{"id":613098,"date":"2026-02-20T06:13:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/613098\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T06:13:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:13:28","slug":"mavericks-jason-kidd-explains-why-kyrie-irving-wont-play-again-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/613098\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks\u2019 Jason Kidd explains why Kyrie Irving won\u2019t play again this season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mavericks\u2019 Jason Kidd explains why Kyrie Irving won\u2019t play again this season<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Kyrie Irving<\/a> suffered a torn ACL last March, everyone knew that the star point guard would miss a significant chunk of the 2025-26 season. The recovery timeline became murkier as the year progressed, and after the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> sunk further into quicksand, the expectation was that he would not play at all until the next campaign. The team officially shut down Irving<\/a> on Wednesday, a move that fans appreciate immensely.<\/p>\n

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Mavs head coach Jason Kidd<\/a> specifically explained why<\/a> the 2016 NBA champion will be inactive for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong-term health,\u201d he said, per Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News. \u201cWe want to make sure he\u2019s ready to go for next season\u2026For him, at practice, some of the things that he\u2019s working on, he looks good. I think as we get into March and April, we want him to keep going in the right direction. For that decision he made, we\u2019re thinking about the long term of his health and for us being healthy going into next season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mavericks are hoping to come back strong next season<\/p>\n

Dallas obviously does not want Irving to return for the final stretch of a lost campaign and potentially suffer a setback or inadvertently hurt the franchise\u2019s draft positioning. The Mavericks have had a miserable year, as they lumber their way through the post-Luka Doncic era. Fantastic rookie Cooper Flagg<\/a> ensures that Dallas can return to an upward trajectory at some point soon, but he could certainly use some more help.<\/p>\n

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A premium draft pick in a loaded class could give the Mavs one of the brightest futures in the NBA. It also benefits Kyrie Irving. The 33-year-old knows he has a limited amount of time to win another ring. He is still a high-level scorer, but carrying huge offensive responsibilities on a nightly basis seems impractical, especially following a major injury<\/a>. An ascending Flagg and a possible top-five pick could shoulder the burden a bit.<\/p>\n

Though, because of the youthful talent on this roster, Irving will still be a vitally important component of the Mavericks for the next two seasons. He cannot take on that role unless he is healthy, however. The future Hall of Famer now has an additional 200-plus days to get right.<\/p>\n

Related: Mavericks rumors: Watch out for Klay Thompson buyout or trade this summer<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Mavericks star Cooper Flagg won\u2019t play vs. Timberwolves due to mid-foot sprain<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mavericks\u2019 Jason Kidd explains why Kyrie Irving won\u2019t play again this season appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,225,686,149,4057,509,3716,967,166,23737,6,21024,31616,490],"class_list":{"0":"post-613098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cooper-flagg","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-dallasmavericks","13":"tag-doncic","14":"tag-jason-kidd","15":"tag-kyrie-irving","16":"tag-mavericks","17":"tag-mike-curtis","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-star-point-guard","20":"tag-the-dallas-morning-news","21":"tag-the-mavericks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116101487722809355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}