Dallas Builds Around Cooper Flagg, Irving’s Value Shifts

Dallas commits – With Cooper Flagg becoming the Mavericks’ “cornerstone,” Dallas is effectively re-centering its future. That shift lands hardest on Kyrie Irving, now 34 and coming off an ACL injury, as his $39,491,282 salary for the coming season forces difficult trade math.

As the NBA Draft draws closer, the Dallas Mavericks have made one message hard to miss: Cooper Flagg is the cornerstone now—the primary building block for what comes next.

It’s an especially loaded promise because Flagg is coming off a spectacular rookie season and, at 19, will be 20 for most of next season. He’s already been framed as the kind of player capable of carrying a team’s leadership burden.

That’s exactly why Kyrie Irving suddenly feels like the odd man out—even if nothing has been formally announced.

Irving is 34 and, after coming off an ACL injury, his future has been thrown into question. A large share of the conversation around Dallas is blunt: if the Mavericks are truly resetting around their newest centerpiece, they should consider trading Irving as part of an overhaul.

The timing matters because of the money. Irving is due to be paid $39,491,282 this coming season. That number doesn’t just sit on a spreadsheet—it determines what Dallas can afford to do around Flagg.

If Dallas moved Irving, the first obvious result is salary-cap relief. That could create space to pursue someone like Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is expected to earn about $58.5 million and would be a stunning pairing with Flagg—two generations of franchise power stacked together.

There’s another option. too: moving Irving without trying to replace him dollar-for-dollar. and instead spreading the freed-up money across multiple roster needs. The idea being floated here is familiar in NBA circles: add one or two complementary pieces rather than chase a single headline star. Dallas could sign, for example, Luke Kennard for not that much, or potentially Rui Hachimura or Quentin Grimes.

And the Mavericks aren’t working with only cap space. They also have two first-round draft picks they could use to shape the roster—either as stand-alone upgrades or as extra bargaining chips in a bigger trade.

That’s where the imagination starts to widen. If Dallas sweetens the pot with those draft picks, the proposal suggests they could go after someone completely unexpected—naming Bam Adebayo, Domantas Sabonis, or Darius Garland as possible targets.

Of course. NBA trades are rarely a straight line from “we want X” to “we get X.” The salary cap has to be handled correctly. and the pieces have to fit together in a way that makes basketball sense. Even if Irving is the most tradable variable in the equation. Dallas still has to make sure any deal doesn’t create new problems while trying to solve the old ones.

There’s also a more volatile hypothetical sitting in the same conversation. Ja Morant and Memphis, it’s said, are clearly at the end. He’s described as damaged goods at this point and there have been “various issues with the Grizzlies,” but the pitch is that he remains an extraordinary talent.

And if Dallas ever wanted a high-risk, high-reward pairing, the comparison here is that Morant with Flagg would be nearly impossible to guard—because the defensive and offensive demands of keeping track of both would stack up fast.

The trade-off is explicit: Memphis won’t be able to get very much for Morant, but the risk remains enormous. Still—if it works, the payoff would be “wow.”

What all of these scenarios share is the same underlying pivot: Dallas is publicly committed to Cooper Flagg as its foundation. and every roster decision that follows is now measured against that new center of gravity. For Kyrie Irving. the shift isn’t about what he’s done—it’s about what Dallas can build next. and what it costs to do it.

Dallas Mavericks Cooper Flagg Kyrie Irving Giannis Antetokounmpo NBA Draft ACL injury salary cap Ja Morant Bam Adebayo Domantas Sabonis Darius Garland