Kyrie Irving trade reaction, Mavericks NBA title odds, Durant's next move | 3 Points w/ Chris Mannix

All right, so it is over. The Kyrie Irving era in Brooklyn has come to an end. The Nets agreeing to a deal with the Dallas Mavericks that sends Irving to Texas. In exchange, you get Dorian Finney-Smith, you get Spencer Dinwiddie, a 2029 first round pick, and some other second round draft capital back in return. So, let's take a look at this from the perspective of both teams. If you're Brooklyn, this was probably the best deal you could get that kept you in contention, kept you theoretically in a position where with a healthy Kevin Durant, you could win a championship. Look at what they got back. Dorian Finney-Smith's a pretty good play. He is a versatile, three and D type of guy, shooting 35, 36 from three this year. Plug and play, kind of Royce O'Neal-esque, if you want to make a comparison, that gives them another reliable rotation player. Spencer Dinwiddie, not the second star that maybe the Mavericks hoped he was going to be, but you're talking about a guy that can give you 15, 16, 17 points per game, who shoots right now 40% from three, and who is going back to where it all started. I mean, Spencer Dinwiddie had some great years early in his career in Brooklyn, and I think he's someone that the Nets are going to be able to rely on to be part of that rotation. Now, is it enough for Brooklyn to compete with Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, the top tier teams in the Eastern Conference? We'll see. What I do know is that the Nets record with Kevin Durant in the starting lineup is actually better percentage-wise than what it is with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in the starting lineup, because Kevin Durant just elevates guys around him. So I think it's certainly possible, if Durant is still able to play at an MVP level when he comes back from this leg injury, that the Nets could compete. If Finney Smith fits in the rotation, if Dinwiddie continues to shoot the ball well, this is a team that's going to go eight, nine guys deep in their rotation. They're a good team. So I think if you're Brooklyn and you wanted to stay competitive, this was probably the best deal you could get. Like, a Russell Westbrook deal with the Lakers got you nowhere. It would have blown up your luxury tax payments, and who knows if the Nets would have even wanted to keep Russell Westbrook around. I don't think Kevin Durant was clamoring for a reunion with Russell Westbrook. The Clippers had gotten into it a little bit late, but they could just kind of throw a Luke Kennard-centric package back at Brooklyn, and that didn't make a lot of sense. I never got the sense that the Suns were ever really in play. You know, the Suns clearly see the Chris Paul era coming to an end, but they just didn't have the assets. I mean, they're not going to throw DeAndre Ayton in a deal for Kyrie Irving. It's not the same situation, because they're thinking the same things we are. What about this guy? Are we going to want to resign him in a year, and they're not going to surrender a player like DeAndre Ayton to get a guy like that back? So, this was probably the best deal the Nets could get before the trade deadline. That salvages, at least theoretically, the possibility that they could compete for a championship. Now, from Dallas's perspective, I talked about this on my podcast earlier in the week, and Dallas, to me, seemed the most likely option here, because the Mavericks, like the Lakers, and to a certain degree, the Suns, kind of reeking of desperation right now. As much as Dallas wants to downplay the idea that Luka Doncic could ask out, we've seen guys ask out with a couple of years left in their contract, and Doncic's only a year or so away from being in that position. And if you watched him this year, he has been incredibly frustrated by not getting the kind of help he needs to win games. It has been the Luka Doncic show. Christian Wood was a pretty good signing, has had a pretty good acquisition, I should say, has helped them out in that frontcourt, but he just not has had a reliable score next to him, and with Jalen Brunson gone, that guy just wasn't really going to materialize. So you know the Mavericks are a little bit desperate. So I get this from their perspective. They are now going to have the most dynamic offensive backcourt in the NBA. I mean, Luka Doncic is an MVP candidate. Kyrie Irving, at 31 years old-ish, is an all-star starter, almost 31 years old, is an all-star starter, one of the best offensive players in the NBA. So they're really tough to stop. They're not great defensively in that backcourt, but they're going to put up a lot of points, theoretically, if Doncic and Kyrie play well together. The issue is if they can't meet Kyrie's contractual demands. And you have to wonder, you know, if this season doesn't end with a deep playoff run, is Mark Cuban going to dip into his pockets and give Kyrie the three-year or four-year max-level contract that he was seeking? The Nets, from what I was told, were willing to go two years at a high level. But after a while, you know, they wanted certain protections. I don't blame them. I mean, the Kyrie Irving era in Brooklyn was a disaster, a complete disaster. He sabotaged their season last year by, you know, refusing to get the vaccine, which New York City had mandated. So that blew up their chances of success last season. And this year, I mean, he didn't get his way. So he decided to throw a tantrum and say, I'm not going to play out the rest of my contract. And Jacques Vaughn, who is loathe to criticize players, you know, after the game on Saturday, said, you know, your responsibility is to show up. And Kyrie Irving was not willing to meet those responsibilities. So is Dallas willing to give him the kind of contract that will guarantee him a certain level of security? I don't know the answer to that question. So it's a roll of the dice for Dallas, but given their situation with Luka Doncic, given their situation with his contract, and given that they were kind of just floundering right now, they look like a first-round exit type of team after making the Western Conference Finals a year ago. I don't think they had, I think that they were one of the teams that needed to make this type of deal. So Kyrie Irving gets his wish. He's off to a new location, to a team that might be willing to pay him at the end of the year. And the Nets, even though they're not getting dollar-for-dollar value back, they are getting a guy or guys that should fit into their rotation. And if Kevin Durant can keep being Kevin Durant, that's a team that's gonna have a chance to beat somebody in the playoffs.