Anthony Davis went to the locker room late in the fourth quarter of the Dallas Mavericks’ 116-114 loss at the Utah Jazz on Thursday, after brushing his hand against Lauri Markkanen’s jersey as Markkanen drove past Davis along the baseline on his way to two of his game-high 33 points.
Davis doubled over in pain immediately and walked out of bounds, clearing the lane for Markkanen to hit a little reverse layup as part of a 9-1 run that killed the Mavericks’ late comeback attempt at the Delta Center.
He seemed to know immediately. He was obviously in pain on the bench, a team trainer came over and the two headed straight for the locker room after a few seconds of back-and-forth. That sequence would seem to portend that the injury was more than just a jammed finger.
There were no updates on the nature or severity of the injury immediately after the game, but if Davis’ latest injury is anything more serious than a sprain, it could cloud the team’s outlook as the NBA’s Feb. 5 Trade Deadline approaches.
“He hurt his left hand,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said in his postgame comments. “That’s all we have.”
It’s not subterfuge; the injury had just occurred about 20 minutes before Kidd gave that answer. But on the other hand, this is not an encouraging quote at all. Any kind of prolonged hesitation on the team’s part to offer an update on his status could derail the team’s ability to get off Davis’ salary as soon as possible and switch gears to focus on building around rookie superstar Cooper Flagg, who scored 26 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished eight assists in the loss on Thursday.
Davis was expected to be traded before the deadline, likely for a combination of expiring contracts, spare parts and/or draft compensation. The Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors were two of the latest teams rumored to have interest in acquiring Davis.
This hand injury could end up setting the Mavericks back in a big way. It came at the worst possible moment. His stat-padded good nights have buoyed his trade value to this point. If he’s on the shelf for anything longer than a week, you’d have to think Atlanta, Toronto, Golden State, Chicago and any other potential suitors would immediately vanish into the mist. And if the Mavericks are unable to move Davis before the trade deadline, they may be stuck with him until 2028.
That would put Dallas to a decision as soon as this offseason on whether to extend him when he becomes eligible for his next deal in August. The correct decision there, given Davis’ staggering injury history and franchise-crushing $120-million combined salary cap hit over the next two years, is not only no, but hell no. The list of potential teams interested in Davis’ services after this season will no doubt shrink, since his agent, Rich Paul, has made it known that Davis wants to play for a team that will extend him. If there is no interest in Davis outside the Mavericks, he would, at that point, almost certainly opt in to his player option for 2027-28, leaving Dallas even more hamstrung under the salary cap than they already are.
The Mavs are positioned well with Flagg as a tentpole to come out the other side of the worst trade in modern sports history with a chance to be relevant again in a couple of years. But that’s only if they’re able to offload Davis before the trade deadline or after this season. A 35-year-old Davis still eating up 35% of the salary cap in 2027 would be catastrophic.
That’s why moving him for spare parts and draft picks is such a valuable option for this team — anything that helps them avoid that fate is the best outcome for Dallas. This hand injury is the perfect microcosm for the Anthony Davis Experience in Dallas. Yea, he looks good on some nights and still has the ability to influence actual wins against actual good teams in his best moments, but those moments come too few and too far between. They will come even fewer and even farther between over the next two years, if only because he continues to prove his inability to stay healthy.
There’s nothing sustainable about Davis’ good moments, because who knows when his hand is going to brush against someone’s jersey, sending him straight to the locker room the next time? The prognosis on this hand injury will have a ripple effect on the Mavs’ future for years to come.
