Anthony Davis rumor drags Mavericks deeper into the pit Nico Harrison created

Anthony Davis rumors have been surrounding the Dallas Mavericks for months now, but one of the most recent reports may have just exposed his true fate. Mavericks fans have wanted the star big man to get traded for some time now, but that isn't looking like a major possibility according to Christian Clark of The Athletic (subscription required).

"With the NBA trade deadline 10 days away, it remains unlikely that Anthony Davis will be on the move, multiple league sources have told The Athletic," Clark reported.

Davis injured his left hand on January 8 against the Utah Jazz, causing him to be out of the lineup for six weeks, and this has consequently tanked his trade value. The Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors, two of the top trade suitors that showed the most interest in him, are no longer having serious conversations with Dallas about bringing in Davis, and his market has disintegrated in the blink of an eye.

Anthony Davis isn't going anywhere, and that's a problem

Davis' injury history always looked like it would hinder his trade market and value around the league, and him suffering ligament damage in his hand just made things worse. He has dealt with several serious injuries since joining the Mavericks last February, including an adductor strain, detached retina, calf strain, and now this hand injury, and it sounds like teams are going to stay far away from him on the trade front for the time being.

The fact that Anthony Davis' trade market is nonexistent just proved how poorly Nico Harrison's decision to trade Luka Doncic for him has gone, and the Mavericks are still deep in the hole that Harrison put them in. Seemingly, the entire world knew that swapping Doncic for Davis would set Dallas back for years to come, with the one outlier being Harrison.

He thought that Davis would give the Mavs a better shot at winning a title than Doncic, and he couldn't have been more wrong. Davis has only played 29 games for Dallas since being traded by the Los Angeles Lakers, and the irony here was extremely predictable.

One of the handful of reasons that Harrison gave up on the Slovenian superstar was due to a fear that he wouldn't be able to stay healthy, but he decided to trade for a player whose injury history is far worse than Doncic's. The Davis-Doncic trade will always be known as one of the worst trades in sports history, and Davis being virtually untradeable this season is the cherry on top.

The Mavericks can still explore trading him in the offseason, but the fact that the player Doncic was traded for has no trade value is extremely concerning. Dallas would be in an unescapable position if they hadn't won the draft lottery and selected Cooper Flagg last year, and their chance to move on from Davis and fully begin the new era looks like it will have to wait.