The Dallas Mavericks currently have nine players listed with injuries. Despite the worst injury crisis the team has ever seen, they somehow manage to field enough bodies week after week. However, another injury could cause the franchise to have fewer than eight active players on the roster, leading to potential forfeited games.
Brian Windhorst revealed on The Hoop Collective podcast that the Mavericks have asked the NBA to help give them some relief amid their major issues, essentially allowing the Mavs to sign players without hitting the first apron. But Tim Bontemps broke down why the NBA can’t really help the Mavericks at this point.
Brian Windhorst: “From what I understand, [the Mavs] have asked the league for relief and the league to this point has not offered them relief.”
Tim Bontemps: “Here’s the thing. The league can’t offer them relief. Because this is why you have hard salary cap limits. If you say, ‘Oh, well hey, you had all these injuries, so we’re going to let you get away with skipping past this apron to sign players,’ all the other teams are gonna understandably go, ‘Hey, wait a second. Why are they getting any breaks? Everybody’s got to follow the rules.’ That’s why you leave yourself cushion with these kinds of deals and don’t put yourself $50,000 below the apron.”
The Mavericks need to accept that they’re going to be in basketball hell for the rest of the season. They need to pray that another player doesn’t get hurt because they literally have no way to avoid potential forfeited games unless they lie on the injury report and start dressing players as available when they’re still very much injured.
The Mavericks have seven full-time players currently ruled out alongside one two-way player (Kai Jones). The seven injured players are Jaden Hardy (ankle), Anthony Davis (adductor), Dante Exum (hand), Olivier-Maxence Prosper (wrist), Daniel Gafford (knee), Dereck Lively II (foot), and Kyrie Irving (knee). Caleb Martin (hip) is day-to-day.
Exum, Prosper, Gafford, and Kyrie are likely expected to miss the remainder of the season, putting pressure on others to make a timely return.
This isn’t about making a Playoff push through the Play-In, it’s about avoiding international embarrassment by having to forfeit games in the same season you became the laughingstock of the NBA for trading Luka Doncic away.
We might be moving toward this, as Anthony Davis and Jaden Hardy have already started the ramping-up process before a return. They were assigned to the Texas Legends to practice with the G League squad before being recalled.
If Davis in particular rushes back from injury again to help the Mavericks save face, he better not pick up another injury that sidelines him for most of next season alongside Kyrie.
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