LISTEN: Kyrie Irving Mavs Debut Instills Confidence; Luka Doncic Back vs. Kings?

The early results of the Dallas Mavericks' trade for Kyrie Irving are great, as he smoothly guided his new team to a 110-104 road win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. Now, we might get to see Irving alongside Luka Doncic for the first time this weekend in Sacramento.

Dalton Trigg | Feb 10, 2023

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Dallas Mavericks

Trading for a superstar talent in Kyrie Irving significantly enhances the Dallas Mavericks' chances of competing for a championship this year, but so does the elevated play of the other guys on the roster if it can be sustained.

Sometimes, a roster can stay mostly the same for too long and become stale. That's not to say the pre-Irving roster wasn't good, but it certainly felt like it was running on fumes, especially considering that many players were trying to overcompensate for the Mavs losing Jalen Brunson in free agency last summer.

Dallas' front office, led by owner Mark Cuban and GM Nico Harrison sensed this and swiftly pounced on the chance to give Doncic a true co-star for the first time in his young career. Now, the roster has more balance and there's less pressure on everyone despite expectations being higher.

In the past, the Mavs would fall apart when Doncic would go to the bench for a quick breather. Now, though, Doncic can rest easy knowing that another All-NBA talent is out there continuously applying pressure to Dallas' opponents. Meanwhile, other key players like Christian Wood, Josh Green, Reggie Bullock, Tim Hardaway Jr., Dwight Powell and rookie Jaden Hardy have pressure taken off of them by going down a notch in the roster's pecking order.

On this episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, we discuss Irving's smooth debut, which resulted in a 110-104 road win over the Los Angeles Clippers, as well as what we're expecting from Dallas' important weekend back-to-back with the Sacramento Kings.

Will Doncic finally return from his heel injury? Is the Mavs-Suns rivalry better now than in the mid-to-late 2000s now that Irving is in Dallas and Kevin Durant is with Phoenix?

You can find the answers to all those questions and more right here:

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Published Feb 10, 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.