Mavericks in danger of missing playoffs following yet another significant injury

Ask the average Mavericks fan what the present vibes are like in Dallas, and they'll surely tell you they're not great. 

Following Nico Harrison inexplicably trading away the face of their franchise — and one of the premier faces of the NBA — in Luka Doncic and replacing him with Anthony Davis, the former Lakers big man went down with an injury during his first game. And just in case that wasn’t enough, to add insult to injury — no pun intended — Daniel Gafford followed up Davis’ injury by going down the following game with a significant knee injury of his own.

Now, the Mavericks frontcourt, which was once one of the league’s best and deepest, is nearly entirely depleted. In the aftermath of Gafford’s injury, the Mavericks will now be without Davis (adductor), Gafford (knee), Dereck Lively II (ankle), Dwight Powell (hip) and Markieff Morris/Maxi Kleber (traded) for the foreseeable future. 

In a stacked Western Conference filled with dominant big men, including but not limited to Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama, Alperen Sengun and Domantas Sabonis, the Mavericks having approximately zero healthy rotation-caliber centers is a significant issue. 

With the Mavericks currently sitting in the eighth seed in the Western Conference, their margin for error is close to nil. Doubly so when you consider how tightly bunched the bottom half of the conference standings are — just three-and-a-half games separate seeds six through 11 at the time of this writing. 

Regardless of their health issues (P.J. Washington has also been in and out of the lineup recently while battling an ankle injury, in addition to the aforementioned injured center group), the Mavericks can ill afford to give up much, if any, ground. 

Fortunately for the Mavericks, the NBA All-Star break is coming just in time to quell some of their injury concerns. Unfortunately for the Mavericks, "some" does not mean "all." And while the Mavericks should expect to get a healthy and rejuvenated P.J. Washington back following the All-Star break, the latest reports on players like Davis, Lively and Gafford suggest a lengthier return timetable. 

Kyrie Irving, who was recently named an All-Star replacement for his new teammate Anthony Davis, is one of the most capable offensive players in the game today, but even Irving’s offensive wizardry has its limits. 

Without a starting-caliber center — or backup center — for the foreseeable future, it may be too big of an ask to expect Irving and a bunch of decent to solid role players to fend off significant pushes from playoff-hopeful teams like the Kings, Warriors and Suns, who are sitting just below the Mavericks in the standings. 

Things aren’t going to get any easier for the Mavericks until they get their bigs back in the lineup to provide them with some sort of an interior presence. And as previously stated, that doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon. 

With two months left to go in the regular season and roughly 30 games to play, the Mavericks do still have time to attempt to build some sort of cohesion with the healthy players they do have available. So, if they’re able to muster up some sort of momentum over the next few weeks, their season could still be salvageable when guys like Davis, Lively and Gafford return to the lineup. 

Despite recent events — the exit of Luka Doncic, the following injury to Davis and the ensuing injury to Gafford — the sky has not entirely caved in on the Mavericks yet. It's certainly at least appearing to bend, crack and give way, however.