Did unpopular trade play role in Kyrie Irving's injury?

Before Irving suffered his season-ending ACL tear Monday night, he'd been playing heavy minutes for the short-handed Mavericks. Not counting Monday's game, where Irving played just nine minutes before his injury, Irving was playing 39.3 minutes per game. Only Kevin Durant averaged more minutes in that stretch, playing 39.4 for the Phoenix Suns.

The reason for Irving's severe workload was twofold. First, trading Doncic removed Dallas' other primary offensive creator, leaving the burden of scoring and passing firmly on Irving's shoulders. The second was that the Mavericks insisted that dealing Doncic for Anthony Davis was a move to "win now and win in the future."

If they don't trade Doncic, or don't insist it's a win-now move, perhaps the Mavericks are more cautious with Irving, who missed five games with a back injury as recently as January. He also had season-ending knee injuries in 2015 and 2018, when he was decidedly younger. But the pressure was on GM Nico Harrison and the team to deliver wins after their unpopular trade, and that pressure extended to Irving.

Last season, Irving averaged 35 minutes per game. Even with a bigger workload with Doncic injured for much of the season, Irving was averaging 36.7 minutes before the trade. Still, the Mavericks increased his minutes and doubled down on their insistence that the trade would help them this season, to the detriment of their remaining star guard.

It's part of what feels like willful blindness on the part of the Mavericks front office. Seeing Anthony Davis miss time with injuries shouldn't be a surprise in 2025. Irving has missed 20 games or more in 10 of his 14 NBA seasons. Yet because the team made clear to reporters its concerns about Doncic's conditioning and his risk of injuries, they may have felt they couldn't then rest Irving.

Now the Mavericks won't have Irving until some time in 2026 and there are rumors they'll shut down Davis for the season as well. It's encouraging that Dallas might be cautious about the health of one of their stars. It's unfortunate that it's too late for Irving.