Mavs Owner Mark Cuban on Kyrie Irving Free Agency: 'He's Our Top Priority'

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban spoke to the media ahead of Wednesday night's game against the Sacramento Kings about Kyrie Irving's upcoming free agency.

Dalton Trigg | Apr 5, 2023

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Dallas Mavericks

Stop us if you've heard this before, but Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has made it known what his team's 'top priority' is heading into the offseason.

Last year around this time, re-signing Jalen Brunson was the team's top priority vocalized by Cuban. This year, he says re-signing star point guard Kyrie Irving is the main objective. For the Mavs' sake, here's to hoping things go better this time than they did last summer.

"I think we have a good shot [at re-signing Irving]," Cuban said ahead of the Mavs' matchup with the Sacramento Kings at American Airlines Center on Wednesday night. "I want him to stay."

When asked if Irving was worthy of a max contract, though, Cuban responded: "I'm not going to negotiate with you."

Through 19 games with the Mavs, Irving is averaging 26.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists while nearly having 50/40/90 shooting splits. Irving has also battled plantar fasciitis at the end of this season, but has played through the pain most nights. That kind of production alone points to him being a max-contract type of player, but Dallas hasn't been able to translate that into wins yet.

"It's absolutely my fault for not recognizing that [that we needed more defensive personnel]," Cuban said, referring to the hit the Mavs' defense took after the trade for Irving.

However, the Mavs were able to get their second star next to Luka Doncic, and now, it'll be up to Cuban and GM Nico Harrison to fill in those defensive gaps over the offseason to make sure their team can bounce back next season.

But first, re-signing Irving is the 'top priority.' The Mavs like Irving, and Irving seems to like the Mavs. Let's see if they can make the money work.

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Published Apr 5, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.