Nico Harrison is gone, but his curse on the Mavericks lingers.
Anthony Davis — the guy Nico gave up a generational icon to get; the guy who was supposed to lead the Mavs where Luka Doncic couldn’t — is reportedly out at least six weeks and maybe as much as six months with ligament damage in his left hand, meaning his trade value before the deadline next month just blew up in their faces.
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Unless the Mavs could find another general manager who, like Nico, would take on damaged goods.
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Maybe you remember that when Nico traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers last February, Davis was hurt then, too. Abdominal strain. Then, when he finally played, he strained an adductor and was out six weeks.
Missed 14 games in November with a strained calf. Then another adductor strain last month, and now this.
Our genius staff artist, Michael Hogue, thinks we should make Davis’ injury reports into a coffee table book.
Warning: You might want to check the table’s load-bearing capacity first.
Nearly a year since the trade, Davis has played a total of 29 games. He’s been pretty good when available, but he hasn’t made a difference. Certainly not like Luka has for a Lakers team without LeBron James.
You could argue it’s not a fair argument because Luka’s played in almost twice as many games, and that would be my point. The Mavs made Luka’s conditioning and availability two-thirds of their argument for trading him. Defense was the other. Yet they gave up a 26-year-old MVP candidate who’d missed 15 games a year over his six-year career for a guy who’d averaged 27 absences over the same time period. They don’t call him “Street Clothes” for nothing.
The best result for the Mavs would have been if he could have remained healthy until the Feb. 5 deadline and they could have unloaded him, thus clearing cap space going into next season and reaping 50 cents on the dollar in talent return. There’s no salvaging the Luka deal, if that’s what you were hoping. The damage is done.
The best they could do is cut their losses, tank, hope for another lottery hit and build around Cooper Flagg, who’s flourished nicely.
Our Mike Curtis reported that the Hawks’ trade of Trae Young to Washington might have cleared cap space for a potential Davis deal. Might have gotten a nice young player such as Zaccharie Risacher. No such chance now.
Even if Davis could have done what seems like the impossible and remained available, he’s reportedly complicating his trade value with requests of a contract extension.
Good luck with that. He’s due $58.5 million next season and has a player-option for $62.8 million the year after. A little pricey for a guy who’ll celebrate his 33rd birthday in March in street clothes.
Maybe they can find a taker for Davis this summer, but I wouldn’t count on it. Looks to me like they’re stuck with him. The curse of Nico lives on.
Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN
No matter the outcome for Anthony Davis, the Mavericks can toss their trade deadline plans
The Mavericks used to have a couple of options. On Thursday, they dwindled to none.
Mavericks fear Anthony Davis suffered serious hand injury that could require surgery
Davis suffered a left hand injury during the final minutes of Thursday’s loss to the Utah Jazz.
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