Kyrie Irving Finally Returns to the Mavericks Starting Lineup

Underdog NBA just dropped the Dallas Mavericks' starting five for Friday, and it looks like a 2K MyLeague simulation that accidentally auto-generated. Dallas is officially rolling out Kyrie Irving, Max Christie, Cooper Flagg, P.J. Washington, and Daniel Gafford.

The headline here is obviously Irving. Seeing his name in an active lineup feels like finding a working ice cream machine at McDonald's. He is finally back on the floor after a brutal knee injury wiped out his entire 2025-26 campaign and kept him sidelined for 19 agonizing months.

Throwing a healthy Irving next to Cooper Flagg is the kind of basketball experiment that makes League Pass worth the subscription fee. Flagg has been operating as a point-forward for Dallas lately, but with a primary ball-handler back in the mix, the rookie phenom gets to actually breathe and play off the ball.

The rest of the group brings some much-needed stability to a rotation that has been searching for answers. Daniel Gafford gets the nod at center, which makes sense considering he quietly averaged a career-high 12.8 points per game last year and gives them a reliable lob threat. Max Christie and P.J. Washington round out the wings to do the dirty work while the stars cook.

For anyone staring at the prop markets, this completely scrambles the math. You cannot just blindly project Dallas usage rates the same way you did when they were getting blown out by the Oklahoma City Thunder 120-96 earlier this week. Irving is going to command the ball, which means fewer forced isolation reps for everyone else and a totally different pace.

The real test is how this group looks when the whistle actually blows on Friday. If Irving still has his old burst and Flagg figures out how to play off him, the Mavericks might actually have a rotation that makes sense. If not, we are going to be refreshing that lineup page again by Monday.