Going into the 2026-27 season, Tim MacMahon expected Kyrie Irving to be the headline name at the February 11, 2027 NBA trade deadline. He now expects the opposite.

“The more I see the team, the more I’m around the team, the more I think it’s going to be awfully hard to trade him,” MacMahon said, via Bleacher Report.

Dallas has started the season 4-2 with Irving back from an ACL tear and running the offence next to rookie Cooper Flagg.

For the Pistons, that is the version of events they did not want. Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix had placed Detroit at the front of any Irving pursuit.

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“I think Detroit is another team that will be salivating over getting Kyrie Irving,” Mannix said, via the Dallas Sports Journal.

Why Detroit was circling

The Pistons are 5-1 and second in the Eastern Conference, a start that has turned Detroit from long rebuild into a team positioned to add rather than accumulate. A ball-handler and closer like Irving is the archetype of player a contender buys at the deadline.

Irving, 34, has returned from a torn ACL suffered on 3 March 2025, and missed the entirety of the 2025-26 season. He is averaging 21.4 points on 52.7% shooting through his first weeks back.

The Flagg factor

What is keeping Irving in Dallas is fit, not finances. His on-court partnership with 19-year-old rookie Cooper Flagg has given the Mavericks an identity through six games, and the front office has made clear it wants to see that pairing run.

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Dallas president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri and general manager Mike Schmitz have both signalled they expect Irving to stay, according to a Sports Illustrated report in August.

MacMahon’s logic is that if the Mavericks are competing for a play-in or playoff spot, moving a 21-point-per-game scorer who is helping develop the franchise’s young face does not make basketball sense, even for a strong return in picks and young players.

Mannix’s counter is that Dallas could still use Irving to replenish long-term draft capital, with the 15-year age gap between Irving and Flagg a structural problem on the roster. Both arguments can hold at once, and the deadline on 11 February 2027 is still more than three months away.

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