Mavericks already blew the perfect chance to trade Anthony Davis

The Dallas Mavericks clearly should've traded Anthony Davis during the offseason ahead of the 2025-26 season, and it's coming back to bite them now.

Despite Davis having some solid performances recently, his trade value was much higher during the offseason. The Mavericks should've maximized his value while they had the chance and gone all-in on building around Cooper Flagg and rebuilding for the future after they were gifted the ultimate chance at redemption by winning the lottery, but they didn't.

Now, the Mavericks are stuck with a player who is in the first year of a three-year, $175 million extension despite only playing in just 16 regular-season games since arriving in Dallas 305 days ago.

Mavericks' bold bet on Anthony Davis has already backfired

Over the summer, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that Davis' trade value was around four or five first-round picks, which would've been an absolute haul for the 32-year-old big man. Now, his value is likely one or two first-round picks (at best), along with matching salary and potentially some young talent, and Dallas missed their shot to kick off the Flagg era with a bang.

The biggest reason that Dallas didn't cash in while they had the chance is likely due to Nico Harrison, as he was the one who believed in him enough to give up a perennial MVP candidate in Luka Doncic to bring him in.

Harrison was never going to trade Davis, as he was the one who made the massive risk of trading Doncic to make Davis the team's new superstar, but even firing Harrison should've happened over the offseason. This would've given the Mavericks the fresh start they needed following the worst trade in NBA history, and it only took 11 games for Patrick Dumont to pull the plug and kick Harrison to the curb.

Firing Harrison over the summer would've allowed the Mavericks to hire a new general manager to have a full offseason to clean up the mess that he made, and that person likely would've opted to rebuild around Flagg. This probably would've involved trading Davis for a serious return, but a lot has happened since then.

Davis underwent offseason eye surgery, came into training camp overweight, and then strained his left calf in his fifth game. Teams were already wary of Davis' injury history before all of this, and his Mavericks tenure quickly turned into a disaster after he missed 14 straight games earlier this season.

He looked like he had put his bad injury history behind him during his final days with the Los Angeles Lakers, as he played 76 games in the 2023-24 season. Unfortunately for him, his old issues returned in 2025.

Every setback over the last 10 months has chopped off a piece of his trade value, and he doesn't seem to be the highly-touted All-Defensive player that he once was. Davis is still respected around the league, but his injury history is too serious to overlook at his age and size.

Now, Davis is on a mission to prove that he is still one of the league's best big men, but this shouldn't have been something that Dallas is forced to deal with. They should've realized that bringing him in was the wrong idea months ago and pivoted as quickly as they could.

It still seems likely that the Mavericks will trade Davis ahead of the February 5 trade deadline, but fans shouldn't expect a massive haul of picks coming back in return. Davis isn't expected to prompt a massive compilation of draft picks, young players, and expiring contracts in a trade, but that is certainly what Dallas is looking for.

The Mavericks would be in heaven if they could secure some young talent, draft picks, and future cap flexibility in the form of players on expiring contracts, and this seems like the road that they are headed toward. Davis trade talks are only poised to heat up over the next few months, and whatever Dallas gets in return for him will be talked about for the rest of the season.

The Mavericks aren't in the position to receive a Desmond Bane or Mikal Bridges-type of trade return (four to five first-round picks) for Davis, but they could've been in this range if they had acted earlier. Things change quickly in the NBA, and Dallas is paying the price for not moving on from Davis when they had the chance.