As soon as a month has passed since the Dallas Mavericks exchanged the former franchise player Luka Dončić, a disconcerting decision that exerted immense pressure on the team to win immediately. When they exchanged Dončić (who turned 26 last week), made a commitment that Anthony Davis (who turns 32 next week) and Kyrie Irving (who turns 33 at the end of this month) would not only form an association of championship caliber, but also physically cling as they reach the end of their respective.
If the enormous risk in that was not evident, it was clear when, in the third quarter of Davis’s debut in Dallas, he had to leave the game with an injury in groin. The big man minimized him after the gameBut the Mavericks announced later that he had forced his left adductor. Almost four weeks later, Davis has not yet returned to the Court and Irving is made for the seasonhaving shattered his left act in the first quarter of a defeat for 122-98 against the Sacramento Kings on Monday.
In the short term, maybe the mavericks can still reach the playoffs. They are 32-30 and 10 in the west, and there are three games ahead of the 11th Phoenix Suns in the loss column. Davis is scheduled to be reevaluated soon, and if collect where he left himMaybe he can dominate defensive and keep the offensive afloat, with Spencer Dinwiddie and Jaden Hardy (when he returns from his last ankle injury) that handle the ball and Klay Thompson coming out of the screens. However, with Irving outside the court this season, Dallas has scored 109.2 points per 100 possessions in his minutes that are not from Dončić, not in the time of Garbage, for cleaning the glass.
It is difficult to gather a lot of optimism about the immediate future of the MAVs, partly because the stars are not the only ones that deal with injuries. Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II are still on the sidelines, Caleb Martin has not yet adapted and PJ Washington He said Sunday That he “probably” tried to return from an ankle injury too soon. Even if they become a little healthier and Davis ends the season with a break, this team does not have a particularly high ceiling without irving.
However, the worst part is that Dallas’s immediate future did not have to be so important. Before Dončić, an injury that ended the season in Irving would have been a great blow to its title opportunities, but since the team seemed to be a few months after signing one of the three best players in the league with a long -term extension as it approached its early years, only a temporary setback. Mavericks can still try to frame this news that way, but now it is a much more difficult sale.
At the press conference after trade, General Manager Nico Harrison He said to journalists That Davis “fits together with our deadline to win now and win in the future.” Then he clarified that “the future for me is three, within four years.” Laughing, he added, “the future in 10 years, I don’t know, they will probably bury me and [coach Jason Kidd] By then. Or we buried ourselves. “Mavs fans largely did not find this funBut, in the context of Irving’s injury, the appointment raises questions: with Irving probably for a part of the 2025-26 season, what will be the next three or four years? If Irving rejects your $ 44 million player option next season, will you be willing to sign it to a maximum long -term agreement while rehabilitating? If you collect it, will the MAVS sign it with a maximum (or almost max) extension?
This summer, Harrison will also probably negotiate with Washington and Gafford, which will be in extensions. Both are 26 years old and were crucial parts of the finals last year. Now that Davis is in Dallas, however, Washington will probably not see so much time in the place of 4 and, assuming that the 21 -year -old animated remains a central part of the team, Gafford’s minutes will be squeezed.
Regardless of How is the rest of the season and Where the mavs draft selection fallsThey will enter the low season with only a sample of 25 minutes from Davis and Irving sharing the Court. This, together with the uncertainty about when exactly Irving can return and how effective it will be when you do, it will make it difficult for them to be where they are currently, which in turn will make it difficult to discover how to get where they want to go.
Compared to the position in which Dallas was in five weeks ago, his long -term median perspective is unimaginably gloomy. Davis’ Irvation era has had an unfavorable beginning, and was never built to last.
