Mark Cuban: Kyrie Knows It’s Luka’s Team

Mark Cuban had an interview with Patrick Beverley in which he discussed the dynamic on the Dallas Mavericks between Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving to close the season. The Mavericks missed out on the play-in despite the trade for Irving.

“When you look at last year, we had issues that had nothing to do with Kyrie or Luka playing together,” said Cuban. “When they played together, I was just looking at it. Out of 900 possessions they played together, they were (a top-five combo in the league). We just didn’t have a team that was committed to the roles. The year before when we went to the Western Conference Finals everybody knew their role and everybody played their role perfectly. And it wasn’t Kyrie or Luka, they knew their roles. But once other guys start playing for themselves or not playing for the team, every mistake that you could possibly have is just magnified to no end.

“We made some changes, a lot of changes this year, on and off the court. We got younger, we got longer. The other thing is, when you are on the outside looking at stuff about Kai, right? I didn’t know him at all. I just read the same stuff and you see the dude bounce from team to team, you get some perceptions. But then I started talking to people before the deal, everybody loved him. Luka was like we needed somebody else. But when you talk to people, people love Kai. And yeah you watch after games, guys will trade jerseys. People would just walk up and hug Kyrie. Now that I’ve gotten to know Kai a lot better and that’s who he is. Kyrie wants to think about things, Kyrie wants to connect to people and connect to history and know who he is. he just wants to take it to the next level personally, but he recognizes this is his game right here. If he gets bounced again, can you be a Hall of Famer when you bounce to five teams, even though you’ve got Hall of Fame talent?”

Beverley also asked Cuban to explain how the Mavericks’ trade for Irving come about with Doncic.

“It was a little bit of all of the above,” said Cuban. “Nico (Harrison) is finding his way, (Jason) Kidd, obviously. Luka and I have got a great relationship, so we all talk. It’s not just my decision or Luka’s decision. It’s an open dialogue. But we knew we needed to do something because even before the trade we were like 29-26. The Western Conference is insane, so we were in like fifth place, but we didn’t have a team. But a lot of it goes back to the roles. People talk about Kai and Luka fitting together. Kai knows it’s Luka’s team. Kai knows how Luka plays. Great basketball players are great basketball players, and they know how to play off anybody else.”