NBA Trade Rumor: Wild 3 Team Proposed Blockbuster Sends Kyrie Irving to Minnesota

Kyrie Irving. Remember him? The nine-time All-Star and former NBA champion sat out the entire 2025-26 season for the Dallas Mavericks with a torn ACL. But he will be ready to go come training camp in the fall. The only thing is, do the Mavs, rebuilding around young phenom Cooper Flagg, really need Irving anymore?

The team is far away from truly contending for a title. It's unlikely that Kyrie, now 34, will be happy in that situation. they need to deal him to a true contender.

Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report takes a crack at it, proposing this three-team blockbuster that would send Irving to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who have come up short in the Western Conference Final two years' running now (pending the results of the upcoming playoffs).

Here's what this mock deal would look like:

Minnesota Timberwolves Receive:

PG Kyrie Irving
C Brook Lopez

Los Angeles Clippers Receive:

C Rudy Gobert

Dallas Mavericks Receive:

F Derrick Jones Jr.
F Bogdan Bogdanović
C Joan Beringer
2029 first-round pick (unprotected from Clippers via Indiana Pacers)

Irving pairing with Anthony Edwards (and Julius Randle) would give the T-Wolves an unstoppable, explosive offensive trio. The team hasn't had a true, elite point guard for some time, and Irving would bring the playmaking that would make Ant even more dangerous.

To be sure, losing Gobert would hurt their defensive identity, but with two-way pivot Naz Reid stepping into the starting spot at center after this hypothetical deal, and Jaden McDaniels continuing to bring his premier perimeter lockdown defense, the Wolves are still set on that end. Additionally, Brook Lopez would bring some rim protection off the bench behind Reid.

For the Clippers, they dealt away their starting center Ivica Zubac at the deadline in their bid to get younger, but they have a gaping hole there now that Gobert would fill if they intend to try to stay in contention next season.

For the Mavs, they would get an unprotected first-rounder as the centerpiece of the deal. Beringer, 19, is a young center who was a first-round pick (17th overall) in the 2025 draft. Jones and Bogdanović "can be kept as rotation pieces or shopped to contenders," writes Swartz.