NBA throws Mavericks a rare lifeline amid injury nightmare

The Dallas Mavericks have struggled with the injury bug all season, just as they did last season, but they've gotten a break from the league this year due to how early some of these injuries happened. With Dereck Lively II and Dante Exum set to miss the entirety of this season, the NBA granted Dallas two disabled player exceptions.

With these exceptions, the Mavericks can sign any replacement player in free agency for up to half of the salary of the player they are replacing, or they can trade for a player on an expiring contract under that same financial stipulation. However, the Mavericks have a full roster right now and are pushed up against the second apron, so they currently don't have a way to exercise these exceptions.

The only way the Mavericks could use these exceptions would be if they create the space by making some trades, which is certainly possible considering how many players they are rumored to be shopping ahead of the trade deadline. From that standpoint, these exceptions could become very useful after the February 5 trade deadline, as the Mavericks could have one or two open roster spots depending on what happens.

NBA grants Mavericks two disabled player exceptions

There's an equally strong chance that Dallas doesn't use these exceptions whatsoever, but it was a smart move by Dallas' interim front office to at least request these exceptions from the league, as it practically gives the Mavericks two minimum slots to use to sign any player to the rest of the season if the space opens up at any point.

For those wondering, the Mavericks unfortunately couldn't directly convert any of their two-way contract players to a standard deal using the disabled player exceptions, so these exceptions don't serve as a workaround to convert someone like Ryan Nembhard or Moussa Cisse. However, the Mavericks could still definitely create the space to convert Nembhard to a standard deal while also using one of their disabled player exceptions, as it all depends on how their trade deadline goes.

Obviously, it's a huge shame that Exum and Lively II are injured and missing the rest of the season for the Mavericks, but the one silver lining is that both of their injuries occurred before January 15, which is the last day teams can apply for a disabled player exception.

For instance, the Mavericks were unable to apply for one for Kyrie Irving after he tore his ACL last March, even though they would've gotten the full amount (equivalent to the full MLE) allowed for a disabled player exception had Irving's injury happened before the deadline. All in all, the Mavericks will certainly take this gift from the NBA, even if there's no guarantee they'll end up using it, and their injured players aren't on that high of salaries this season.