Mavericks’ Caleb Martin trade looks even riskier after unexpected update

Will Miller

Caleb Martin / Emilee Chinn/GettyImages

The Dallas Mavericks and the rest of the NBA world are t-minus roughly an hour till the 2 p.m. CDT trade deadline, as the Mavericks made the trade of the century by shipping out Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis last Saturday night. Dallas and President of Basketball Operations Nico Harrison mortgaged their future and took a massive gamble with this deal, and the Mavericks are trying to add even more win-now players evidenced by the move they made yesterday to acquire Caleb Martin for Quentin Grimes.

Grimes' absence from Dallas' lineup will only accentuate the Mavericks' need for another shot creator, as the Mavericks will likely be scouring for names to add via the buyout market if they can't get one more deal done before this trade deadline.

Martin provides Dallas with a bigger-bodied wing that can guard up a little more than Grimes, though he hasn't been as efficient as a shooter as Grimes this season, and Grimes clearly has more playmaking chops to him and has way higher upside given he's 24 years old.

Martin's hip injury may be more serious than expected

Martin will come in and be a savvy veteran 3-and-D piece for the Mavericks, but part of Philadelphia's main motivation for doing this deal could have been to get their 2025 second-round pick back, as the 76ers are currently 20-30 and will likely be slated to pick at the top of the second round in this year's talented draft class.

Per NBA insider Marc Stein, Dallas supposedly finalized the Martin trade today and the Sixers added a 2030 second-round pick into the deal as well, as the 76ers seemingly compensated the Mavericks with a tiny little sweetener amidst Martin's physical not being as idealistic as the Mavericks likely would have hoped for.

Stein said that there is no timetable for Martin's return right now, and that puts the Mavericks in a serious position considering they are the No. 11 seed in the West right now and need everyone healthy to make a strong end-of-season push.

It doesn't seem like Martin's right hip sprain is anything serious or is something that will curtail his season, as Stein reported there is no long-term concern about the injury from Dallas, but the Mavericks fared extremely neutral to slightly negative on this trade, as Martin may technically fit Harrison's vision for this roster better compared to Grimes, but the trade was just a fairly meaningless swap when Grimes was playing objectively better than Martin this season and his five years younger than Martin.

It will be intriguing to see how Dallas' new wing depth at the point of attack will add a new element to this team defensively, though Grimes was molding himself into an elite perimeter defender, even if he was still working at reaching that level on a game-by-game basis.

Will Miller

Will Miller is a senior contributor and is in his second year with The Smoking Cuban. Will has been following the Dallas Mavericks for over a decade and is currently working on getting a Bachelors in Science in Sports Journalism from the University of North Texas, as he is also covering sports for the North Texas TV station. While Will is opening up his coverage to cover other sports for UNT, basketball and the Dallas Mavericks are his true passion and he hopes to continue writing and producing Mavericks related content as his career continues. Will has very solid in-game analysis and knowledge about the intricacies of the game, and has a very broad understanding about the NBA as a whole. Going forward Will is looking to be more expansive in his coverage of the Mavericks beyond writing as well. Outside of writing about the Mavericks, Will enjoys hanging with friends, going to the gym, and watching other sports and live events.