It has barely been a month since the Dallas Mavericks traded former franchise player Luka Dončić, a baffling decision that put immense pressure on the team to win immediately. When they traded Dončić (who turned 26 last week), they made a bet that Anthony Davis (who turns 32 next week) and Kyrie Irving (who turns 33 later this month) would not only form a championship-caliber partnership, but hold up physically as they reach the end of their respective primes.
If the enormous risk in that was not self-evident, it became clear when, in the third quarter of Davis’ Dallas debut, he had to leave the game with a groin injury. The big man downplayed it postgame, but the Mavericks later announced that he’d strained his left adductor. Almost four weeks later, Davis has yet to return to the court and Irving is done for the season, having torn his left ACL in the first quarter of a 122-98 loss against the Sacramento Kings on Monday.
In the short term, maybe the Mavericks can still make the playoffs. They’re 32-30 and 10th in the West, and they’re three games ahead of the 11th-place Phoenix Suns in the loss column. Davis is scheduled to be reevaluated soon, and if he picks up where he left off, perhaps he can dominate defensively and keep the offense afloat, with Spencer Dinwiddie and Jaden Hardy (when he returns from his latest ankle injury) handling the ball and Klay Thompson coming off screens. With Irving off the court this season, though, Dallas has scored a measly 109.2 points per 100 possessions in its non-Dončić, non-garbage-time minutes, per Cleaning The Glass.
It is difficult to muster much optimism about the Mavs’ immediate future, in part because the stars aren’t the only ones dealing with injuries. Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II are still sidelined, Caleb Martin has yet to suit up and P.J. Washington said on Sunday that he “probably” tried to return from an ankle injury too early. Even if they get a bit healthier and Davis ends the season on a tear, this team doesn’t have a particularly high ceiling without Irving.
The worst…
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