The Dallas Mavericks experienced an absurd string of injuries throughout the 2024-2025 season, spending much of the offseason cleaning up the damage in preparation for a fresh start. Sadly, that fresh start has yet to really take form.
Dereck Lively experienced a foot injury last season from which he nearly returned, before a last-minute MRI safely took him out of action and spared him a potentially much more severe injury. In July, he had surgery to clean up bone spurs and was set to roll into this
season healthy. Anthony Davis had a similar trajectory, suffering an injury in his Mavericks debut from which he eventually returned in time to help the Mavs to a Play In appearance, then had an offseason surgery of his own for an unrelated detached retina.
Both players were set to kick off a new season with rookie phenom Cooper Flagg in a stacked frontcourt, but that has yet to materialize. Davis made it five games before incurring a calf injury that has kept him on the bench for 14 straight. Lively only made it three games before missing nine in a row. Since that streak, he returned for two game, sat one, played two more and then sat the last two largely due to load management… or maybe not. Marc Stein reported injury updates for both players today.
Anthony Davis
Depending on whether or not you are on Team Tank or Team Win (or perhaps, Team Davis or Not Team Davis) will determine if you find this news to be positive. Davis is scheduled to practice on Wednesday in a bid to get back on the court.
If he is cleared, it will conveniently set him up to perhaps return as soon as this Friday when the Mavs play his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers. There is every reason to believe Dallas will want as much firepower as it can get to offset the havoc Luka Doncic no doubt plans to rain on a team he once called his own.
Getting Davis and his double-double back on the floor is a good thing for Dallas. Yes, they are relatively dysfunctional with him. Yes, shipping him out for assets has its appeal. Yes, there is sound judgment in going all-in on the tank. However, this is still positive whichever way you cut it.
The Mavs having some measure of go-to player along with the blossoming Flagg will at least make the team a bit more entertaining, and with a 5-14 record, it’s unlikely Davis reverses the tank anyway. Beyond that, there is simply no way to maximize a potential return on Davis if he’s wearing street clothes. He needs to be on the court to showcase his talents and get teams interested, should the Mavs look to move him.
In short, if the Mavs are truly looking to make noise this year, the time is right now and they need Davis to do it. If the motivation is to move Davis for a true rebuild, they need him out there showing what he can do to get teams interested.
Dereck Lively
The Lively news is much worse. Following the offseason foot surgery and an early season knee injury, it looked like Lively was going to find his form around load management sit-outs. However, that news has now taken a turn for the worse, as he is experiencing swelling in his foot and may miss extended time.
Lively is well aligned with the Cooper Flagg timeline and has shown a tremendous amount of promise early in his career. I have long been a defender that Lively is not injury prone, but more the victim of a poor training staff and a body that is still developing. That defense is becoming much more difficult to maintain.
Lively not being able to shake these lower body dings and dents is becoming immensely concerning. The Mavs have him on a cheap deal as key piece to the future, but if he can’t stay on the court it will add to the serious problems the Mavs already have with their unbalanced roster predicated on two timelines. If Lively can’t get himself right, it will be a major blow to Dallas’ future.
I’m personally not a fan of trading Daniel Gafford, but if that is the team’s plan, it likely took a hit with this one. The vaunted front court lasted about a week, and if Lively is out for a stretch, Gafford’s value to the team skyrockets. Hopefully Lively gets healthy quickly, but if he doesn’t, it’s hot mess for both him and the team.
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