Dallas Mavericks Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Checking In On Starter Criteria, Traded Draft Picks, Mavs’ Two-Ways, More

March 31st, 2025 at 12:54pm CST by Luke Adams

The months on the calendar between the NBA's in-season trade deadline and the start of the offseason represent the only time of year in which teams aren't permitted to make trades.

Still, while the possibility of Shams Charania dropping shocking trade news in the middle of the night is off the table during this final stretch of the regular season, there's plenty going on around the league that will impact future roster decisions and trade talks.

We're checking in on a few of those subplots today. Let's dive right in...

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Mavericks’ Brandon Williams Reaches 50-Game Limit

March 31st, 2025 at 12:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

Point guard Brandon Williams, who helped the Mavericks survive a severe player shortage over the past few weeks, has reached the 50-game limit on his two-way contract, writes Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News.

Two-way players who have been with their teams since the start of the season can only be on the active roster for 50 games, regardless of how often they play. Williams made an impact while appearing in 31 games, averaging 8.3 points, 1.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 14.8 minutes per night with .511/.379/.857 shooting numbers.

“I’ve just learned how to play with All-Star caliber players, and how to contribute to winning basketball,” he said. “Ultimately, just doing all that stuff and the learning comes with it. Game reps. It’s a lot different than practice. It’s not only going to help me now, but it’ll help me in the future.”

The Mavericks never expected Williams to be a key figure in their fight for a postseason spot when they re-signed him to a two-way contract in July. His role increased following the surprise trade of Luka Doncic in early February and Kyrie Irving‘s season-ending ACL tear a month later. With Dante Exum breaking a bone in his hand in mid-March and Jaden Hardy dealing with a sprained right ankle, Dallas was suddenly short on healthy backcourt players.

Williams came to the rescue, allowing the Mavs to stay in the race for the play-in tournament. He scored 16.6 PPG in 11 games after Irving’s injury while adding 3.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists per night.

“It’s easy to say be patient, to wait, you’re going to get a turn,” coach Jason Kidd said. “Sometimes it takes weeks, months. For a situation that we’ve been in all season with injuries, he’s had that opportunity come a little bit sooner. He’s taken full advantage of it. … He has shown that he can play at a high level.”

Dallas has won three straight games with Anthony Davis back in the lineup and is holding onto the ninth spot in the West at 37-38. However, it’s still a tight race with Sacramento only a half-game back and Phoenix two games behind, and the Mavs are starting to face another roster crunch. Kessler Edwards reached his active-game limit last week, leaving Kai Jones as the only available two-way player.

The deadline for signing two-way contracts has already passed, and the Mavericks can’t fill their open roster spot until April 10 because of hard-cap restrictions. Williams, Edwards and Jones may all receive consideration for that standard deal, but the team will have to find a way to get by until one of them can be added.

“I really wish he could stick with us because B-Will has been such a pleasant surprise, such a great energy off the bench or in the starting lineup,” Klay Thompson said. “It sucks he can’t keep going because he’s made a huge impact.”

Southwest Notes: Gafford, Lively, Morant, Bane, Aldama, Borrego

March 30th, 2025 at 8:58pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Mavericks, who hold the ninth spot in the Western Conference, are getting healthy just in time for a possible postseason berth.

Center Daniel Gafford (right knee sprain) has been upgraded to probable for Monday’s matchup against the Nets, Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal tweets. Dereck Lively (right ankle stress fracture) is considered questionable to play.

As we noted on Saturday, Gafford, who has shared starting duties with Lively this season, sustained a Grade 3 MCL sprain in his right knee on February 10 and has been on the shelf for the Mavericks’ past 21 games. Lively hasn’t played since January 14, having suffered a stress fracture in his right ankle.

We have more from the Southwest Division:

Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant is no longer listed on the injury report, Will Guillory of The Athletic tweets. Memphis faces the red-hot Celtics on Monday. Morant missed two weeks of action due to a hamstring injury before returning on Saturday, when he racked up 22 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in 31 minutes in a loss to the Lakers.
Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane said there’s no lingering effects from his altercation with teammate Santi Aldama during the team’s win over Utah on Tuesday. Bane shoved Aldama during a timeout and reportedly called out the forward for his defensive effort. “Two competitors,” Bane told Jonah Dylan of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “We’re scratching and clawing against a Utah team on the road. We’re trying to push each other to be better. And that was pretty much that. I probably took it too far. I love Santi. He was in my wedding, I’ll be in his wedding. We talked right on the bench right after, hugged it out in the locker room and everything’s great.”
In an ironic twist, James Borrego filled in for head coach Willie Green on Sunday when the Pelicans faced for Hornets, Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer tweets. Green missed the contest due to personal reasons. Borrego was Charlotte’s head coach from 2018-22.

Mavs’ Lively, Gafford Reportedly On Track To Return Next Week

March 29th, 2025 at 3:10pm CST by Luke Adams

Neither Dereck Lively nor Daniel Gafford is expected to play on Saturday in Chicago, but the two Mavericks big men are trending in the right direction in their injury recoveries.

Lively and Gafford were upgraded from “out” to “doubtful” for Saturday’s game, a sign that their returns aren’t far off. According to NBA insider Marc Stein (Twitter link), both players are on track to be reactivated at some point next week.

Lively, who took over as Dallas’ starting center in November, hasn’t played since January 14, having sustained a stress fracture in his right ankle. Reporting at the time indicated that he would likely be sidelined for two-to-three months, so he’ll fall right in that window if he’s able to make it back in the coming days.

Gafford, who has shared starting duties with Lively this season, sustained a Grade 3 MCL sprain in his right knee on February 10 and has been on the shelf for the Mavericks’ past 20 games. A report on Feb. 13 stated he would likely miss six weeks — it has been six weeks and two days since then.

While Lively’s injury occurred earlier in the year, Gafford’s was part of a wave of health issues that devastated the Mavericks shortly after February’s trade deadline. In addition to missing Lively and Gafford, the Mavs were without Anthony Davis for 18 games due to an adductor strain, rendering the club’s top three big men unavailable for well over a month.

Davis returned to action on Monday and with Lively and Gafford apparently not far behind, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel in Dallas as the team pushes for a play-in spot. Of course, as a result of Kyrie Irving‘s season-ending ACL tear, the championship aspirations the Mavs had at the trade deadline are likely no longer realistic, but they would be a tough out in the play-in tournament if their frontcourt is fully healthy.

After visiting Chicago on Saturday, the Mavericks will host the Nets on Monday and the Hawks on Wednesday before facing the Clippers in Los Angeles next Friday and Saturday. Entering play on Saturday, Dallas holds the No. 10 spot in the West with a 36-38 record. The team is just a half-game behind the No. 9 Kings and one game ahead of the No. 11 Suns.

Mavericks’ Anthony Davis Talks Injury, Trade, More

March 28th, 2025 at 9:36pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Mavericks big man Anthony Davis is loving life with his new team.

The 6’10” pro has only appeared in three games since being traded as the centerpiece in the Lakers’ blockbuster pre-deadline deal for All-NBA guard Luka Doncic. But he’s already enjoying his experience in Dallas, as he told Marc J. Spears of Andscape.

“I don’t feel it, but a lot of people have been coming to me and telling me they haven’t seen me smile like this in a long time,” Davis told Spears. “Family is happy. Everybody is happy.”

Davis acknowledged being caught off guard when he heard news of the deal, especially given how Los Angeles had been playing at the time.

“It’s the nature of the business,” Davis said. “Obviously, the first maybe 48 hours, it was just a shock because I wasn’t expecting it. Nobody was expecting it, so they say. But I know from my side, my team and my family and everybody who works with me, I wasn’t expecting it. Even when I was getting some of the calls [about the trade], I thought guys were playing. But it ended up being true and that first initial [emotion] was more a shock just seeing the position [we were in]; we’re in fifth in the West [Conference], we were rolling…”

Dallas fans were similarly bewildered by the deal, which also saw the Mavericks acquire three-and-D wing Max Christie and L.A.’s first-round pick in 2029 in exchange for the 2024 Western Conference Finals MVP.

“I know what Luka meant to the [Mavericks] organization, to the team,” Davis said. “So, it’s like, what do I say to these guys coming in as a new leader and trying to lead these guys to do something special? And for them it’s like, ‘S–t, he just went through probably the biggest trade in [expletive] sports history. What do we say to him?’ And I wasn’t playing. So, I just tried to feel everybody out and just kind of let it happen organically. And now we got a super-tight bond, man, with all the guys.”

The Kentucky alum had been recuperating from an abdominal injury at the time of the trade. He aggravated the ailment during his Dallas debut, on February 8, and missed the subsequent six weeks of action.

Despite season-ending injuries to nine-time All-Star guard Kyrie Irving, Dante Exum, and Olivier-Maxence Prosper, Davis nevertheless decided to return to the floor for Dallas. The 36-38 club is currently the No. 10 seed in the West, and angling for a play-in tournament berth.

“We were playing with six, seven, eight guys who were coming in after playing a game 40, 42 minutes drained, tired, having to play back-to-backs, having to come in and still [weight] lift and get their shots [up],” Davis said. “That was a motivator for me. I knew I was going [to come back] just because of the amount of games we had left. And not even that, just the position we were in, too. We are half a game behind Phoenix. But we got a chance. [Eight] games left. We are trying to try to make a push to get into these playoffs and just take it from there.”

In his most recent game, a 101-92 victory over Orlando on Thursday, Davis played one minute more than his current 28-minute limit, per Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link).

“I put a lot of pressure on myself to be great and everybody was telling me, ‘Bro, you missed six weeks,'” Davis said. “‘It’s your second game back [after February 8].’ Just trying to find a rhythm but most importantly, we got the win… But I feel good. Body’s feeling good.”

In his three healthy contests for the Mavericks, the 32-year-old is averaging 17.7 PPG, 9.7 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.3 BPG and 0.7 BPG.

Jones Exits Thursday's Game With Hip Contusion

March 27th, 2025 at 7:21pm CST by Rory Maher

Mavericks center Kai Jones had an impressive block on Franz Wagner in the first quarter of Thursday’s game in Orlando and immediately followed it up with an alley-oop dunk off an assist from Naji Marshall (Twitter video link via Christian Clark of The Athletic). Unfortunately, Jones was unable to brace himself after the dunk and had a scary-looking fall, with all of his weight landing on his left hip. The Mavericks later ruled him out for the remainder of the contest with a left hip contusion (Twitter link). Jones, who is on a two-way deal with Dallas, has started each of his past four games and played well over that span. He recently missed seven games with a left quad strain.

Mavs’ Irving Undergoes ACL Surgery, Pelicans’ Murphy Gets Shoulder Surgery

March 27th, 2025 at 8:00am CST by Luke Adams

Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving underwent successful surgery on Wednesday to repair the ACL tear in his left knee, the team announced on its website.

The procedure had been expected since Irving was diagnosed with a torn ACL on March 4 after sustaining that knee injury one day earlier. Typically, ACL surgery is delayed by a few weeks in order to allow the swelling and inflammation in the player’s knee to subside to some extent.

The Mavericks’ announcement doesn’t provide a specific recovery timeline for Irving, simply stating that updates on his status will be provided as appropriate. However, the start of the NBA’s 2025/26 season is less than seven months away and the recovery period for this sort of surgery typically extends beyond that, so it seems relatively safe to assume the star guard won’t be ready for opening night in the fall.

Irving, who turned 33 on Sunday, holds a player option worth nearly $43MM for the 2025/26 season. If the Mavs are interested in working out a longer-term deal while he recovers from his knee surgery, he’ll have multiple contract options, including declining that option to sign a new contract or exercising the option and extending off of it.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Southwest Division, the Pelicans announced in a press release that wing Trey Murphy also went under the knife on Wednesday in order to repair the torn labrum in his right shoulder.

Murphy sustained his injury, which included a partial tear of his rotator cuff, on March 17, ending his season. He becomes the second Pelicans starter to undergo shoulder surgery already this year, joining teammate Herbert Jones.

According to the Pelicans’ release, Murphy is expected to make a full recovery following his surgery. But the team doesn’t specify whether or not he’ll be available for the start of the 2025/26 season, stating – like the Mavs with Irving – that further details will be “appropriately provided.”

As we wrote last week, Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray‘s recovery from an Achilles tear is expected to extend well into ’25/26 and it remains possible that Murphy and/or Jones will also have their season debuts delayed next fall. While it’s too early to pinpoint a return date for either player at this point, it will be worth keeping an eye out for any updates on their respective rehab processes this spring and summer.

Murphy, coming off a breakout year in which he averaged 21.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game on .454/.361/.887 shooting, signed a four-year, $112MM rookie scale extension last fall. That contract will go into effect this July.

Mavs’ Kessler Edwards Reaches Active Game Limit

March 26th, 2025 at 10:33am CST by Luke Adams

As expected, the Mavericks activated Kessler Edwards for Tuesday’s game against the Knicks. With Anthony Davis sitting out the second end of the back-to-back after returning from his adductor injury on Monday, Edwards earned the start in Dallas’ frontcourt and played 19 minutes in the 15-point loss.

While Edwards has seen action in just 40 games this season, he has been a DNP-CD in 10 others, meaning he has now reached the limit of 50 active regular season games for a player on a two-way contract.

In order to play in any additional games this spring for Dallas, Edwards would need to be signed to a standard contract and promoted to the 15-man roster. That’s what the Kings did last week with rookie big man Isaac Jones after he reached his 50-game limit.

However, that’s not an option right now for the Mavericks with Edwards due to their lack of flexibility below the first-apron hard cap. With only about $51K in breathing room under that cap, Dallas can’t fill the 15th spot on its roster until at least April 10, since a minimum-salary deal carries a cap hit of nearly $12K per day.

Edwards has registered modest averages of 4.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 15.2 minutes per game across his 40 total outings for Dallas this season. But he has played a far more significant role since Davis went down with his injury on February 8. In 17 games since then, the 6’7″ forward has made 15 starts and averaged 8.2 PPG, 4.5 RPG, and 1.7 APG with a .538/.486/.900 shooting line in 24.5 MPG.

Given his importance to the banged-up Mavericks, Edwards is a strong candidate to be promoted during the final week of the season, though the club may have decisions to make on their other two-way players at that point as well. Point guard Brandon Williams is down to just two active games remaining, while center Kai Jones could play in up to seven more. The 35-38 Mavs have nine more games on their regular season schedule.

The Mavs could theoretically promote two – or even all three – of their two-way players to standard contracts if they wait until the last day or two of the regular season to do so, but elevating more than one of them would mean waiving one or more of their current 14 players. It may not make sense for the team to go that route, especially if Dereck Lively (right ankle stress fracture) and Daniel Gafford (right knee sprain) are able to return from their own injuries by that point.

Dallas’ position in the play-in race by that point also figures to be a major factor in any roster decisions — making Edwards, Williams, and/or Jones available for the postseason by promoting them to the 15-man roster wouldn’t be necessary if the team is eliminated from contention. In that scenario, the decision on that 15th roster spot could come down to which player the Mavs can sign to a team-friendly multiyear deal.

In the meantime, Edwards is permitted to continue practicing with the Mavericks after reaching his 50-game limit, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). That will also be the case for Williams and/or Jones if and when they run out of games.

Anthony Davis: ‘Never A Thought’ About Shutting Down For Season

March 25th, 2025 at 8:52am CST by Luke Adams

It has been a rough few weeks for the Mavericks, who have found themselves beset by injuries, unable to make roster additions due to their hard cap, and rapidly losing ground in the postseason race in the Western Conference. But Monday’s contest in Brooklyn provided at least one reason for optimism in Dallas, as Anthony Davis made his long-awaited return from an adductor strain.

Davis, who had missed 18 straight games since making his Dallas debut on February 8, told reporters after the Mavs’ 19-point win over the Nets that shutting it down for the season and focusing on the 2025/26 campaign was never an option he considered.

“It was tough seeing these guys battling every single night. Winning close games. Losing close games. Blowing teams out. Getting blown out. They are laying it on the line,” Davis said, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “For me, it was never a thought about if I was going to come back and play. Especially if I was healthy. We are undermanned. Guys are hurt. (Daniel) Gafford. (Dereck) Lively. Kyrie (Irving) goes out. It was tough. Guys were leaving it on the floor. Guys laying on the floor in the locker room afterwards just gassed — to the point of exhaustion.

“There was no doubt I was going to come back and play. That makes you want to come out and play with these guys. Leave it on the floor and battle each and every night. As one of the leaders of the team, I just wanted to go out there and give them a breather at least.”

Davis confirmed in his post-game media session that he’s on a minutes restriction for the time being, and it’s not as if the Mavericks’ injury woes are behind them now that they have the 10-time All-Star back in action. The team still had only 10 healthy players available on Monday and one of them – guard Brandon Williams – can only be active for three more games while on his two-way contract.

Still, having Davis make it through 27 minutes in his return without any setbacks was an encouraging sign for a Mavs team that remains firmly in the mix for a play-in spot as one of three teams from Nos. 9-11 in the West separated by a half-game.

“It was a positive experience,” head coach Jason Kidd said. “We tried to keep his run short. We tried to keep him under his minutes, and I thought he did an incredible job. I thought his rhythm was good. Sometimes when you get a player back like AD, you want to dump the ball to him every time. I thought the guys did a good job of being aggressive and letting the ball find him.”

Even if they claim a play-in spot, the Mavericks would almost certainly have to win a pair of play-in games to earn the No. 8 seed, which would line them up to play a dominant Thunder team in the first round of the playoffs. In other words, the odds are against them making a deep postseason run, especially without Irving, whose ACL tear Davis referred to on Monday as “devastating.”

Still, while the championship aspirations the front office had at the time it traded for Davis last month probably are no longer realistic for this season, that didn’t discourage the 32-year-old big man from trying to return to action as soon as he could.

“I stressed that to them,” Davis said. “Once I’m 100 percent, whenever that time was, and we have games left, I’m going to play. We all huddled up and got on the same page. Went through the rehab process and was able to play (Monday). There was never a moment in my mind — unless we ran out of games — that I wasn’t going to play.

“Seeing these guys playing with seven guys. Guys playing 38, 40 minutes. We just don’t have enough bodies. Kessler Edwards is playing the five. Naji (Marshall) is playing the five. Added a little bit more motivation for me. I was already motivated to get back. But it added a little bit more motivation seeing those guys battle each and every night.”

Southwest Notes: Edwards, Nunez, McCollum, Sheppard, Morant

March 24th, 2025 at 7:16pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Two-way Mavericks player Kessler Edwards is expected to be active for the 50th time this season on Tuesday against the Knicks, NBA insider Marc Stein tweets.

That will make Edwards ineligible to be activated again this season under a two-way deal. The hard-capped Mavs can sign him to a standard contract on April 10. The team can’t do it any sooner because it’s only about $51K away from its first-apron hard cap.

Edwards has appeared in 39 games (17 starts), averaging 4.3 points and 2.8 rebounds in 15.1 minutes per contest.

We have more from the Southwest Division:

The Spurs have been keeping close tabs on stash-and-draft prospect Juan Nunez, Eurohoops.net relays. “I know we’ve had a lot of people visiting him in Spain and interacting with the Barcelona organization,” interim head coach Mitch Johnson told Mundo Deportivo. “We have a great relationship from everything I’ve heard, that’s what I know about it. I know we’re very aligned in terms of his development and experience there, and we want to continue helping him grow as a young player.” The 36th pick of last year’s draft, Nunez recorded 25 EuroLeague appearances for Barcelona, averaging 5.0 points, 3.4 assists, and 2.5 rebounds per game. The point guard’s season was cut short by a knee injury.
Following a 40-point outing against the Pistons, Pelicans guard CJ McCollum was rested in the second game of a back-to-back on Monday, according to a team press release. Bruce Brown (return to play reconditioning) and Zion Williamson (low back contusion) were also listed among the players who were ruled out against injury-riddled Philadelphia.
Rockets lottery pick Reed Sheppard did some shooting at practice without a brace on his fractured thumb, Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle tweets. He was injured on March 7 and was expected to miss at least four weeks. He’ll still be out for at least another week, Lerner adds.
Ja Morant will miss his fifth straight game due to a hamstring strain when the Grizzlies face Utah on Tuesday, the team’s PR department tweets.