The Dallas Mavericks have found their temporary replacement for Kyrie Irving.
The Mavericks struck a two-year, $13 million deal with point guard D’Angelo Russell on Monday afternoon, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. Russell will have a player option in the second year of the deal, too. The No. 2 pick from the 2015 NBA Draft will now get to join a Dallas team rebuilt around Anthony Davis and rookie Cooper Flagg, and he’ll presumably get significant minutes right away this fall.
Russell has bounced around a lot in recent years. The Mavericks will actually be his fourth team in the past four seasons. He was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers by the Minnesota Timberwolves during the 2022-23 campaign, and then the Lakers sent him to Brooklyn ahead of the deadline last season. He finished out the end of a two-year, $36 million deal there, and then entered free agency this summer.
In total, Russell averaged a career-low 12.6 points and 5.1 assists per game last season across both his stints with the Lakers and the Nets. He also shot a career-worst 39% from the field. Though Russell has struggled over the last several seasons, at least some of that can be attributed to his seemingly constant movement.
Perhaps most importantly for Dallas, though, is that they’ve now landed an experienced point guard to hold things down before Irving comes back. Irving is currently recovering from an ACL injury he sustained earlier this spring, and he’s expected to be sidelined until January or so. Irving is the plan for Dallas long-term, too. He agreed to a new three-year, $119 million extension with the franchise last week.
But until Irving can take the floor again, whenever that ends up being, they need a replacement for him. Russell is a great, and inexpensive, option to fill in there. And, if Russell can prove he can still succeed in the league, he can parlay this stint into a more lucrative deal somewhere else down the road.
The Mavericks went just 39-43 last season and largely fell apart after trading away star Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers for Davis. But now with Flagg arriving in Dallas after the draft, and a new point guard to bridge the gap for the first few months, the Mavericks appear to be in a position to compete again in the West. While it may not be a long-term spot for Russell, it’s definitely a great opportunity for him too.
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