The Dallas Mavericks’ All-Star duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving was instrumental in leading the team this year’s NBA Finals. As a result, both players have been recognized as the top point guards that can make an impact in the upcoming season.
The Mavericks made a bold move in 2023 by pairing superstars Doncic and Irving, an unlikely duo that many doubted would succeed. However, the Mavs’ coaching staff, led by Jason Kidd, believed they could bring these polarizing personalities together and make them title contenders.
Despite initial struggles, the Mavericks remained committed to the partnership, re-signing Irving to a three-year, $120 million deal. Over the last eight months, the trust between Doncic and Irving has blossomed, and their on-court chemistry has flourished. The team has also added the right pieces to complement the superstar duo, and the Mavericks are now competing for their first NBA championship since 2011.
The road to this moment has been far from smooth, but the Mavericks’ belief in their plan and their patience in allowing the partnership to develop has paid off. The team’s front office and coaching staff deserve credit for their unwavering commitment to making this unlikely duo work, and their efforts have transformed the Mavericks into a formidable title contender.
While their pairing was doubted at first, the end result worked wonders for Dallas. According to an analysis by Hoops Hype’s Frank Urbina, both Doncic and Irving are among the top point guards for next season with the former coming in at first and the latter in 11th place.
“Doncic ended up third in the 2023-24 MVP vote, the highest finish of his career, after leading the league in scoring at 33.9 points per game to go with 9.2 rebounds, 9.8 assists and 1.4 steals per contest. He did that on 48.7 percent shooting from the floor and 38.2 percent accuracy from three, the latter being a career-best rate for him.
Doncic finished second league-wide in BPM and VORP and, post-trade deadline, had Dallas looking like a full-blown contender. That wound up being true, too, as Doncic led the Mavericks all the way to the NBA Finals through a crowded and tough Western Conference.
All in all, the 25-year-old continues to somehow improve year over year, an even more impressive feat considering he’s coming off of five straight 1st Team All-NBA nods,” Urbina wrote.
“Irving would rank him higher on talent alone or based on recent playoff performance, but his body of work in the regular season usually falls a bit short. Irving has only made one All-NBA Team since 2019, a 3rd team appearance in 2021, three full seasons ago now.
Irving’s play itself is impressive in the regular season, as the former No. 1 overall pick has averaged 26.6 points and 5.4 assists on 49.0 percent shooting over the past three seasons combined, he just misses a lot of time, with Irving failing to play more than 60 regular-season games since 2018-19,” Urbina added.
Coming in at second place is Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, last season’s MVP runner-up to Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic. Rounding up the top five are Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton, and Stephen Curry.
Although there is a disparity between the teammates when it comes to this projection, there is no denying how effective they have been on the court. Expect Irving and Doncic to ball out once again when the NBA returns later this year.