It appears the Dallas Mavericks are looking to retain Kyrie Irving’s services moving forward.

The 32-year-old will be eligible for unrestricted free agency after the 2024-2025 season, but ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported on the Brian Windhorst and the Hoop Collective podcast that the guard is “extremely happy” in Dallas and that the team sees him as a “locker room leader.”

“They’re going to put a big number on the table for him,” MacMahon said. “He’s been extremely happy in Dallas, they’re very happy with him. He’s the leader of this locker room, there’s no question about that, and right now he’s playing as well as he’s ever played.”

Irving has a $43.9 million player option for 2025-2026, but his current play indicates he could make much more than that on the open market.

Irving is averaging 24.3 points, 5.2 assists and 4.3 rebounds in 14 games for Dallas in 2024-25 and has helped the team start the season 8-7. This comes after the franchise reached the NBA Finals in 2023-2024 and Dallas should remain a contender in the Western Conference this season and beyond.

The Mavericks currently have $526,220 in space on the first platform and $11.9 million in space on the second platform, per Spotrac. For Irving to get a raise, the team may have to throw away some depth pieces and dive into that second apron.

For a contending team like the Mavericks, however, this will simply be the price to pay to keep the core of Irving, Luka Dončić and Klay Thompson intact.