The Mavericks picked up right where they left off last year, enduring their first injury of the new season
The Dallas Mavericks kicked off training camp in Vancouver, Canada on October 1st, with an eye on leaving the tumultuous 2024-25 season in the rearview mirror. It was finally time to properly usher in the Cooper Flagg era and look toward a positive future. There is much about last season that Mavs fans want to forget, but perhaps at the top of that list is the nearly endless string of injuries the team experienced. The hope of a reversal of fortune on that front were quickly dashed, as the team didn’t get past a single day without a notable injury (two, in fact, but more on that soon).
As reported by Tim MacMahon and confirmed by head coach Jason Kidd, Daniel Gafford rolled his ankle and is expected to miss two to three weeks.
Doing the quick math, the timetable for Gafford’s return lines up almost perfectly with the Mavs’ season opener on October 22nd when they host the San Antonio Spurs. If this holds true, Gafford will miss the entirety of training camp and all preseason games. This is certainly a blow, no matter how stacked Dallas’ frontcourt is. Gafford will now miss out on valuable reps and will surely take time in the early days of the regular season to spool up into game shape.
The irony, of course, is that the starting center question has been answered (in the worst way possible), at least for now. The ever-growing Dereck Lively needs only stay healthy at this point to get the nod. As a result of Gafford’s injury, Dallas may be able to stave off, if not altogether avoid, any potential drama between either of the two players becoming disgruntled.
Lively and Gafford make for a formidable two-headed monster while allowing Anthony Davis to play his preferred (and arguably best) position at power forward, so there is really no way to put a positive spin on this injury. If anything, solving the starting center question this way is a silver lining with a deep touch of gray.
I invite you to follow me @_80MPH on X, and check back often at Mavs Moneyball for all the latest on the Dallas Mavericks
Category: General Sports
