With each new injury pointing to Anthony Davis’ inability to affect winning in a Dallas Mavericks uniform, the consensus view, at least among fans, that it’s time to move on, solidifies. Nico Harrison,
the primary advocate for bringing Davis to town in exchange for a much younger and much better player, is long gone. Few, if any, within the Mavericks’ organization, need to feel encumbered by Harrison’s hair-brained two-timeline scheme.
In light of that, the NBA’s looming Feb. 5 trade deadline would seem the perfect opportunity to turn the roster over, get what you can for as many of the team’s older players as possible and begin in earnest to build around budding superstar Cooper Flagg. But just because it makes sense doesn’t mean the Mavericks will do it. After all, the same empty-headed executive who let the Luka Dončić-Anthony Davis trade go through still sits in the franchise’s seat of power.
Let’s start, if we can, inside the bulbous head of Patrick Dumont, the team Governor who both referred to the NBA Finals as the “Championship Games” and listed Shaquille O’Neal in a list of players whose tireless work ethic compared favorably to the outgoing Dončić after that trade was completed.
There is almost nothing a billionaire hates more than public embarrassment, and Dumont has been stewing in a heap of his own make ever since the deal was done, as Davis’ Mavs tenure has been pockmarked by a frustrating back-and-forth between injury stints and the middling form of stardom he occupies in today’s NBA landscape. Dealing Davis in the next six weeks would be tantamount to admitting that Harrison, and by proxy, Dumont, were indeed wrong to make the move in the dead of night last trade deadline. Failing to get a king’s ransom for Davis would again subject Dumont to public ridicule, especially if, say, someone like Zaccharie Risacher, who has been named as a possible sweetener in a potential deal for Davis with the Atlanta Hawks, scores eight points in his potential Mavericks debut while Davis goes off for 33 and 10 in his first game for the Hawks upon the completion of such a trade.
Especially in light of Davis’ most recent stint on the injury report, with a similar injury to the one that kept him out most of February and March last season, trading him for nickels on the dollar is objectively the correct move. It sets the Mavericks up with the expiring contracts and additional draft capital the team needs to build in earnest around Flagg, the man-sized 19-year-old whose myth grows every time he laces them up.
But the short-term teardown and the immediate public sentiment surrounding it may not be palatable to the billionaire’s inherent ego.
NBA insider Marc Stein put it this way in his latest notes package on the NBA trade landscape:
“The Mavericks are thus wrestling with the following question: They have already decided to focus all of their efforts on building around Cooper Flagg, but is it best to keep Davis at least until the offseason (and maybe even beyond) given the flashes of promising play we’ve seen from them when AD is on the court alongside the presumptive Rookie of the Year? Or can they get enough in a Davis deal to justify moving on from him when that approach — depending on how things pan out with what comes back — could well make the return from the disastrous Dončić deal look even more miniscule and painful?”
Mock trades between the Mavericks and the Hawks on social media commonly include some combination, including Kristaps Porzingis and his massive expiring $30-million per year contract, Risacher, Nikeil Alexander-Walker, Onyeka Okongwu, the Hawks’ 2026 first-round draft pick and/or some additional 2027 draft capital. Wayward point guard Trae Young, whose rights the Mavs traded to get Dončić on Draft Day in 2018, is reportedly not to be included in a deal with Dallas for Davis, but wouldn’t that be darkly poetic?
Both fans and the Mavericks brass have to deal with the fact that this kind of return is all they can expect, and they have to confront that truth and all the ramifications of it, before signing off on any trade. Public derision be damned, they have to keep taking steps in the direction of getting out from under the initial generational blunder of dealing Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers. The quicker the band-aid is ripped off, the sooner the pain will subside.
It is at least within the realm of believability that an egotistical billionaire in Dumont’s position might conclude that it’s not worth it to trade a name like Davis without getting a name like Young in return. This, of course, flies in the face of various reports out there that say the Mavericks have no interest whatsoever in bringing Young to Dallas. Suffice to say, the next six weeks will be rife with hemming and hawing in all directions when it comes to trade rumors surrounding Davis.
Also included in Stein’s latest piece is a note that bears some weight in the conversation — that “the Mavericks have yet to see Flagg, Davis and Irving play together for one second and I’m told that new Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont is certainly among those in the organization who would prefer to see how that trio looks before doing something else drastic.”
That may just be executive posturing intended to drive up Davis’ trade value at the deadline, but it leads us to the next consideration that folks aren’t taking enough into account when they arrive at the conclusion that trading Davis sooner than later is indeed the right move. The Mavericks do not have a permanent general manager at this point. Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi are holding down the front-office fort in tandem until a permanent hire is made. That makes keeping Davis until the new general manager is hired sound more logical in a vacuum. That hire would likely be made in the upcoming offseason, especially if Dallas is indeed eyeing current Detroit Pistons’ Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations Dennis Lindsey for that position.
On some level, in that same vacuum, it’s hard to see the Mavericks trading a piece as big as Davis before hiring their next GM. It would be as backward as an owner hiring a head coach with no GM in place, even if every sign the season is showing that owner says that the guy who shouldn’t be here needs to go, now.
The bottom line is this. Don’t depend on this team to do what the makes most sense just because it makes the most sense.
