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The NBA trade deadline is just days away, and plenty will have eyes on the Dallas Mavericks this week.
According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the team “will continue to welcome any trade interest that surfaces for Davis” in the coming days, though the veteran big man still prefers to stay in Dallas.
The Mavs aren’t interested in trading Naji Marshall or Max Christie, Stein added, but are still exploring trades involving Daniel Gafford, Klay Thompson and D’Angelo Russell.
According to Stein, the Mavs received “some unexpected trade interest” in Russell from the Milwaukee Bucks. That interest has since dwindled, though, because the Bucks wanted Russell to decline his $6 million player option for next season and join the team on a veteran minimum. The veteran point guard “balked at that idea,” Stein noted.
Russell has been solid off the bench for the Mavs, posting 10.2 points and 4.0 assists per game, but he’s fallen completely out of the rotation as of late, playing just one game since the turn of the New Year. Dallas has instead opted to use some of its younger players in place of Russell and other vets.
Whether Davis wants to remain in Dallas past the trade deadline seems a bit up in the air at this point. While Stein noted that he prefers to stay with the Mavs at least until the offseason, TSN’s Josh Lewenberg reported last week that Davis’ agent, Rich Paul, “is said to be working tirelessly to force a trade” to a team that would offer him an extension.
Stein noted that Dallas doesn’t feel any pressure to trade Davis, and ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported the same thing earlier this week.
“‘Rich Paul is not going to bully us.’ That is a direct quote from a member of the Mavericks organization,” MacMahon said on Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective.
The 32-year-old Davis has been sidelined since Jan. 8 because of ligament damage in his left hand and is set to miss at least a few more weeks.
The Mavs are sitting in 11th place in the West at 19-30 and, at this point in the season, appear to be far from a championship contender. Making big moves at the deadline could help them plan for a future centered around Cooper Flagg, but it could be worth keeping the core of the roster together to see what they can do when fully healthy.