Kyrie Injury Update – Good news for people who love bad news

Kyrie Irving may return to action much sooner than originally expected

The 2024-25 season is officially over for the Dallas Mavericks after losing in the Play-In Tournament to the Memphis Grizzlies Friday night. For some Mavs’ fans (perhaps even the majority), this comes as a mercy. This season has been laden with an unprecedented level of bad basketball news to the point it requires actual effort to remember what good basketball news feels like. Depending on how committed you are to Kyrie Irving’s tenure in Dallas, the string of bad luck the franchise has endured of late may yet be breaking.

Buried in the excitement of the Play-In Tournament and the rage felt toward Nico Harrison’s cloak-and-dagger media session (don’t miss Brent Brooks’ fantastic piece on that, coming to Mavs Moneyball on Sunday morning) was an update on Irving’s injury status. During the episode of NBA Countdown prior to the Mavs/Kings game Wednesday, Shams Charania dropped the extremely optimistic update on Irving. “There’s optimism that he [Irving] will be back by January,” stated Shams.

ACL injuries such as the one Irving suffered on March 3 are typically expected to carry a six-to-12 month recovery time, often trending toward the long side of that range. If in fact Irving returns nearer to the start of January 2026, that will put his recovery time at nine months. Should the Mavs’ fortunes prove to turn around in this manner, that will mean Irving only misses two months of next season and will have plenty of time to load up for a potential run to the Playoffs.

We are a long way away from the start of next season, with the NBA Draft and an Offseason of potential transactions yet to come, but for a fanbase starved for something positive and a relatively narrow championship window, news of Irving’s return being sooner than expected will hopefully provide Mavs Nation with some hope.