Irving spoke after the Mavericks beat the Indiana Pacers 125-122 at home on Monday night, a result that moved Dallas to 7-4. Trade speculation around him has not slowed.
He told reporters he had taken the matter to his teammates directly, instructing them to tune out anything written or said about his future.
“I let the team know out of my own mouth that these trade rumors, anything that’s going on with me, do not let this infiltrate our locker room. Don’t let this get in the way of what we have building here,” Irving told Dallas Sports Journal.
Irving framed the warning as an internal culture issue rather than a reaction to any specific report, and he credited head coach Dusty May for holding the group to its standards.
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Dallas stopped taking the calls in June
Irving’s message lines up with the organisation’s. Marc Stein has reported that Dallas have told rival front offices since June that Irving is not available.
“The Mavs have consistently told teams they don’t even want to field your call,” Stein wrote.
Masai Ujiri, the team president, has shown no appetite for dealing Irving since taking over, according to Sports Illustrated. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon has said the longer he spends around the group, the harder a trade becomes to picture.
The Flagg partnership is the pitch
Dallas want to see how far Irving’s on-court relationship with 19-year-old Cooper Flagg can go before breaking it up. Flagg’s pass-first game has given Irving the handling and shot-creation looks he thrives on, and May’s rotation has lightened his workload compared with his pre-injury minutes.
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Irving himself nodded to the depth, saying Dallas can go ten or eleven deep on a given night rather than leaning on his minutes the way past teams have.
The Heat keep showing up in the chatter
The Miami Heat have been the team most frequently linked to Irving in recent reporting, according to Bleacher Report, with MacMahon calling Irving “the No. 1 thing people are asking me about” when the conversation turns to Dallas.
Irving is averaging 21.4 points per game this season. He will turn 35 in March and holds a player option for 2027-28. Dallas next play on Thursday against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center, with tip-off at 7pm local time.
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