One more thing. The Mavs could just wait for the off-season to trade Anthony Davis, but is that the best course of action? I don't think so. Locked on Maps, right now. Welcome, you're still locked down to the Dallas Mavericks, your team every day. My name is Nick Engstead. Media member covering the match for over 10 years. Today's episode brought to you by Fandual. go check out the Fandu Lab to see how you can get access to NBA.

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I'm joined now by Noah Weber from the Smoking Cuban Maps Reporter, covering everything, every angle. And we're going to talk about the best storylines to end this season for the Dallas Mavericks because there's a lot of different things, a lot of things we can talk about. But this is one more thing, bonus episode. If you missed the episode with me and Noah talking about the best, you know, best things that have happened and the worst things that have happened that nobody's talking about for the Dallas Mavericks. Go listen to that one. But let's start here, Noah. Anthony Davis, I think the Mabbs have talked about trades. They've talked to a bunch of teams about trades. The rumors have been going on all over the place. Then Anthony Davis has the hand injury. And Mark Stein reported on DLS today. He said, right now, you know, there doesn't appear to be anything percolating on an Anthony Davis trade. The reporters keep saying, keep bringing up. Well, you've got this guy that's injured. It's going to be harder for him him to be traded but then you hear you know the raptors could still be in on it you hear that the warriors now are you know are desperate and we'll see what happens with them but i think the biggest storyline for the rest of the season is what they do with anthony anthony davis and i actually i brought this up on a on a show recently where i said the next seven games for the mavericks could define the season. And I actually want to get your thoughts on this because it has to do with the Anthony Davis trade saga. Next seven games happen before the trade. Are the seven games before the trade deadline? They play really good teams. Warriors is the first one, which is actually now that changed a lot. Then the Lakers, then, you know, they play

Minnesota, they play Houston, they play Boston in that stretch, like from really tough games, some back to backs in there. But if the Mavs are good in that stretch of games, they beat teams like New York that they weren't expected to be, they get some wins here and there. They get the edge closer and closer to 500, closer and closer to the play.. They're only a couple games out from that.

The Mabs could all of a sudden look at it and say,

well, let's just keep Anthony Davis and wait and see what happens because all of a sudden, if they're good at the trade deadline, they don't trade him then, then he's just on the roster. If they don't trade them by the trade deadline. So then there's like four more games after the trade deadline And then the all-star break.

And then right after the all-star break,

February 19th,

is when Anthony Davis's six weeks are up for his hand injury of like he said that they said that he'd be healed in six weeks. He could come back. And February 20th, they play Minnesota. Mid-February is also when we've all expected Kyrie Irving to come back. So the Mavs, I think, they could talk themselves into keeping both of those guys. Obviously, you know, keeping Kyrie is, nobody's questioning that. But keeping Anthony Davis, too, through the trade deadline to see what it looks like through the rest of the season. Like, I think this is a real thing that Mavs could talk themselves into. Yeah, I think it is too. With all the reports about

Patrick Dumont wanting to see the big three of Flagg Davis and Kyrie play together. And with

him electing to not get surgery, that's kind of something that he's been, I feel like, known for

over the past few years is kind of avoiding surgery to then be able to come back. And I mean, I could see it.

I could see them definitely rolling the dice and keeping Anthony Davis around.

Because at this point, I feel like the return in an Anthony Davis trade, if they did it right now, this season, I don't see them getting draft capital.

I don't think they would maybe not even get a first round pick. I mean, at this point, I feel like his value has steeped so low. I don't even know what they would get. I don't know if it would be similar to that Trey Young package or what exactly would be. I mean, they're in a really tough spot because I don't even know, this is a whole another story, but is his value really going to change that much to the off season? See, this is my thing. It's like, all right, if you hold on to him, sure, but you're holding on to him with the idea that he'll increase his value from between now and off season, the drafts. And the two things that could happen is Stein pointed out on the show today is that there are certainly, he said there are certainly people around the league who think it'll be easier to move Anthony Davis this summer when Anthony Davis's deal is a year shorter, which I find hilarious because it's only like 30 games left in the season anyway. So you keep them that. That's how much longer like shorter would be. And he also said more teams are looking to make

moves because we have hit a point in the season where a bunch of teams know what you are. And there's not as many buyers right now as there could be in the off season where the team tries to talk themselves into, all right, we can be better next season. We've got to prove to our fans that we're going to be better. But I don't know that between that point and now that Anthony Davis improves his value, and he, I guess he could play the rest of the season. He comes back, what he would come back with, like about two months left in the season. How many games is that? You're talking like, you know, 20 games or something like that. I mean, does that, if he plays 20 straight games, like, that would show something to me, but I don't know that it improves that much.

Yeah, and that's also a huge what if because he hasn't played more than five since arriving in Dallas.

So who knows that, yeah, I mean, he's really struggled to stay on the court.

And it seems like every time that he truly gets rolling and he's playing good basketball, that some

other setback appears. And it's just been a never-ending cycle seemingly for the Mavericks

and Davis ever since they traded for him a little less than a year ago. So yeah, like you said,

I do agree though with the point that in the off-season teams kind of have a better sense

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