The Dallas Mavericks are in a weird spot. They just played one of their best games of the year in a 122-109 win over the Houston Rockets, but they’re still only 9–16, buried near the bottom of the West and looking nothing like a real threat. Kyrie Irving isn’t even on the floor right now; he tore his ACL in March and is expected back sometime during this season, but his name is already floating through trade talks again. When your expensive veteran core is under .400, everybody becomes fair game in the rumor mill.
That’s why the Minnesota Timberwolves suddenly keep popping up next to Kyrie’s name. The Wolves have opened 15–8 and look like a legit top-tier team in the West behind Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle, but there’s still a sense they’re one more elite shot-creator away from truly terrifying.
Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson has already reported that people around the league view Irving as the missing piece in Minnesota and that there’s mutual respect between him and Edwards, with at least one Wolves voice quoted as saying, “If Kyrie came it would be sweet.”
Officially, the Mavericks aren’t shopping him. But as long as the Mavs keep losing games while paying near-max money to a 33-year-old guard coming off an ACL tear, and the Wolves keep hovering one move away from the inner circle, the idea of Kyrie in a Wolves jersey is going to keep heating up. The contracts are tricky, the risk is massive, and the fit raises real questions, but the upside is obvious enough that you can see exactly how this rumor turned into a “how could it actually happen?” conversation.
The Potential Trade Idea
If the Wolves ever got serious about trading for Kyrie Irving, building a legal, realistic package would be a maze. They don’t have a pile of future first-rounders to throw around, and they’re not touching the core of Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels or Julius Randle. That means any deal has to be built around good veterans, a little youth and whatever draft capital they can still move.
Proposed Trade Details
Minnesota Timberwolves Receive: Kyrie Irving, Dante Exum
Dallas Mavericks Receive: Naz Reid, Mike Conley, Joan Beringer, Bones Hyland, 2026 first-round pick swap (via SAS)
For the Timberwolves, this is the move that screams they’re done playing it safe. They keep their core of Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle, and Rudy Gobert intact, but empty almost everything else around them to chase another true star. Irving is coming off a 2024-25 season in Dallas where he averaged 24.7 points, 4.6 assists, and 4.7 rebounds on 47% from the field, 40% from three, and over 91% at the line, still very much an All-Star level offensive engine.
Dropping that kind of shot-making next to Edwards gives the Wolves two killers who can close games, run pick-and-roll with Gobert and Randle, and punish any defense that dares to load up on just one of them.
The cost for the Wolves is heavy. Naz Reid is one of the best backup bigs in the league and the perfect insurance policy whenever Gobert sits or Randle gets in foul trouble, posting 13.8 points and 5.9 rebounds in 25 minutes. Mike Conley is the adult in the room, the guy who organizes the offense and keeps everyone calm in big moments, plus a $10 million expiring deal. Add in a young forward like Beringer, a high-variance scorer in Bones Hyland, and a 2026 pick swap, and this becomes a pure all-in roll of the dice. If Kyrie stays healthy and bought-in, the Wolves’ ceiling jumps into “we can win the West” territory; if he breaks down or the off-court stuff flares up again, they’ve sacrificed depth, leadership, and future flexibility for nothing.
From the Mavericks’ side, the appeal is turning one massive, volatile contract into four legit rotation pieces and a little future upside. Reid gives them a young stretch big who fits their stars. Conley offers a steady veteran point guard who will actually get them into sets. It’s not a star-for-star return, but it’s exactly the kind of depth-driven package that can make the Mavs longer, more balanced and less Kyrie-dependent overnight.
Would This Ever Happen?
Short answer: almost definitely not. This is the kind of trade that looks spicy on paper but collapses the second you put real-world incentives and the CBA next to it. The Timberwolves are finally behaving like a serious contender with Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert as a defined core; blowing up their depth and their locker-room stability for a 33-year-old Kyrie Irving with a long injury history and constant off-court volatility is exactly the kind of move front offices talk themselves out of once the adrenaline wears off.
On top of that, the Wolves are not swimming in picks. Any Kyrie deal that doesn’t touch their main four has to be padded with swaps and whatever little draft capital they still control, which just tightens the window even more. You’re basically saying, “Our next 2–3 years hinge on Edwards and Kyrie both being healthy, locked in, and happy,” and that’s a bet most GMs are too scared to make when they already have a top-tier team without him.
From the Mavericks’ side, you only move a name like Irving if you either (a) know you can’t win with him, or (b) get an obvious upgrade or a treasure chest of picks back. This offer is more of a “depth and stability” package than a franchise reset. It makes basketball sense in a vacuum, but in reality Dallas would almost certainly try a dozen smaller moves around Kyrie before deciding to cash him in for role players and one swap.
So just like the Ja Morant-to-Wolves scenario we broke down, this feels way more like a thought experiment than an actual front-office roadmap. Fun to imagine, great for hypotheticals, but in the real 2025-26 NBA, it’s the kind of blockbuster that lives on the trade machine and never gets anywhere near the transaction log.
