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The Dallas Mavericks have reportedly honed in on their replacement point guard for the injured Kyrie Irving: D'Angelo Russell.
According to NBA insider Marc Stein, who has long been plugged in with the Mavericks, Russell is believed to be by other teams a top target for Dallas this offseason.
“The Mavericks continue to be described by rival teams as the overwhelming favorites to sign D'Angelo Russell away from Brooklyn to be their starting point guard while Kyrie Irving continues his rehabilitation from a torn ACL,” Stein wrote for The Stein Line.
Russell, 29, spent last season with the Los Angeles Lakers and then the Brooklyn Nets following a trade in late December 2024. The second overall pick in the 2015 draft, Russell has proven to be a top-notch scorer and distributor at his peak, but the 2024-25 season was by far the worst of his NBA career.
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Between the Lakers and Nets, Russell's playing time not only reached a career low, but he proved to be far more ineffective than he had previously shown. Aside from his rookie season, Russell has not averaged fewer points per 36 minutes than last season. Additionally, his 3-point shooting shockingly suffered; after back-to-back seasons hovering around or above 40% on 3-pointers, Russell shot 31.4% from beyond the arc in 2024-25, which ranks as the worst mark of his career. Previously, he had shot below 34% in a season only once.
The context in which all that happened cannot be ignored, though, as Russell was the subject of numerous trade rumors a year or more before he ultimately was dealt by the Lakers. And when he arrived in Brooklyn, he joined a franchise with little incentive to try to win games. As a result, the Nets traded multiple players who could have been of help in that regard, including Dennis Schroder, as well as Dorian Finney-Smith, for whom the Lakers traded Russell.
Now, after drafting three guards and four players total in the first round of this past week's NBA Draft, the Nets have little reason to seriously pursue the idea of retaining Russell, who just completed a two-year, $36 million contract extension that he signed with the Lakers two offseasons ago.
As for the Mavericks, they could certainly use Russell, particularly if he regains the form he had even two seasons ago. Dallas will likely be without starting guard Kyrie Irving for most of or the entire 2024-25 season after suffering a torn ACL in March.
