Anthony Davis #3 of the Dallas Mavericks
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Anthony Davis #3 of the Dallas Mavericks
It has been a wild week for Dallas Mavericks big man Anthony Davis, and as so often is the case, he has not even been dressed in uniform for it.
Indeed, it has been a week since Davis suited up for the Mavericks for the 20th time this season, running the total number of games in which has has played for Dallas in the near-year since he was traded for franchise icon Luka Doncic to 29. Davis has averaged 20.4 points and 11.1 rebounds this year for the Mavs, but was ruled out with ligament damage in his hand that was originally feared to bad enough to warrant surgery.
That surgery would have ended his season–until a second opinion suggested that Davis could be ready to play in a month-and-a-half if he rested. That’s the approach now, which is important for the Mavericks because it still leaves open a sliver of possibility that the team could trade Davis before the February 5 trade deadline.
If there is a chance that Davis could be ready to go for the stretch run, he could still be theoretically shipped out to a team with playoff hopes (the Atlanta Hawks, for example.) But one insider says there’s no way the Mavericks will be “bullied” into a Davis trade.
Anthony Davis Not Likely to Get an Extension in Dallas
Any Davis trade is still a longshot. It would take a rather gullible team to give the Mavericks a haul of young players and draft picks for a player who is hurt and has had one healthy season out of his last five here in the NBA. At the same time, Davis’s representatives at Klutch Sports–agent Rich Paul–are said to be pushing the Mavericks for a trade out of Dallas so that Davis can get somewhere that will be willing to give him a contract extension.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said on the “Hoops Collective” podcast this week: “It is very clear that Rich Paul, who represents Anthony Davis, wants Anthony Davis traded before the deadline.
“Because he believes it is in his best business interests, because he has taken a, ‘Well, we’ll see,’ from the Mavericks as far as an extension as a ‘No,’ and there are teams where clearly Rich Paul considers it likely that AD would get the kind of extension he will be looking for when he becomes eligible in August.”
Klutch Sports ‘Will Not Bully’ Mavericks
Davis can get a four-year, $275 million contract extension from the Mavericks–or the team to which he is traded–in August. The Mavericks have seen enough of him in street clothes to have decided they’re not going that route, not now.
“The Mavericks, they were going to explore the trade market regardless,” MacMahon said. “They have been. This is ongoing. But they do not feel like they have to trade Anthony Davis. They are telling me and anybody who will listen that they are not trading AD just to make a deal. They don’t feel like they have to unload him.”
And that is true no matter how Rich Paul and Klutch pressures the team, according to MacMahon.
“‘Rich Paul is not going to bully us,'” MacMahon said. “That is a direct quote from a member of the Mavericks organization.”