Reaction to Kyrie Irving staying with Dallas Mavericks on 3-year deal | NBA Today

Tim you have some reporting on Kyrie Irving and his future what more can you tell us yeah first hour free agency the Mavericks and Kyrie Irving have agreed to a three-year 126 million dollar deal to keep him in Dallas this has always been the top priority for the Mavericks this summer they're able to accomplish it early they're also able to accomplish it at a number that reflects his Superstar status but is south of the max that's especially important because it preserves the full 12.4 million dollar mid-level for the Mavericks as they continue to try to build a Supporting Cast around Kyrie Irving and Luka doncic and by the way I'm told that Luka dances was in has been in touch with Kyrie recently made it clear hey we need you back and that three years that matches up with the three years remaining on Luka doncic's contract before the season that would be his player option very good point Tim McMahon thank you so very much please do not go too far we are going to be checking in with you as our show continues Kyrie Irving headed back to Dallas for three years but as Tim McMahon noted the this preserves a little bit of flexibility for them to continue to fill out their roster as we say hello once again to Zach Lowe to Richard Jefferson to Kendrick Perkins and Zach I want to start with you here your reaction Kyrie headed back to Dallas yeah it seemed inevitable Dallas didn't have a lot of other Alternatives Kyrie had leverage over them three years is not the longest it could be which I guess is a win for the Mavs um and look it's been a lot with Kyrie for the last three years perk mentioned on SportsCenter that he showed up in Dallas and played pretty well the team did not play very well but he played pretty well he did his job offensively they're going to be Dynamite they got a lot of young Wings we're going to see what they have we're going to see what the guys they drafted can do but now the contract drama is over you got three years it's locked in a team that needs to win with Luka doncic now it's just time for all the drama to be done let's just play basketball let's just play basketball show me that we can actually do that because it's been a while since there's been just sort of Kyrie Irving basketball player and that's what the Mavericks are paying for the drama is over for now the contract drama anyway and this is a team that has again counting on a lot of young guys around the Luca Kyrie duo in a conference that's going to be stacked top to bottom with teams that are trying to win well for some reason I feel confident that Kyrie Irving is just going to play basketball and the reason why is because Kyrie Irving he's different when he has a leader that he actually respect and when I think about Jason Kidd I just think about Jay Kidd in particular I think he is going to be the one to hold him accountable and be able to continue to get the best out of Kyrie I could see them having an open relationship and being open and honest with each other and I think we're going to see the best version of Kyrie Irving not Luka doncic on the other hand he should be satisfied I think this was a great move for the Dallas Mavs and showing him that hey we're trying to make sure we add the pieces and keep Superstar Talent around you so you know that he could be you know come in and be the best version of himself as well and you look at those numbers outside of his points per game everything went up percentage-wise for Kyrie and he was already Elite in Brooklyn so I think this is a win for both parties right you talk like Kyrie had some leverage but ultimately if he had a ton of Leverage he would have gotten a four-year deal so he gets the three-year deal Kyrie is that dude he's a late game closer he is all the things that you want as a player but I think for Dallas they win here they were able to keep their pick right they were able to draft then they are able to bring back the players that they wanted to so they bring back and now uh they have the full mid-level exception so now they can still add more players so for Dallas this was an overall win it didn't look great when you know it started to kind of tail off at the end of the season but now looking back on it you got your pick you resigned your point guard and you have space great got the pick traded the pick got the point guard everything was able to go down the way that they wanted to and then all roads lead back to to Luka dances and Tim McMahon said Luca was a part of this he reached out to Kyrie he said that we need you here and historically that's not really been what Luca dantich has been about that being forward facing recruiting players to Dallas that's not really what we've heard from him no and he's right they did need him because again the alternative is reliving the jail and Brunson scenario again and they cannot do that and now they still have the mid-level to build out this roster I love what Jayden Hardy did for them at the end of last year they got some interesting young players they're going to need another guy to compete in the west they're going to need to figure out their starting center situation but you know look and those two guys we saw as talented individually as they are and they are brilliant off the charts brilliant we saw just kind of baby steps in learning how to play it together we didn't see as much of the Kyrie Luca pick and roller the Luca Kyrie pick and roll as I thought we would now they have some time to put some seasoning on how they play offensively if those two guys are healthy the mads are going to be awesome it's everything else defense specifically that we need to see also you saying that you know Luca reached out to Kyrie this is a wake-up call for Luca this past season because think about it ever since Luca has stepped foot into the NBA day one he has been getting nothing but praised and rightfully so last year was the first time that people were very very critical of Luca whether it was him on his lack of effort for us defensively his body language uh you know him complaining too much to the officials so now he knows that the situation that happened with Jayla Brunson alone with him being in great shape in the accountability part I mean that's the growth that you want to see what more can you tell us you said that initially that we're going to see a couple of the team's big free agents re-sign with teams we've seen that a little bit here what have been The Dominoes that you've been keeping an eye on uh Malika you're right and you look at the players on a few on 100 million dollar contracts we've reported so far Kyle kuzma stays in Washington 102 million dollars uh for him cam Johnson resigned we'll resign with the Nets uh 108 million dollars he came over in the Kevin Durant trade uh back at the trade deadline and a really important one for the Milwaukee Bucks I'm told Chris Middleton three years a hundred and two million dollars that'll include a player option uh to return to the Milwaukee Bucks his agents with XL Sports got that done tonight with John horston now Milwaukee turns its attention uh to Brooke Lopez who they very much want to reside resign and then a story you and I both reported together Malika Bruce Brown leads the NBA champion Denver Nuggets to go to the Indiana Pacers two years 45 million dollars uh tremendous Payday for Bruce Brown a reward for the you know immense role he played with that nuggets team this season uh the number one bench score in the league in the playoffs which thank you so very much there's certainly been a couple of moves such thus far that have made me go oh my goodness really that's what's going on thank you so much for spending some time with us here on MBA today woj was just breaking down the moves that we have seen and and we're only an hour and eight minutes in over a billion dollars in contracts quite work have already been handed out here Richard Jefferson uh let's talk about Chris Middleton the Milwaukee Bucks they were your number one that you were keeping an eye on here perk and I think that's a great contract for both sides to be honest with you look Chris Middleton didn't have the best season last season he was battling through a lot of injuries and things of that nature I feel like you know one thing we can't question about him is his true professionalism so now he hasn't entire off season to get back in shape to get his body right and now he has the security and knows that you know the franchise continue to have their belief and trust in him and Ghana's together is that you know one of the best Duos in the game yeah I mean one of the stories of that Miami series are then Giannis getting hurt was you saw the Middleton Giannis pick and roll which was Milwaukee's bread and butter when they won the title you saw that fade out of their playbook to the edges of it and they needed to come back and Chris Middleton has had a rough couple years injury-wise but he's a killer shooter he's a great one-on-one scorer and if he can get back to being most of that guy most of that guy they trusted to run their late game offense with you on his screen and then diving and jumping for labs and Drew holidays back we'll see what happens with Brook Lopez but step one to the Bucks being the Bucks again and not the team that melted down against Miami is Chris Middleton being Chris Middleton of two years ago or close to it and this is I think it's a good deal he turned down 40 million yep locked in three years the Bucks get a 10 million dollar decrease in the salary they have him locked up I think it's a good deal for both sides thank you for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming Sports and premium content subscribe to ESPN Plus

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Id: hE9joVQcv_E

Length: 9min 14sec (554 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023