06-22-2025, 03:00 PM
[Stein] NBA Draft Eve has the potential to deliver some clarity on another major curiosity of this offseason because Dallas' Irving must decide by Tuesday whether to activate or bypass his $44 million player option for next season … unless the sides agree to move that date to June 29 as Houston and Fred VanVleet recently did with VanVleet's $44.9 million player option.
To be clear: Absolutely nothing has changed in terms of the long-held anticipation that Irving will be anywhere but Dallas next season. Yet it does remain unclear at this juncture whether Irving will simply activate the option and then try to hammer out an extension with the Mavericks that can be signed starting July 7 ... or surrender the option to become an unrestricted free agent.
Passing on the option, of course, would suggest that the sides are headed for a new deal in free agency, with Dallas anticipated for some time to try to re-sign the 33-year-old to a new three-year pact in the general vicinity of his original three-year, $120 million deal with the Mavericks.
To be clear: Absolutely nothing has changed in terms of the long-held anticipation that Irving will be anywhere but Dallas next season. Yet it does remain unclear at this juncture whether Irving will simply activate the option and then try to hammer out an extension with the Mavericks that can be signed starting July 7 ... or surrender the option to become an unrestricted free agent.
Passing on the option, of course, would suggest that the sides are headed for a new deal in free agency, with Dallas anticipated for some time to try to re-sign the 33-year-old to a new three-year pact in the general vicinity of his original three-year, $120 million deal with the Mavericks.