Ten minutes into the first quarter of the Dallas Mavericks' Monday night blowout loss to the Sacramento Kings, Kyrie Irving maneuvered around a Kai Jones screen and into the lane, where he split two help defenders, took a bump, and landed oddly on his left foot. His knee crumpled and he immediately went to the floor, calling for the Mavs' athletic training staff. That unit is as used to this sort of thing as any in the NBA. Irving's insistence on staying in the game to shoot his free throws (he made them both) was initial cause for optimism, but ESPN's Shams Charania reported on Tuesday morning that Irving had torn his ACL. The Mavericks, who were already screwed, are now totally terminal.
The theory of the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade, or at least the most coherent available rationalization, was that the Mavericks were trying to win a championship right now, this year. In L.A., Davis had begun agitating to play alongside a true center (touching; was the Boogie Cousins experiment really so formative?), and he'd finally get his wish in Dallas. The Mavs could play their new do-it-all big man alongside either Daniel Gafford or Dereck Lively II and reliably beat the crap out of opponents while Irving shouldered the majority of the shot-creation burden. One could look around at the rest of the Western Conference and credibly think this formula could win three playoff series, provided P.J. Washington and the newly acquired Caleb Martin could hit their threes.
Instead, every one of the five Mavericks mentioned in the previous paragraph is sidelined with an injury. Davis left his first game as a Maverick on Feb. 8 with a strained adductor and will be back soonish. Gafford sprained his knee on Feb. 11 and will be out another month. Lively has not played since Jan. 14 after suffering a stress fracture to his right ankle that will probably keep him out for the rest of the regular season. Washington has played five out of the last 13 games as he deals with an ankle sprain he now admits he rushed back from. Martin has not played since spraining his hip on Jan. 10.
Meanwhile, Doncic looks sprightly and devious, grinning as he throws touchdown passes to LeBron James—and Quentin Grimes, whom the Mavericks traded to Philadelphia two days after the Doncic-Davis swap, just dropped 44 on the Warriors on national TV. Instead of battering their way through the West with a huge lineup, the Mavs are picking their way through the big man scrap heap and signing guys who shoot free throws as if hucking a set of bolas. The team that is left in the smoldering crater where Doncic once stood is composed almost entirely of compromised shooting guards and wings. Poor Klay Thompson logged a minus-30 in 25 minutes last night, and guys like Kessler Edwards and Olivier Maxence-Prosper are now playing heavy minutes. Trying to figure out who is Dallas's best currently available player feels bad. The name Naji Marshall crossed my mind.
It gets worse. The Mavericks control their 2025 and 2026 first-round draft picks, at least one of which will be late lottery at best, and then they are hosed for four straight years. They ceded their 2027 first-round pick to Charlotte for P.J. Washington, their 2028 swap to OKC as part of the Daniel Gafford trade, their 2029 first-rounder to Brooklyn in the Kyrie Irving trade, and their 2030 swap rights to San Antonio for 47 games of 8.1 PPG play from Grant Williams. Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving turn 32 and 33, respectively, this month. This is as bad a state as an NBA team with this many former all-stars could possibly be in. The Mavericks played in the Finals last season.
Mavs GM Nico Harrison has caught most of the flak for the sorry state of affairs, which is understandable given that he has overexplained his rationale for trading one of the best players in the NBA for like one-third of his value and leaked a bunch of self-damaging stories portraying said player as an overweight bum. But do not forget about scummy Mavs owner Patrick Dumont. This thing is rotten from the top down, and it was heartening to see Monday's home crowd, who'd just learned Dumont was raising season ticket prices, lustily boo him.
Dumont got to his seat Monday night in time to see third-year guard Jaden Hardy take Irving's place, and, as befits anyone wearing a Mavs jersey in 2025, turn his ankle. Hardy will miss, per a characteristically gnomic Chris Haynes update, "a period of time."
