Scorching hot take #1 - The Mavs issues are as much Luka as it is Kyrie. The incessant bitching at refs and just slightly-less-incessant bitching and side-eyes at teammates & coaches, coupled with his gravity bound disinterest in defense and now he's admitting in press conferences that his head hasn't been in the game is not the stuff of a franchise player.
Captain Obvious here, but Luka is way more Harden than Lebron. I probably wouldn't have Luka in my top 10 MVP ballot for this season.
The problem is that this works when Kyrie is paired with Lebron, but as I mentioned above, Luka ain't Lebron. Not even close and because Luka cannot dominate a game like Lebron so Kyrie is going to have to bear more responsibility, which he can't do (this is more an indictment of the Mavs front office, actually).
Luka is also too narcissistic to worry about things like leadership, team building, and defense.
Scorching hot take #2 -
The Mavs should shut down Luka and Kyrie for the rest of the season.
The Mavs' 2023 pick is owed to the Knicks, but it is top 10 protected and the Mavs are right now in the 11 spot.
https://www.tankathon.com/
Keeping that first round pick (which would bring about a 1 in 6 shot at landing a top 4 pick) is much more valuable to the franchise than a (gentleman's) sweep in the first round at the hands of Denver or Memphis. Because the Mavs front office have so badly mismanaged the last few years (trading for Kristaps, letting Brunson walk, trading for Kyrie) their paths to improvement are quite narrow - almost non-existent. The Mavs payroll is already about $100 million next season - and that's before giving a single penny to Kyrie or Christian Wood, if they choose to re-sign either. So forget free agency.
So this potential top 10 pick (and shot in the dark at Wemby) is probably a more realistic path to improvement than anything else. Kyrie is dealing with plantar fascitis and Luka is distracted anyway, so just shut the two of them down and give Green and Hardy massive run over the final 2 weeks of the season.