Stephen A. Smith: Mavs' Kyrie Irving 'More Reliable' Than Clippers' Kawhi Leonard

Kyrie Irving has had his issues with availability in the past, but ESPN's Stephen A. Smith believes the Dallas Mavericks star guard is still more reliable than Los Angeles Clippers' Kawhi Leonard.

Dalton Trigg | Apr 21, 2023

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The 'load management' topic is always a hot one among NBA media personalities and fans alike. Some believe it’s a necessary evil to keep certain players fresh during an 82-game season, while other believe it serves no real purpose other than depriving fans from seeing their favorite players perform in person.

When it comes to Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, the latter part of that argument looks to be more true than the former. Despite missing 30 regular-season games, Leonard still wasn’t fresh enough to play through what the Clippers labeled as a knee sprain in Thursday night’s Game 3 loss to the Phoenix Suns.

On Friday, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith sounded off on Leonard’s constant absences and even went as far as saying he’d rather depend on Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving in the postseason if he had to chose between the two.

"I would rather have Kyrie Irving because I know that come playoff time, he's going to be ready to play,” Smith said on First Take. “With Kawhi, I don't know when the hell he's going to be available. Believe it or not: Kyrie is more reliable than Kawhi."

Irving has had his fair share of struggles over the years when it comes to staying on the court, whether it’s due to injuries or his own personal reasons. However, he’s not afraid to play through some discomfort, as he proved at the end of this season with the Mavs when he had a nagging plantar fasciitis injury.

As great as Leonard is, the Clippers will never be able to get over the hump if his body can’t hold up — that’s just the hard, simple truth.

Game 4 of the Clippers’ first-round series with the Suns is on Saturday afternoon as L.A. tries to tie things up at 2-2. As of Friday afternoon, Leonard’s status for that one is still up in the air.

Follow Dalton Trigg on Twitter @dalton_trigg.

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Published Apr 21, 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.