Meiji: The Mavericks have the motivation to mess up this season, and they may consider trading Deng Mei and Irving
6686 Sports News on November 13 Yesterday, Mavericks boss Dumont officially announced the dismissal of team general manager Nico Harrison.
TA reporters Joe Vardon, Christian Clark and Sam Amick jointly issued an article today, talking about the future of the Mavericks, mentioning Anthony Davis and Irving:
The 32-year-old Anthony Davis has now become the focus of attention across the league, and people are speculating that he may become the next star to be traded. He has two years left on his current contract and has a player option worth $62.8 million in the 2027-28 season; but he will be eligible to sign a three-year contract extension next summer worth about $218.5 million. Irving has the same contract as Davis (also includes a player option worth $42.4 million for the 2027-28 season), so the two are now facing a similar situation.
The Mavericks have an incentive to "squander" this season because the only first-round pick they fully control is the 2026 one - this is the team's only unmaintained first-round pick before 2031. In this case, whether to make such a large investment in these two older stars becomes an extremely complicated question, which may prompt the team to consider trading them.