The Dallas Mavericks traveled to Sacramento to take on the Kings in the Western Conference 9-10 matchup of the NBA's play-in tournament on Wednesday. On NBA Countdown before the play-in double header began on ESPN, Shams Charania joined the show to give an update on Kyrie Irving.
Not only did Charania reveals the Mavericks' optimistic timeline for Irving's return from a torn ACL, but he had details about plans to extend Kyrie with a twist that might raise some eyebrows.
Reporting for NBA Countdown on the target return for Dallas Mavericks All-Star Kyrie Irving after his March ACL tear: pic.twitter.com/nIXqxiKNzR
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 17, 2025
"Kyrie Irving’s return, that’s the big question now," said Charania. "The expectation around the Dallas Mavericks, Kyrie Irving, is that he will play a big chuck of next season. And there’s optimism that he will be back by January."
Irving tore his ACL on March 3, 2025. NBA players generally miss eight months to a year when they tear an ACL so January 2026 makes sense.
Giving a 33-year old coming off a torn ACL a contract extension makes a little less sense.
"He’s got before that a $44 million player-option," Charania continued. "That’s the next situation that Nico Harrison, the Mavericks, will have to deal with and the goal for the Mavericks has been to rip up his player-option and give him a three-year deal, potentially, to align him with Nico Harrison’s three years and Anthony Davis’s three years."
This might be the first time that a franchise has told a reporter that they were going to extend a player so that he and the general manager's contract are on the same time table.
Anthony Davis has a player-option for the '27-'28 season and Nico Harrison got a contract extension when the Mavericks made the 2024 NBA Finals. If the new Kyrie Irving contract includes a player-option in that third year that means that all three could leave two summers from now, but who knows if any of them will still be there by then. The franchise has been known to make a surprising move here and there.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mavs May Give Kyrie Irving an Extension That Aligns With Nico Harrison’s Contract.
