On April 3, a 19-year-old playing for a 26-win team scored 51 points against the Orlando Magic, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to reach that mark. Two days later, he dropped 45 on the Lakers. The Dallas Mavericks are not rebuilding. They are watching a generational talent announce himself to the world in real time, and their new president just made clear that the nine-time All-Star who missed the entire season recovering from an ACL tear will be part of what comes next.

Speaking at his first major press conference since taking over from Nico Harrison, Masai Ujiri made the case for retaining Kyrie Irving.

“Kevin Durant once told me that there’s only one Kyrie walking around in the world,” Ujiri said. He then added, “I think we have to figure out a way how Kyrie fits with our program. And I’ve had those conversations with Kyrie up till yesterday.” His closing argument left little room for ambiguity. “I think we owe this organization that.”

The “that” he described is the opportunity to see Irving and Cooper Flagg share a floor, partnering a healthy, veteran playmaker alongside the most exciting young player in the sport.

The statement arrived at a moment of genuine uncertainty. Marc Stein reported this week that there is leaguewide anticipation that the Mavericks will receive trade interest in Irving this offseason, whether they want it or not, especially as rival teams are prepared to test Dallas’ willingness to engage following the team’s front office overhaul.

Furthermore, ESPN’s Jeremy Woo noted that finding trade value for a healthy Irving could be prudent, depending on how Ujiri evaluates the roster fit and whether Dallas risks straddling two timelines: Irving’s veteran window and Flagg’s long-term ascent.

Ujiri’s comments on Tuesday are his clearest signal yet that, for now at least, as he sees no straddling. He sees a partnership.

“There’s a huge curiosity in our minds,” he said, “to see how Kyrie fits playing with Cooper Flagg. He’s just that kind of incredible talent and player.”

Irving missed the entire 2025-26 season as he recovered from the ACL tear he suffered in March 2025, which means that the Flagg-Irving pairing has never actually shared the floor in an NBA game. Flagg averaged 21 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game while shooting 46.8% from the field in his rookie season. He became the first player since Michael Jordan in 1984-85 to lead his team in all four major statistical categories simultaneously.

Interestingly, he did all of that without the spacing and secondary creation that a healthy Irving provides. Analysts covering Dallas noted that Flagg spent the season dealing with consistently stacked paint defenses, a problem that Irving’s gravity and pull-up threat directly address.

The curiosity Ujiri described is grounded in something real: nobody has seen what Flagg looks like with an elite secondary creator beside him, and Irving is arguably the best at that role still active in the league.

“Only One Kyrie Walking Around”: Why Irving Is the Piece That Helps Flagg Rival Wembanyama

The framing of next season’s NBA landscape is already forming. Victor Wembanyama, after he posted 41 points and 24 rebounds in a double-overtime Conference Finals win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, is the frontrunner to be named the league’s next face.

Wemby is a 22-year-old operating at a level that prompted Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce to call him the greatest player he has ever seen.

However, the counter-narrative, the one that Dallas is quietly positioning itself to write, centers entirely on Cooper Flagg. The former Duke star and fellow No. 1 pick is a 19-year-old who broke the all-time teenage scoring record, won Rookie of the Year, and did it all on a 26-win team without a legitimate second star.

Flagg’s rookie campaign placed him alongside Michael Jordan and Walt Bellamy in the record books, and the statistical backbone of those Jordan comparisons was assembled in the worst possible conditions for a young player to thrive.

Kyrie Irving changes those conditions fundamentally. Irving, even coming off a torn ACL, commands defensive attention that no Dallas player could generate in 2025-26. Also, his ability to create clean looks off the dribble in the half-court is the exact pressure relief that Flagg’s game has been missing. The pairing is not simply additive; it is multiplicative.

Flagg, with defenses loading up on him, is exceptional. Flagg with a co-star who demands equal respect is something the league has not yet had to prepare for.

The former Duke star shot just 29.5% from three as a rookie, a number every analyst expects to rise, and Uncle Drew’s pull-up creation out of pick-and-roll gives Dallas the off-ball spacing Flagg needs to operate at full efficiency. Ujiri put it plainly when he invoked Durant’s words: there is only one Kyrie walking around in the world.

For a 19-year-old trying to establish himself as the face of a generation in the same breath as a 7-foot-4 Frenchman playing chess while others play checkers, one Kyrie might be exactly enough.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​