Mavericks' brutal reality forces unavoidable benching of emerging youngster

The Dallas Mavericks are entering the most pivotal part of the season, as they are just a few games away from being in the final quarter of the year. Dallas is currently 32-28 with 22 games to go, and they could end up getting healthy at the perfect time to go on a strong end-of-season run and avoid the Play-In Tournament.

The next 22 games will make or break Dallas' season, and Anthony Davis' availability is one of the biggest X-factors of the season. While it doesn't look like Davis will be ready to return by March 6 when he is scheduled to be reevaluated, he is making progress towards a return and is beginning to do some on-court work and is lifting weights.

While Davis' availability has been a major question mark ever since he arrived in Dallas, considering he got injured in his Mavs debut, one player who has helped fill in the frontcourt minutes for him has been extremely reliable all season long. Kessler Edwards has only been a consistent rotation player recently and has become someone who Jason Kidd goes to on a nightly basis, but that could be changing soon.

Jason Kidd has no choice but to bench Kessler Edwards soon

Edwards is on a two-way contract, meaning he can be active for 50 games, and he has already been active for 40 games. This means that Dallas can only play him in 10 more games, and this is a problem that Kidd is aware of.

Kidd wants to "spread this thing out" when it comes to the games that he plays Edwards in, but it is all going to come down to the health of the team.

"If P.J. could have gone tonight we would have sat him," Kidd said when asked about how he plans to manage Edwards' 50-game limit on Thursday night. "Unfortunately, P.J. couldn’t go so we needed the body. As we go forward here, we’ll see how our health comes here in the next couple weeks. If we can get healthy then we’ll probably find a way to sit him."

Kidd benching Edwards for a game is inevitable at this point, as it's clear that he doesn't want to use up all of his games in a row. He plans to sit Edwards in certain games in which Washington can play in, but considering how Kidd talked about Washington before Thursday night's game, that may not be a possibility soon.

Kidd said that the concern is "high" with Washington's ankle sprain despite it not looking like he got re-injured against the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this week (the last game he played in), and Edwards looks to be a lock to play on Saturday against the Milwaukee Bucks as Washington is listed as questionable on the injury report while Edwards isn't on there at all.

While Edwards can only play 10 more games on the two-way deal that he is on, that doesn't mean this is the end of the road for him in Dallas. After April 10, the Mavs can sign someone to fill their final roster spot that will be freed up by Moses Brown playing his final game of his 10-day deal today, and the Mavericks signing him to a standard deal seems like the most likely scenario.

Edwards is already familiar with the system, and since the playoffs will only be a few days away when the Mavs have money to sign another player, he should be the runaway favorite. It's unfortunate that the Mavericks are going to have to bench Edwards in order to prioritize his availability, but no one could have ever predicted he would play this much.

Edwards has appeared in 30 games this year and started in nine games while playing in 18 straight games. Mavericks fans have become accustomed to Edwards being in the rotation every game, but as Kidd said, this statistically can't happen with the contract he's on.