There might be some good news, finally, for the Mavericks beleaguered roster as both Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively are nearing returns according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon during Monday morning’s The Hoop Collective podcast.
Davis appears to be the soonest to returning, as MacMahon says he is doing four-on-four and five-on-five work this week, with potential to return during the last week of March. NBA insider Marc Stein reported today that Davis is practicing with the Texas Legends this week to ramp up a return.
It appears the biggest question mark won’t be if Davis can get healthy enough to play in another game before this season ends, but whether that’s the smart thing to do. The Mavericks are in the final play-in spot, 10th place in the Western Conference and have fallen three games below .500 at 33-36. The sheer ineptitude of the relatively healthy Phoenix Suns has allowed the Mavericks to hold onto some playoff chances, with the Suns 1.5 games back of Dallas as of Monday.
Even if Dallas holds onto the 10th seed, returning Davis to action carries a ton of risk for a team that really has no chance in the playoffs now that Kyrie Irving is out until next season with a torn ACL. Davis’ injury can be a nagging one, and it usually isn’t totally solved until a surgery, something that Bucks star Damian Lillard delt with off-and-on with in Portland until he finally went under the knife.
But it appears Davis wants back onto the court.
“There are people that have said to AD ‘Why? Why take the risk?’,” MacMahon said. “He wants to play.”
That’s an admirable position from Davis, who no doubt wants to combat the very real narrative that he is injury prone. Davis had an emotional debut back on Feb. 8 against the Rockets before he left that game with his current injury, and most of his public comments since the trade have been about him wanting to prove to the Mavericks fan base that he is that Hall of Fame player that won a championship in 2020 with the Lakers. Clearly the Mavericks players are sick of this mess, evidenced by PJ Washington lashing out at a Mavericks fan who was chanting “Fire Nico” during one of Washington’s free throw attempts during Sunday’s loss against the 76ers. The team just wants to play basketball, and play it well. It makes sense why Davis would want to get back on the floor and support his struggling teammates as soon as he can. It definitely feels like the entire situation has reached a boiling point, and a Davis return would help cool things off, if only temporarily.
Undoubtedly the Mavericks want Davis on the floor as well, to try and provide any type of positive news to draw attention away from the fact that front office leadership detonated the franchise with not only the Luka Doncic trade, but also the looking worse-and-worse Quentin Grimes trade. Obviously the Mavericks shouldn’t expose Davis to more injury during a somewhat futile stretch of basketball, but I wouldn’t put it past this leadership to get Davis on the floor to gain some good PR. Time will tell.
MacMahon said Lively is farther from returning than Davis, but should be back before the season ends as well, although MacMahon said Lively is also facing similar questions that Davis is about whether it’s worth it to return during what is a lost season. Daniel Gafford, who suffered a nasty MCL sprain in his knee weeks ago, isn’t close to coming back, MacMahon also said Monday.
