The Dallas Mavericks made a stunning move on Sunday when they made the first big trade of the deadline, sending Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, and picks to the Brooklyn Nets for Kyrie Irving, who issued a trade request on Friday.
Irving’s acquisition will make the Mavs fascinating to watch, as they go all-in on building around a two-headed backcourt monster in Irving and Luka Doncic, with plenty of questions about how they’ll make things work defensively — although, there may be more moves made by Dallas this week to balance out their roster a bit more. While the majority of the focus will be on Dallas and what this does for a Mavs team that has been treading water despite Doncic posting outrageous stats, this is also an intriguing deal for Brooklyn.
Considering Irving’s value varied wildly depending on who you asked, no one could quite figure out what he may end up being traded for. To get a pair of useful players along with a future first in return for him is no small feat, and the Nets at least give themselves a chance to remain competitive once Kevin Durant returns to the lineup — provided he doesn’t re-up his own trade request in the next few days.
The headliner of the Nets return is Spencer Dinwiddie, who returns to where his career took off in Brooklyn, but the way he learned about the deal is the same way all of us did: Shams Charania’s tweet.
When @ShamsCharania says it’s time to go you pack your bags.
Plus Elijah said he wanted to go back home 😅🙏🏾 https://t.co/Enuqat6v0N
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) February 5, 2023
With how quickly things move and how teams can’t make things official for some time, this happens a decent bit, but it’s still wild that players at the trade deadline are blindsided by Shams and Woj tweets just like the rest of us — the big difference being one of those tweets might tell them it’s time to start packing your closet. At least Spencer is moving back to an area he’s familiar with, but this certainly changes the stress level of a Sunday afternoon.
