The Mavs acquired Kyrie Irving mid-season and it's fair to say it was a disaster.

With Irving, Dallas would drop out of the playoff spots and not even make the Play-In tournament as they finished the regular season as the No. 11 seed with a 38-44 record — losing eight of their last 10 games.

To top things off, Irving will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer so even if the Mavs wanted to trade him and get some pieces back, they can't.

There is a silver lining though, and that's the fact that they didn't have to give up that much to acquire his services. All it took was a trade package of a 2029 first-round pick, Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith.

A big reason for that was the baggage that Irving came with.

According to The Athletic, when the 2016 NBA champion was suspended by the Brooklyn Nets in November for endorsing a film with antisemitic views to his social media as well as repeatedly refusing to apologize, some within Dallas immediately saw it as an opportunity to acquire him for a cheaper asking price than expected for a player of his caliber.

The eventual trade package for Irving certainly proved that to be true as the Mavs front office viewed the deal as a long-term play with the hope of better short-term results.

Of course, the better short-term results never happened and now Dallas will have to convince Irving to re-sign in free agency.

That said, Mavs general manager Nico Harrison is said to be optimistic of doing just that.