Skip Bayless says Mavericks would be NBA contenders right now if they hadn't made one trade
· Yahoo Sports
The Dallas Mavericks have had an interesting start to the new NBA season, winning three of their first five games.
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The latest of those wins came against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night – a dominant 120-96 victory at the American Airlines Centre.
Skip Bayless seems to be impressed by the Mavs, but he can’t help but wonder how much better they would’ve been had they not traded Anthony Davis earlier this year.
Skip Bayless says Dallas Mavericks would be contenders if they had kept Anthony Davis
The Dallas Mavericks traded Davis to the Washington Wizards in an eight-player deal.
The 33-year-old was joined by D’Angelo Russell, Jaden Hardy and Dante Exum on his way to the capital, while Chris Middleton, Marvin Bagley III, AJ Johnson and Malachi Branham moved in the opposite direction, along with two first-round and three second-round draft picks.
One of the reasons for the trade was Davis’ injury struggles during his time at Dallas. He missed over 50 regular-season games.
Those problems, combined with his age, made the decision-makers at the Mavs feel he had to be moved on, but Bayless appears to have suggested that they made a mistake.
In a tweet after watching Dallas win on Wednesday night, he claimed that the Mavericks would be contenders had they kept hold of Davis and played him alongside Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving.
He tweeted: “I still don’t understand why the Mavericks traded Anthony Davis. Cooper Flagg, Kyrie, AD… contender.”
On his day, Davis is a sensational player, but his luck with injuries has made him unreliable for the Mavs to keep him long-term. He missed over 50 regular season games for them.
The trade decision has also been justified, as Davis missed the final 45 games of last season due to a hand injury he suffered while still with the Mavericks. He only made his Wizards debut in this campaign’s opener despite joining them in February.
Davis is great, but the Mavs were right to move him on.