Mavericks center Dereck Lively recently underwent surgery to clean up bone spurs in his right foot, according to reports from Marc Stein of The Stein Line and Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter links).
Lively was in a walking boot following the procedure, but has since gotten out of that boot, tweets Stein. According to Charania, the expectation is that the big man will be healthy for training camp this fall.
The right foot is the same one that Lively injured earlier this year. He was diagnosed in January with a small fracture in his foot/ankle area, which sidelined him until April and limited him to 36 total games in 2024/25. He averaged 8.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.6 blocks in 23.1 minutes per night in those 36 appearances.
Reporting in the spring indicated that a disagreement over how to treat Lively’s foot injury resulted in a “loud, heated confrontation” between Mavericks director of player health and performance Johann Bilsborough and athletic performance director Keith Belton, which led to an HR investigation. Belton has since been let go by the team.
As Stein points out, Lively’s surgery means that three important Mavericks players are now recovering from surgeries. Kyrie Irving, of course, is making his way back from an ACL tear, while Anthony Davis recently underwent a procedure to repair a detached retina.
Slightly alarming. Young man has been unavailable more than available. Don’t suppose a more detailed explanation has ever been given. Fracture in foot/ankle and bone spurs is quite vague.