Thursday is not just for deals for your Dallas Mavericks. No, these Mavericks (19-31) are set for a home and home series with the southern foes on Interstate 35, the San Antonio Spurs (34-16). The Mavericks are losers of five straight games, while the Spurs are coming in off of a win over the short handed Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night.
Before this trade deadline day game tips off, here’s what you should be thinking about.
Can I get a show of hands… Who is still here?
The Mavericks could be without a large number of players in this contest,
depending on the actions that happen between now and 2:00 p.m. CT on Thursday. Depending on who you trust for your trade sourcing, any of Klay Thompson, Daniel Gafford and Naji Marshall could be on the move. Due to the Anthony Davis trade of Wednesday, the Mavericks will be down at least two in the active department, as Jaden Hardy and D’Angelo Russell were part of the move. If any of the trio above are set to find more competitive pastures, Dallas could be running a skeleton crew similar to that of when the Cavaliers beat them by about 100 in Cleveland after Luka Doncic was stolen from us traded. Now, I don’t expect a similar result on Thursday as we saw in that game last year for a variety of reasons. Mainly, Anthony Davis is not Luka Doncic to anyone on the team.
However, it’s important to remember that these are real life humans who are going through a lot of real life human emotion during this deadline. Regardless of whether or not any of them actually get moved, there’s a toll to it. We’ll see what happens, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see at least one or two more trades before it’s all said and done.
Who exactly plays for the Spurs, either?
As previously mentioned, the Spurs are on the butt end of a travel back to back, albeit this one being very short travel. But, given the Mavs roster situation, what incentive do the Spurs have to run out their full group for? They might feel safe that they can get by with resting a few starters and just having the basketball version of a bullpen game. So, take the Dallas roster situation, combine it with the Spurs potentially resting a lot of pieces, and you’ve got yourself one steaming pile of basketball. There is one saving grace, however, because…
The Mavericks did the right thing
Cooper Flagg is already phenomenal, and with the moves of this deadline, they are starting to do the thing I’ve called on them to do since May: Build the damn plane around Cooper Flagg. The 368 days between the Luka deal and now have been nothing short of a catastrophe. Hell, we shouldn’t be here at all right now. The 1.8% chance of landing the kid from Maine is what saved this franchise from becoming a basketball wasteland. And while it took firing Nico, the Finley-Riccardi duo at general manager have set this franchise up to be successful around Cooper Flagg after just three months at the helm. A tip of the cap to those guys.
How to watch
Probably with a bottle of tequila if it were up to me. Oh, the TV part! It’ll be on KFAA Channel 29, as well as Mavs TV. Tip off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. from the American Airlines Center.
