Mavericks officially have an Anthony Davis problem on their hands

After playing the easiest portion of their schedule throughout the early juncture of their season, fans and analysts' hopes for the Dallas Mavericks were in the doldrums following a 5-15 start. However, with Dallas winning four of its last five games and now sitting at 9-16, expectations for the season are starting to shift a little bit, and this includes the direction Dallas will choose to go in regarding Anthony Davis.

Dallas has constructed a far more formidable offense with Davis playing the five and rookie Ryan Nembhard setting up the offense at point guard, as the Mavericks currently find themselves only a half-game out of the Play-In Tournament through 25 games.

By no means have the Mavericks solidified themselves as a bona fide playoff team yet, but there's still a lot of basketball to be played this season, so trading Davis doesn't seem as much of a foregone conclusion as it was a few weeks ago. Dallas was going to need sustained and solid play from Davis to create a robust trade market anyway, but with this team's ceiling possibly being far higher than many initially thought, it will be hard for Dallas to find a clear answer to trading Davis or not.

Uncertainty clouds Anthony Davis' future with the Mavericks

If Davis had come back and was playing as he has been recently, but the Mavericks hadn't gone on this surge, then it would be easy to say Dallas should be on the fast track to trade Davis by the deadline. However, this Mavericks team is proving to be decent after figuring out an offensive identity, and discussion over Kyrie Irving coming back this season will definitely start to heat up if Dallas continues to play at this rate, despite initial skepticism over whether Irving would even return this season.

Of course, there's no guarantee that Irving would return to form right away or even any time this season, but slotting in Irving to this current Mavericks team would make them pretty dangerous in a perfect world, potentially good enough to push for a 7-8 seed even. Matt Riccardi and Michael Finley, or whoever else gets hired as GM in Dallas' front office, will need to treat this situation fluidly over the coming weeks because of this.

The 2026 draft class is as loaded as ever, and with the Mavericks not controlling their first-round picks for the next handful of years, it'd be a lot easier to jumpstart the Cooper Flagg era by getting another talented lottery pick this year. But this Mavericks team isn't showing any signs of tanking yet.

Dallas still has a logjam in their frontcourt, especially if Davis continues to play the five, so does Dallas look at making more of a win-now type of trade with Davis soon instead?

That's definitely a possibility, especially if Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford can return to form soon, but it's undoubtedly a lot harder to justify trading Davis if the Mavericks are still in the play-in or playoff race once trade season really starts to heat up in the coming weeks. On top of that, it doesn't seem like Lively II will be returning to the court anytime soon.

The Mavericks were in the play-in last season and still lucked into the No. 1 pick, but making the playoffs would obviously negate their pick from being in the lottery, so Dallas' interim front office will have a lot of questions to answer regarding the future of the roster and Davis in the immediate future.

Hopefully, the best course of action reveals itself in due time, but it's hard to say whether it'd be more beneficial for someone like Flagg to get playoff experience in his rookie season, or if Dallas should mail it in to give themselves the best possible lottery odds. Trading Davis is definitely still on the table, but the type of package Dallas would command, as well as if they'd simply be too well-positioned in the standings to even want to trade Davis, are huge uncertainties at this juncture.