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How Much Has Kyrie Helped The Mavs Mature This Season? | K&C Masterpiece



How Much Has Kyrie Helped The Mavs Mature This Season? | K&C Masterpiece

The Mavericks win last night 113 to 107 over the San Antonio Spurs Kyrie Irving 28 points seven rebounds three assists two steals no blocks uh and I’m kind of frustrated by his lack of blocks this year uh he does have three though in his last five games so that’s pretty cool is

The thing that I’ve been most excited about watching him Mike we talk about defensive effort and whenever we say defensive effort it felt like there were you were kind if if Luca didn’t give the defensive effort and Kyrie didn’t then the other three guys wouldn’t either and when I’m watching

Now I see Luca trying uh defensively but most importantly a guy that in Kyrie I see him trying hard too and not that I’m saying what I was watching before was he wasn’t but there’s something about him being healthy in this stretch now that he’s been playing all the games and he’s

Like I want to be part of what we’re doing as a team I have a question off of what you just said I think it’s a heck of a question and there’s no right answer who do you think follows the energy of their leader more the quarterback of a football team or the

Superstar of a basketball team because I’m with you that if luk is like I’m not playing defense the rest of the team is like well we’re following we if he doesn’t care we’re not going to win anyways and then I think the quarterback has this certain we talk about the lead

Leadership or the energy or like they have something too there’s some sort of energy force that they put off and if they seem to be nervous or not playing at their best or then then it’s like the rest of the team follows that energy as

A great I mean that’s a mike that’s I I love what you just said because when we talked with uh Duffy Danny Duffy the pitcher uh he brought up and we we kind of talked about this a little bit he brought up Bo being the perfect manager

For a team and he took it he compared it to the idod uh remember the story he was like how do you pick the lead dog like why why do you choose that dog do you want this the mor most ferocious Alpha on the group and he’s like no I want the

Calmest one because the one that’s the calmest is while he’s up there leading all the rest follow him so when things start to go wrong or whenever everything if I got the alpha the big strong dog there he’s going to pull he’s going to do his job but he’s also following the

Dude who’s in front now maybe the alpha is the calmest one but that that was what he pointed out was the calest one is the one they follow so I think with Cory Seager the team followed him they talked about it right with they they were like hey we follow Cory Seager Adas

Is a great Alpha to have on the team yeah but he’s part of the team so I and I think that’s now when it comes to alphas and that conversation that’s completely different world but that was Duffy’s perception from ID rod and why he thinks that Bruce Boi is the perfect

Manager when you look at Patrick Mahomes he’s the perfect quarterback for championship winning teams he also said during the last season it’s on me our guys aren’t playing well enough I have to be better I have to work harder I have to do these things so that they’ll

Start doing all those things as well so I think that’s a that’s a good perspective on it Luca is the leader Kyrie’s the leader too though and and that’s where Kyrie does I think you look at maybe it’s frustrating for fans sometimes to watch him be so kind to all

The other players in the league like last night wiim minyama uh gets hit in the eye and I don’t know if it was Washington or if it was accidentally got him he patted him on the chest he was over near the Mavs bench said hey obviously you’re s foot zillion and I

Reached up to get the ball and there was no way to get it I accidentally hit you in the head sorry and and that was that was definitely a moment where I was like hey you know you didn’t have to do that but Kyrie has relationships across the

League he and as we were talking you know he went to the Lakers championship game and everybody’s like well hold on now he wants to go be a Laker but what he’s done here he has taken on this role of I see that Luc is not quite ready for

The get all the guys connect with all the guys and and go in this direction get them to follow so Kyrie was like I’ll do that and I I know how to do that I’m good at this and at the moment I think I heard the the morning show they

Were like are we still in that stage of what do we you know are we questioning where Kyrie’s loyalties are well the dude I’m watching right now is completely committed to this team right now what I’m seeing I’m with you I’m going off body language and the way I

Watch him the way I see him communicate with referees like you said it’s not freaking out conversations I’m sure the other three organizations Cleveland Boston and Brooklyn are like hey how come he seem so content and happy there and wasn’t with us it at this point in

His career over a year now I won’t say with Cleveland cuz he was a 19 20y old but at this point in Boston at this point in Brooklyn there was contention there was I’m not sure I want to be here anymore I’m not sure I like this or like

That and so far right now we’re a little bit over a year into Kyrie Irving being on the Mavericks and he seems as content as happy satisfied with his role satisfied with playing with Luca and hopefully it continues you have him for two more years under contract hopefully

Kyrie this person as long as Dwight Pal doesn’t jump on his ankle he can stay this healthy and be this type of teammate how as far as like what you’re seeing what kind of impact do you think he is having on the the PJ was Washington and the gaffords with those

Highly Educated player I think he’s a very smart basketball player so I’m sure I don’t know this but I bet in huddles and coming out of huddles or you know during free throws that they’re not shooting he probably gives them a little bit of some sort of sentence some sort

Of hey if you do this I’ll be here for you if you do that I’ll make sure to hit you there but you got to be here if you’re here I can’t get the ball to you like I’m sure there’s there’s those type of things and in practice he’s probably

Giving them thoughts and ideas on hey if you do this for me this is how I like seeing it Luca likes seeing it this way I like seeing it this way so I do think that that they have to work off of two guys that are unbelievable at their job

But Luca does things a little bit different than Kyrie so when Luca does get his short rest and Kyrie’s running the show I’m sure that the other four make small adjustments it might be major adjustments but small adjustments to be like all right Kai’s running the show

This is where we want to do this is how we want to be they definitely push they definitely push more when Kai when when he’s the one out there I see Hardy or whoever it is I see them going to the basket fast on turnovers fast on rebounds that’s something for sure that

That I’m noticing at least whenever I’m watching this I I do like I this is where I would love to hear more from Kyrie about out his connections with his teammates as they’re going through this stage of it not what they were going through earlier he’s been poisoned by

The media oh yeah that unless you’re a cowboy and it’s still I don’t care what anybody says I’ve been there I’ve I’ve been in New York still in New York it’s worse than than Dallas Cowboys have to deal with it’s not even close to be honest

Is he doesn’t have to deal with what he dealt with in Boston media wise Brooklyn media wise Cleveland I don’t think he dealt with a whole bunch obviously they got on a a very big National Spotlight because he was there with LeBron and they were competing for championships

Against the Golden State Warriors but I don’t think that he’s probably very protective in a way about the media but we have a pretty nice media here especially when it comes to Maverick stars and Rangers Cowboys it’s it’s worse it’s not close to as worse as if you’re playing in the Northeast

But but uh it I just the Cowboys fan base is the most is more difficult to deal with I think than the Cowboys media honestly in fact it’s going to be weird if the Mavericks make the real playoffs and what I mean by that is playing in a

Whole series not a playoff playing game because then you have to do an interview after every game Kyrie Irving has to go to the podium for anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes and he has to answer a lot of questions well who’s going to be there besides the two local teams media the

National media is going to be there and guess what the national media is going to do most of them work in New York most of them live in New York they’re going to come down to Dallas or Minnesota if you’re playing Minnesota in the first round and they’re going to ask them all

Of these questions about Brooklyn about the things that you just brought up and Kyrie’s going to go I’ve been away from that situation 18 months why are we bringing that up and I hope that it doesn’t become a small distraction I think Kyrie’s such a professional great

Player but you know that all of a sudden the national media is g to come to the Mavericks playoff series and ask Kyrie about Brooklyn and all the other stuff I’ll just say all the other stuff that has gone along with Kyrie over the years

And I would say it’s not fair but it’s going to happen I would say so here’s my when we were discussing that I think that Kyrie is the calming presence leader on the team right now and I think that Luca doesn’t mind that that’s that’s something that I think is

Interesting we talked about how Luca might be learning from Kyrie just on that one play where he got his shot blocked from behind he thought he got fouled but he said he acted way more like Kyrie all of a sudden I was like he’s acting like Kyrie Irving right now

I was like I think I got fouled I’m not happy with it I said one little thing to the ref but not much at all didn’t show a lot of uh body language energy in this disappointment and then put his hands up got Maxi kba in the right position and

Then hit hard away off of a pick in the corner for an assist three-point and I was like that looked like the way Kyrie handles bad calls not the way Luca handles bad calls but Luca the different thing that I think about it is Luca kept

It in his mind I think Kai lets it go a lot of times and just is like all right what’s the next play guys we have to focus on this Luca kept it there and was like I’m going to put this three dagger in his face and I like that I like the

Assassin part of Luca where he’s thinking that way we found that out through Michael Finley with Grant Williams uh all you got to do is really tick him off and then embarrasses you so I don’t mind to your point if he feels ticked off as long as he uses that

Energy in a good way but I I also and I’m not saying this was a master plan on Nico’s part or master plan on Jason kid’s part because it has taken a while for this to look this way I mean it did take them getting talent and having guys

Who could actually like have adding Derrick these are don’t forget adding Derrick Lively was a this year move adding Gafford was a this year move all these things have happened this year Nico has been able to make some things happen where you have this group right

Now I’m not again I’m not saying this is Jason kids master plan but I think they did recognize Luca is not there yet as a leader we have to have somebody so when they made the move to get Kyrie I do wonder if that was part of the vision

For having him around of being that calming presence or if they said hey look you need to see kind of how this works and then we need you to help us out with this I cuz he is taking on that role without being without saying you know without it sounding like they asked

Him I would be shocked because nobody in the NBA literally nobody said bringing in Kyrie Irving to Dallas is going to be a great inflence on Luca like there was not David Aldridge not any of the national people said that but could they they’re like can they coexist can they

Work the thing is ky has played with LeBron he’s played with Kevin Durant so they’re like he has played with guys that are ball dominant Superstar guy so they did mention that but they didn’t mention Kyrie’s going to come in here and be such a great leader for the team

Now there’s two things that have happened in Mark Cuban’s career that he effed up beyond belief in a way and that was letting Steve Nash go to Phoenix yes and letting Jaylen Brunson go to New York two point guards two guys that were major contributors to playoff teams

Jaylen helped lead a team to the Western Conference finals and then you lose them in the off season now maybe that was already done by the All-Star break that Jay Lyon moved on I don’t want to get into that discussion and what happened there but those are two effed up beyond

Belief situations in the NBA that you let guys of that caliber just leave your organization with no compensation but from the Steve Nash deal when Mark cubin was like I’ve effed this up beyond belief they started making a zillion moves to try to correct it and they made it to the NBA finals

Two years later they made it to the NBA finals because of I’ve effed up up something so bad I got to get my head on straight and figure this out in a hurry and I do think after Jaylen Brunson left and the start of last season

Nico and I will give more blame to mark cubin on this was like I have effed this up beyond belief I got to get my ass in gear and figure out how to solve this problem I created I tremendously created a horrible problem how do we start

Fixing it and I will say to the Kyrie Dereck Lively Daniel Gafford PJ Washington obviously Grant Williams didn’t work out at all but they moved on quickly from it yeah they didn’t say were’re sticking with it and so it’s weird how some of the biggest effed up

Moments in our lives or as a owner general manager which Mark cubin was at the time can get your head on straight and go I got to pull my head out of my rear end and start making positive decisions yeah I’m not say quickly I’m

Not saying this is the team but this is the foundation for what they’re going to add to right now like right whatever moves they they’re going to see in the playoffs they’re going to go okay we’re still a little weak here we got to do

This to be better at this this is what they’re going to build on for the next few years I do see the foundation of a championship team here to your point are there maybe a couple moves to be made in the off season or next trade deadline

Maybe so probably so but that now you have the foundation of Superstar star and and borderline superstar in Kyrie and then you have two great athletic centers one that should keep getting better with age and Derek Lively and some really nice role players around this that’s the core of a

Championship team now maybe a few more tweaks and you get it maybe what we talked about with Luca and he’s maturing maybe Luca taking that next mature step because his game is beyond belief offensively because Kyrie had such a great game last night he doesn’t come

Close to when Luca has a great game offensively and nothing against Kai Kai is one of the best players in the NBA but when Luca has a great game you’re looking at 45 12 and 15 stuff like that where you’re just like dude I get it

It’s a different game than 10 years ago 20 years ago but dudes that when they have good games usually don’t go for Mid 40 triple doubles and that’s what he does when he’s on that is uh that is that is for sure and like you said Mikey

Can tweak it and it might go even better could also go terribly wrong we’ll see now we’ll we’ll keep an eye on how it all Goes

The Mavs picked up a win over the Spurs last night, and there were several moments of improved maturity from Luka Doncic in his interactions with the referees. Are moments like that thanks to Kyrie Irving as the wily veteran? K&C discuss.

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7 Comments

  1. He’s been here for awhile. It’s not his first year. You should ask how has his last couple of years helped the Mavs??

  2. I don't think it's a question of defense. J Kidd and the team are finally coaching/playing complete games

  3. I don't think either one of these guys have the slightest clue of what's going on with the Mavericks.
    Luka has been the leader since day one and he leads like his mentor Dirk and that's by example.

  4. I dont think people understand … nothing happen in Cleveland.. young kyrie wanted to be the man not behind bron shadow.. got to boston found out being the man is hard when you got two young pups that wanna be the man to .. boston wanted ky back remember he left as a free agent… now bk with the covid and getting suspended for posting the Hebrew to negroe book led to a suspension… all the turmoil was in bk… but put this in perspective.. if ky would of been in texas during covid he could of played in all games except Toronto… ny laws was on some bs.. but every body they fired because they didnt take vacvine got their job back with back pay.. and ky is a superstar don't ever disrespect him with that borderline crap…

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