Kyrie Irving Speaks on Dallas Mavs Becoming ‘Complete Team’ with ‘Healthy’ Attitude

Following their 8-2 start to the season, Mavs' Kyrie Irving spoke on establishing roles within Dallas' diverse locker room.

On Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks earned their eighth win of the season through 10 games by blowing past the New Orleans Pelicans, 136-124. 

In the victory, Kyrie Irving had his best game of the season for the Mavs, finishing with a season-high 35 points, six rebounds, and seven assists on 13-of-20 shooting from the field and 7-of-10 from 3-point range. Luka Doncic followed up Irving's performance with 30 points four rebounds, and nine assists of his own. 

Following the win, Irving spoke on Dallas' early success, including the variety of play-styles within his team’s offense and what it takes to make a 'complete team'.

"That's the beauty of this figuring out process of how to be a complete team," Irving said. "Night to night, we have roles that we're establishing, but we also can play other roles on this team. I think that's part of the diversity that we have in our locker room is just having guys that can do other good things that compliment our team well and still keep team first."

Outside of Doncic and Irving being a two-headed monster on offense for Dallas, it's about the other guys surrounding the two stars who know who they are within Jason Kidd's system and are ‘stars in their roles.’

Mavs' Kyrie Irving attempts a finger roll against Pelicans' Brandon Ingram / Matthew Hinton-USA TODAY Sports

Players such as Grant Williams, Dereck Lively II, Josh Green, Dwight Powell and Derrick Jones Jr. are the prominent members of Dallas' dirty-work brigade. These five can do a bit of everything on both ends of the floor and have no problems doing whatever it takes to win while riding in the backseat to Doncic and Irving. 

Then you have players such as Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jaden Hardy, who are microwave bucket-getters off the bench. These two ‘instant oatmeal’ scorers have never seen a shot they didn't like, and playing at a fast pace alongside players like Doncic and Irving, who attract major attention and can create open shots and cutting lanes, is the utmost ideal situation for them and provides Dallas with a strong scoring punch of the bench.

"Obviously, there's going to be some shot attempts that are going to differentiate from player to player, minutes are going to differentiate but what's consistent is our attitude and how we treat the basketball game as a whole," Irving said. "Whatever minutes you're in there, the attitude is ‘make an impact’ and be proud that you're making a positive impact for the team and if you're not, then you got to give your teammate a chance to go do that. It's healthy."

Irving certainly has the right attitude, and his teammates appear to be following suit as the Mavs continue to build a solid foundation in the early stages of the season. Through 10 games, this team seems to be as together as any Mavs team as we've seen in Doncic's time in the league, and if it continues, Dallas will be a force to be reckoned with in the West. 

---