5:30 pm: The Mavericks officially confirmed (via Twitter) that Davis has ligament damage in his left hand, which was revealed by an MRI. Davis is seeking multiple opinions for the injury and updates will be provided as appropriate.
4:05 pm: In a full story for ESPN.com, Charania and MacMahon report that Davis is expected to be out at least six weeks if he’s able to avoid surgery. Undergoing a procedure would sideline the one-time NBA champion for “several” months, sources tell ESPN.
3:24 pm: Mavericks big man Anthony Davis has ligament damage in his left hand, according to Shams Charania and Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link).
Davis is getting a second opinion on his hand and could miss multiple months if surgery is deemed the best course of action to treat the injury, per ESPN’s duo. Either way, it sounds like Davis — one of the top names on trade market — will be out of action beyond the February 5 deadline, tweets Charania.
The 32-year-old forward/center sustained the injury late in the fourth quarter during Thursday’s loss at Utah. His hand appeared to bend back at an odd angle while defending Lauri Markkanen on a drive (YouTube link).
Davis initially signaled to Mavs head coach Jason Kidd that he was OK to stay in the game despite being in noticeable discomfort, but checked out a couple of possessions later after Kidd called a timeout. The 10-time All-Star was doubled over in pain in the tunnel of the arena and did not return.
Davis, who has a lengthy injury history, has been plagued by multiple ailments (adductor, eye, calf, groin) since was traded to Dallas last February in the shocking blockbuster that sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers. The Mavs are 10-10 with Davis in the lineup this season but just 4-14 when he’s unavailable.
Not only does Davis’ hand injury decrease the odds of him being dealt before Feb. 5, it may make the Mavs more likely to shut down Kyrie Irving for the 2025/26 campaign as well, notes Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints (via Twitter). Irving is out indefinitely after tearing his ACL last March.
2026 is the last draft which in which the Mavericks control their first-round pick until 2031, observes Marc Stein (Twitter link), so prioritizing a top selection for the remainder of the year seems likely. The offseason may be a different matter, however, given the lack of future draft control.
In 20 games this season, Davis has averaged 20.4 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.7 blocks in 31.3 minutes per contest. The former No. 1 overall pick is under contract through 2027/28, with a $62.8MM player option for that final season.
Centers Daniel Gafford, Dwight Powell and Moussa Cisse are candidates for more playing time with Davis out indefinitely.
Not to mention lack of Vitamin C and E and a spinal fluid deficiency. Plus not a lot of heart. Maybe he should check into the Mayo Clinic. Just stop all the Chicago trade nonsense now!
Are we suppose to believe this. Why is there a wait and see. They should know today if he needs surgery.
This all about Yanking for a pick ….
Yanking the fans is what it is. Mavs going for that lottery pick. They will deal with AD next year. Unreal man. He will never get another big contract ever. Should get the Westbrook treatment. Minimum salary. Truth is this could be AD or the team … wow
Your argument holds no water when the player in question is made of glass and is injured more often than healthy.
There goes all that energy you put into saying AD was going to GSW, Al.
LMAO you can’t make statements like that about Street Clothes Mcgee over here, he benefits no one ever because he is made of glass. GSW should rightfully want no piece of him.
Street Clothes at it again!
Death, taxes, street clothes…
Shocking
Whats more shocking is he wants another max extension.
AD is a heck of a player just injury prone which is always unfortunate 🥲
Min vet going forward
Mr Glass…
Embiid is getting a run for his money on worst contact in the league.
Let’s go!
The huge difference is that AD only has one option year left, whereas that monster $190M extension for Embiid doesn’t kick in until next season.
AD has next season and a player option for 27/28
The only thing that is upsetting about this to me as a Luka fan who used to watch the Mavs games, is that now they will likely have another high pick they don’t deserve.
Hopefully, the basketball gods will do the reverse of last year and they get a bad pick ball.
The fix was in last year. It was a setup from the Luca trade. Unless they are helping the Lakers before the trade deadline, there will be no favors this year!
AD is a great player, but injury prone. I’ll never understand why he was given such a lucrative contract the last time? B
Conspiracy “theories” are ruining the country. Come with facts not conjecture.
Why don’t they deserve a high pick? Because they traded Luka? Many of the teams in the lottery are dumb with bad front offices, that’s why they are in the lottery.
It’s one thing to have traded Luka, it was another all the crap Dumont talked about him. Luka played his butt off for then played the 2024 playoff run injured and took them to the Finals.
He didn’t deserve all the crap talk about how he was lazy on the way out!
Everyone said the same thing when they lost the finals. Never going to win with an out of shape offense only star who doesn’t even try on defense. It was obvious to everyone.
Nah, Luka deserved to be traded and he deserved to be blasted.
The organization could not get him to be serious about his conditioning.
After losing in those finals, Luka came back the next season in the worst condition of his career.
They weren’t willing to give him a 300 million dollar max deal.
The idea was to win a championship.
Think of the history of the NBA.
What team has won a championship when their number one player was not dedicated to being the best player that he could be.
The closest one you can think of would be Shaquille O’Neal.
And not only was he a one of a kind physical specimen, his lack of leadership was balanced out by Kobe Bryant.
Y’all don’t want to admit it but Luka created this situation.
Lakers fans are not going to be so forgiving.
He had better stay in shape, that lazy crap will not work there.
I think you are correct about all of this, but it still doesn’t justify trading him in a vacuum for AD. They could have got more from Lakers or a better deal elsewhere.
I never said it was a good trade.
I just don’t like how fans and media have always let Luka slide for his lazy behavior.
When Brian Windhorst brought it up during the finals against the Celtics, the rest of the media members acted like he was criticizing God.
If Luka had taken pride in being the best he could be on both sides of the ball, Dallas don’t make that trade and they sign him to the max extension.
Almost like playing into June with your body already falling apart because you are your team’s only chance at winning… isn’t good for your health going forward….
Now think about how hard the great CHAMPIONSHIP players work in the off-season to prepare themselves to play into June.
If you have a player on your team who expects a 300 million dollar extension but doesn’t prepare his body to lead your team to the championship, how do you handle it?
I don’t agree with the trade that the Mavericks made, but I understand why they decided that they were probably not going to win a championship with Luka as their best player.
Makes that Trae Young deal look even more stupid. Now there’s no point dealing for him to help you out this season. Now you’re going to be banking on a 33 year old big man helping you be better after you give him a likely expensive extension.
Good one ATL
Atlanta cleared allot of salary. You should be thankful they aren’t taking on AD.
Not an ATL fan so doesn’t bother me either way. Plus I’m 90% certain they will trade for him so don’t be thankful
The Trae Young deal was a good deal for ATL on its own. The Hawks have been performing better *as a team* when he wasn’t playing AND they were able to get rid of his contract.
Yeah okay. Homegrown star gtfo. Good riddance right? Committed alot to Young then when given everything you say nah
His contact…one more year, you could use that to get a better PG and attach picks and Zach.
They should have tried to get Porter Jr and Claxton
The Trae Young, Bagley Luka selections mean absolutely nothing now. Everyone loses
100% CJ is a better fit than Trae for the Hawks. If KP is over his illness the team should be set for a run.
CJ won’t even stick with the Hawks, they can easily flip him. CJ wants no part of a rebuilding team at this point in his career. Get him to the Pistons already….
I don’t understand this made up narrative they have been performing better without him.
His career record is 221-272 and without him over the same time is 46-49.
The knock on the hawks under Trae is they are the most mid team ever always going .500. This year they are currently 18-21.
Even if they trade for AD or whatever next year I guarantee they won’t be better than .500
As for CJ, this thing of he’s a better fit. He’s lower usage which make him more efficient, he’s less of a playmaker, who is on par defensively but 34 years old.
He’s got maybe 1 more season left in him, yeah sure I’ll love to see how that goes for you.
I honestly think next season Washington will be better than Atlanta
They have Jalen Johnson, he’s a great playmaker. CJ can run the offense for stretches. He’s done so in Portland, New Orleans and Washington. Dyson Daniels usually defends the point of attack so the defense isn’t as critical. Most importantly he can hit the open threes when Jalen draws the defense.
It was Dallas trying to trade AD to the hawks, not the hawks trying to get him. No teams have reached out on their own. Dallas is shooing him and nobody is buying.
Correction: *Klutch Sports (Rich Paul) is shooing him, not Dallas. The only person that benefits from an AD trade is his agent, because the new team is likelier to sign him to that lucrative max extension and get him — and Klutch — paid. Literally nobody else benefits! 🔥
Dallas doesn’t even have a lead GM; the front office has never been the loose-lipped kind to send these signals through media; ownership has reportedly not wanted to compound losses from the Luka trade and sell low without first seeing him together with Kai and Coop; and AD certainly doesn’t want to get traded before even getting a chance to play with Kai after plotting for so long to get together.
It’s Klutch. Simple as that!
They don’t deserve? Stupidly nets high picks to teams all the time. What makes the Mavs different?
The irony in your post
Poor Dallas fans. Previous idiot GM gave away a MVP future HOF for a former good player who was on borrowed time.
Why do teams keep giving the Lakers their prime and future HOF talent to only to get little to nothing back in return.
NBA and ESPN need the Lakers on TV.
Lakers are the Yankees of the NBA. Worldwide following.
This may be true, but nobody gave them Doncic other than the idiot GM.
Probably NBA coerced Nico on assurances if they tank they will get #1 pick.
They sure did a risky tank job winning their first play in game Datashark
No way that happens if Flagg is on a secret handshake deal from Silver . They would have lost vs Sac to insure that it wasn’t even a remote possibility
That theory’s pretty debunked if we are using logic as our guide
Not even the #1 most valuable franchise by Forbes, thats the Warriors.
When Curry retires the Warriors value will be passed by the Lakers with the younger star on their team. Lakers value went up 41% vs just 25% for Warriors. Curry is how the Warriors got their value so high. Adding Luka gives the Lakers more followers in Europe too.
Curry is the most popular player on planet Earth, especially in China, where the most people exist. Wemby is more popular than Luka, worldwide, so there goes your point. The Lakers have to be actually good to overtake GSW, but they have proven to be terrible at roster building. You also just proved my point that Curry isn’t going to retire anytime in the next 5 years, when Luka will be in his 30s…hold this L.
The Lakers are better than the Warriors already this year record wise. Curry is 37 and won’t want to play into his 40s if the Warriors aren’t contending. Luka on a California diet instead of a Texas diet should help his career excel longer too.
Lol Lakers’ have an inflated record. They lose to good teams and win against bad teams. They are looking like first round exits.
Neither Warriors nor Lakers are going to do much damage in the playoffs.
Both teams are projected to finish with the same record lol.
The #7 seed Warriors beat the #2 seed Rockets last year – please do not put overrated Lakers alongside Curry, who is still in his prime and can kill any team at any moment.
The Lakers will not be above the Warriors at the end of the season. They are simply not a better team. Aside from Luka and Reaves, they stink. They are already falling off after a blip of early season luck.
Luka. Pau, Kobe, Mychal, Kareem. I mean all I can really say is thank you can I have another?
Silver gave them Flagg for Doncic
No proof… but looks “off” for certain
LoL at anyone who thought this trade was ever good..
Anyone is Nico and who else?
LoL at you thinking anyone defended that trade on here or anywhere online.
I said at the time it was a good trade. Hate to admit I was so wrong, but it happens so much I might as well own up lol
My thinking was that the Mavericks did not want to pay Luka the super max to be the face of the franchise and by that I mean the new ownership.
They wanted to go in a different direction and Nico took the fall for it.
Perhaps there was an inside guarantee for the new owners with the number one pick and Cooper Flagg, etc ?
That could’ve been part of the whole thing?
As far as the initial trade, I think there were a bunch of reasons the new owners wanted it done.
They didn’t like what they saw from a franchise icon standpoint with Luka going forward. If the NBA promised Cooper, they went for it.
The great thing to come out of this is watching Luka take the next step as a man and a player.
I think the LeBron factor has helped him get in the weight room, transform his body, perhaps cash in on LA in general, that type of thing.
This trade was good for him in many ways and probably increases his personal wealth in a massive way.
So the end result is the trade was a great thing for Luka himself.
He is a joke
At least he’s consistent.
Davis being injured is not surprising nor alarming cause its the AD way.
Mavs trade just keeps getting more laughable.
Yeah but he doesn’t drink as much alcohol as Luka does and that’s what really matters.
This is comical
AD vs Porzingis… Last man standing contest… and the winner is….0_0
Injured guy has injury.
Anthony Rendon Davis
I see what you did there.
seems like this puts the kibosh on Atlanta’s plans .. will be interesting to see how they pivot .. or are they just satisfied to get young off the roster
Poor Nico got hoodwinked by the Lakers! If only there were a way to tell that a player was unreliable… some kind of history of a player’s injuries or something.
/s
Well, maybe Nico’s medical team didn’t get the memo.
They should have just looked up his page on BasketballReference: link to basketball-reference.com
He has some pretty fitting nicknames on there! 🔥 /s