Kyrie Irving had a phenomenal year with the Dallas Mavericks, busting all doubts over his backcourt partnership with Luka Doncic by being the perfect co-star as the Mavericks made it to the NBA Finals. Irving had a noticeable drop-off in the Finals and was anonymous during the Celtics 4-1 series win over them. He’s discussed the loss on a live stream and took accountability for not helping the team.
“Last year was definitely a disappointing year from the standpoint of not winning the Finals as a team and coming up short. We got there for a reason. Blood is definitely in the water.”
“I’m always going to take my accountability, it starts with me. It definitely starts with me. As we close out September with 23-24 highlight film, I’ve got to set that straight. I did not play my best at all down the stretch in the season and it’s been eating me alive in a healthy way. I’ve been staying motivated. We’re gonna be back… Just gonna have fun and take it day by day. Losing f***ing sucks though.”
Dallas Mavericks star guard Kyrie Irving on losing the NBA Finals and his outlook for this season:
“Last year was definitely a disappointing year from the standpoint of not winning the Finals…We got there for a reason. Blood is definitely in the water. I’m always going to take… pic.twitter.com/glrp3PJzx2
— Noah Weber (@noahweber00) September 5, 2024
Irving averaged 25.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 5.2 assists during the regular season. He probably would have been an All-Star or All-NBA candidate if he hadn’t missed a bulk of the start of the season due to injury. The Mavs went 50-32 on the season and went 35-16 when Doncic and Irving played together.
The Finals saw the Mavericks’ perimeter offense completely stuffed up by the Celtics’ incredible starting five which features four elite perimeter defenders. Irving couldn’t break the Celtics defense down, averaging 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 9.8 assists over the five-game series.
Doncic struggled similarly but still managed to average 29.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 5.6 assists to create some offense for the Mavs, but Irving couldn’t answer that call.
With Klay Thompson joining the franchise this summer, the Mavericks will hope their offense can compete among the league’s best after averaging just 99.2 points over five games in the Finals, a steep drop-off to the 117.9 they averaged in the regular season.
Kyrie Irving Brought Klay Thompson To The Mavericks
Kyrie was quick to move on from the disappointment in the Finals, spending a part of his early offseason trying to recruit Klay Thompson to the Mavericks. LeBron James was personally recruiting Klay to the Lakers at the same time, so Irving’s personal experience of going through a career renaissance in Dallas convinced Thompson to take a pay cut to join the Mavericks instead of going home to LA.
Mavs head coach Jason Kidd revealed the details of how influential Kyrie was in the process.
“When you talk about the recruitment, it was a lot of people that were involved in that. But one of the biggest players in that was Kai. Kai being able to, player to player, (detail) his experience of what Dallas has been like for him in two years and being able to tell Klay the honest truth of what he thinks can happen with Klay coming to Dallas.”
Klay averaged 17.9 points on 38.7% from three last season, one of his worst years in the NBA. The hope is that Klay can revive his career by playing off two magnetic offensive talents like Luka and Kyrie, getting easier opportunities offensively compared to the No. 2 option role he had to carry on the Warriors last season.
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