Mavericks' injury curse threatens thriving youngster's roster spot

Just a few days into training camp, the Dallas Mavericks have already been dealing with a few nagging injuries, as this has fans reeling for the team to actually experience a stretch of good health after their injury woes toward the tail-end of last season. Big man Daniel Gafford rolled his ankle early in camp and is expected to miss around 2-3 weeks, leaving him with a return date that will probably be right before or after the regular season kicks off.

While Gafford's injury timeline may take longer, perhaps a more crushing injury could be Brandon Williams' recent hamstring strain that was also suffered early in camp, as Dallas needs all the help they can get from the guard spot with Kyrie Irving still rehabbing from a torn ACL, and this puts Williams in a tricky position considering he's the only player on Dallas' 15-man roster with a partially guaranteed deal.

Given Williams' skillset as a three-level scorer and playmaker, it would be surprising if someone like Dennis Smith Jr. overtakes him for a roster spot, as Smith Jr. is a stellar athlete and point-of-attack defender, but lacks the shot creation efficiency that Dallas desperately needs from someone like Williams and D'Angelo Russell. However, with Williams now battling a hamstring strain, Smith Jr. has as good an opportunity as ever to make it onto Dallas' main roster over Williams.

Williams could get passed up by Smith Jr. if hamstring injury lingers

Williams is still likely in the driver's seat to maintain his position on Dallas' roster, and hopefully earn a fully guaranteed deal at some point this season, but if Smith Jr. has a stellar camp from an offensive perspective and Williams takes a while to regain his full form, then things could get tricky once Dallas has to fully lock in their roster.

Williams' injury doesn't look like it will keep him out long, but he'll at least likely miss Dallas' first preseason game versus the Oklahoma City Thunder on October 6, and every single rep in training camp and preseason matters for players who are fighting for their NBA livelihood.

The concern for Williams isn't so much that he won't return with enough time left to make a solid imprint on Dallas' coaching staff, but more so that he could be in jeopardy of losing his spot to Smith Jr. if his injury limits him from having the same sort of burst that we saw from him last season.

By all accounts, Williams proved he was a rotation-caliber NBA player toward the end of last season, and it's still likely he wins out in training camp and continues to blossom for Dallas this season, but if he does somehow lose out to another guard like Smith Jr., then this unfortunate early training camp injury would certainly be the catalyst of it all.

It would take Smith Jr. becoming a more efficient jump shooter than he's ever been to realistically have a shot at derailing Williams' spot on this roster, barring this hamstring strain for Williams continues to linger, so Mavericks fans who want to see Williams succeed shouldn't hit the panic button quite yet.