The Dallas Mavericks’ nightmare season continued on Tuesday when imaging on Kyrie Irving’s knee revealed a torn ACL that will end his season and likely cause him to miss much of the 2025-26 campaign. Irving suffered the injury just nine minutes into Dallas’ loss to the Kings on Monday night.
Since mid-January, Irving had led the league in minutes played per game (38.7 minutes average in 18 games since January 16) as the absence of Luka Doncic, first with injury and then being traded, shifted a tremendous burden onto Irving’s shoulders. It is an unfortunate end to a disastrous season for the Mavericks, and hopefully Irving will be able to make a full recovery and return some time next season.
After a spectacular Finals run a year ago, the Mavs have had horrible injury luck and compounded matters with one of the most bizarre trades the league’s ever seen. Doncic missed more than a month with a calf strain before they traded him for Anthony Davis, who got hurt in his Mavs debut and has been out since alongside the rest of the Mavs center rotation of Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford. It’s hard to imagine a way for a season to go worse for the Mavericks, and looking ahead to next year they figure to be without Irving for at least some of next season. ACL recoveries are each unique, so it’s impossible to pinpoint when Kyrie will be back, but for a team that made clear its goal was to win right now by trading Doncic for Davis, their already shortened window just got even smaller.
It also complicates the Mavs plans this summer. Irving has a player option for next year (worth just over $42 million) and figured to have talks this offseason about a new long-term deal, but injuries can throw a wrench in those conversations. The Mavs will also now have to shift from just trying to find some upgrades alongside Irving in the backcourt to also finding a short-term replacement at the point guard spot until he can return.