Tuesday. "I don't think that that trade was something that was going to benefit their season."

Voulgaris began consulting Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in 2016 before being hired on as a full-time executive in 2018. Through his time with the organization, Voulgaris' opinion held strong weight with Cuban, including drafting Doncic in 2018 and Josh Green in 2020. The Irving acquisition was one that Voulgaris watched from afar, and he called it a 'risky move'.

"He's Kyrie Irving and he's got a record of being a little acentric, at best," Voulgaris said. "It's such a risky move."

Voulgaris mentioned that due to both Doncic and Irving needing the ball, it leaves one of the two playing off the ball, and 'neither one of them excel without the ball.’ For example, for someone of Doncic's size and strength, having the willingness to cut, set screens and rolling to the basket when Irving has the ball is something he needs to add to his arsenal.

"It's just very difficult to have two players who are at their best with the ball and then expect them to be good together," Voulgaris said. "You're just not maximizing their talent.

"Why would you want to have your second-highest paid player be another guy who's good with the ball? It doesn't make sense to me but that's just me personally. I wouldn't have done it."

And though Voulgaris said he wouldn't have made the trade for Irving, he didn't put the blame of Dallas' plummet at the end of the season on his shoulders.

"He hasn't been a distraction with the Mavericks at all. That much is clear. Has not been a distraction" Voulgaris said. "I think if anything, he's be additive in terms of the culture so far. That's everything I've heard and seen."

We only witnessed two months of the Irving experience in Dallas with a stripped down roster, so the sample size of Voulgaris' worries are small. Time will tell if the Doncic-Irving duo will get another crack at it next season.

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