The Dallas Mavericks’ disastrous season is perhaps about to get much more embarrassing.
The Mavericks’ harm disaster has worsened to the purpose that, mixed with two-way participant guidelines and salary-cap restrictions, there’s a likelihood the staff might be pressured to forfeit a minimum of one upcoming sport resulting from not having sufficient wholesome gamers. The difficulty grew to become a extra reasonable chance after guard Dante Exum suffered a season-ending injury Friday in opposition to the Houston Rockets. Dallas solely dressed 9 gamers for that sport, one above the eight-player minimal, and that was earlier than Exum’s harm.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks laid out the scenario in a YouTube video posted on Saturday. The Mavericks’ offseason Klay Thompson sign-and-trade transfer triggered a tough cap for the staff on the primary apron. The Mavericks are underneath the primary apron by $51,000, having used up all their extra flexibility in making the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis commerce final month.
In response to Marks, the earliest the Mavericks would have the ability to signal an extra participant is April 10, at which level the pro-rated veteran minimal can be lower than that $51,000 determine.
The Mavericks have two wholesome gamers on two-way contracts, however league guidelines dictate that these gamers can solely be energetic for a most of fifty video games per season. Kessler Edwards has performed in 37 video games and remained an unused substitute in ten extra, leaving him three wanting that threshold. Brandon Williams has 25 appearances and 19 different video games he dressed for, leaving him with solely six extra video games earlier than hitting the restrict.
Marks concludes that except the Mavericks get a few of their injured gamers again inside the subsequent 9 days, they might be left with fewer than eight wholesome gamers for his or her March 24 sport in opposition to Brooklyn. Which may go away them ready the place they must forfeit.
The choice can be to lie on the harm report and listing injured gamers as wholesome and in a position to gown, even when none of them might truly play. That might result in an NBA investigation, which the league has been doing a lot of recently, however it could nonetheless be a much less embarrassing end result than having to forfeit a sport.
One bit of excellent information for Dallas is that some gamers is perhaps again in motion by March 24. PJ Washington seems to be progressing toward a return, however that will nonetheless go away them in want of an eighth participant, and that assumes they won’t endure any new accidents earlier than then.
Notably, whereas there are ample examples of postponements or delays, no NBA staff has ever been pressured to forfeit a sport.
Clearly, the Mavericks by no means might have deliberate for such an absurd quantity of accidents, they usually can not actually be blamed for that. Nevertheless, it nonetheless appears like a becoming end result for a team that has become a punchline since buying and selling Doncic to the Lakers. Since then, Davis got hurt in his first game with the staff, Kyrie Irving suffered a season-ending ACL tear, and the staff has barely had any healthy players for about two weeks now. There isn’t a motive to suppose it’ll get any higher at this level.
