Klay Thompson And Dwight Powell Return To Empty Mavericks Bench As Injury Crisis Is On Full Display

Klay Thompson and Dwight Powell had almost no teammates ready to greet them while they returned to the bench during a Mavericks game.

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Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

Life has been miserable for anyone associated with the Dallas Mavericks in the last month or so. Since the franchise shockingly traded Luka Doncic, nothing has gone right for them. Luka’s departure almost put a hex on the Mavericks, who are suffering through a massive injury crisis that keeps getting worse. This was on full display last night as Klay Thompson and Dwight Powell walked to an empty bench.

This just shows how incredibly weak the Dallas Mavericks are this season. Perhaps Klay is now regretting his decision not to join the Lakers this past summer, given how things have gone over the last few months, and the contrasting position they and the Lakers are in right now.

Since trading away Luka Doncic, who, we should mention, had been suffering from an injury since the end of December, head coach Jason Kidd has lost almost their entire rotation to injuries in the last few weeks.

New arrival Anthony Davis was the first to go, and he ironically got injured during his first game with the team after a nearly spotless injury record for almost two years with the Lakers. Right after him, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II went down hurt, thus leaving the Mavericks with almost no big players in their rotation.

And this past week, things got even worse, with Kyrie Irving and Jaden Hardy all getting hurt really badly during their game against the Sacramento Kings. Irving tore his ACL, thus ending his season, and could also keep him out of the next season as well.

The Mavericks also have other players out right now, such as P.J. Washington and Dante Exum. This means that currently, they have seven players hurt, and can only rely on the following healthy players: Klay Thompson, Dwight Powell, Spencer Dinwiddie, Max Christie, Olivier-Maxence Prosper, and Brandon Williams. 

At this point, forget the playoffs, the franchise will be lucky to finish this campaign ahead of some of the worst teams in the NBA. The Mavs are reportedly considering shutting down Anthony Davis for the rest of the season, as with Kyrie Irving out beyond June, they have no realistic chance of competing for an NBA championship.

Bringing back Davis, only to compete and inevitably fail in the playoffs and risk an injury, could be disastrous for the Mavericks in the long run. All in all, this has been a disastrous 30 days for the Mavs, as it not only ended their entire season but could have jeopardized their entire future in such little time.

Some believe that the Mavs ran Kyrie Irving into the ground after trading Doncic, which is supported by the fact that Irving played nearly 40 minutes a night in Luka’s absence. However, Jason Kidd objected massively to that point and slammed fans and analysts for speculating about the injury.

It’s rough being a Mavericks fan right now. And things are only bound to get worse in the weeks to come.

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Aaditya Krishnamurthy is a writer for Fadeaway World covering the latest news and exciting stories from the fascinating world of the NBA. After briefly working as a freelance writer in the sports and business sector, Aaditya began writing for Fadeaway World in 2021 about the day-to-day functioning of the NBA.After graduating from Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts in 2020, he worked as a freelance writer for years before beginning his MA in Communications at Penn State University. Currently, he is in the United States, and traveling to his home country of India. Aside from the NBA, Aaditya is a big sports fan, with soccer, football, Formula 1, and MMA being some of his favorites to watch.
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