Dallas Mavericks

Now into his third season in the NBA, Josh Green has yet to make a breakthrough since the Dallas Mavericks selected him in the first round of the 2020 NBA draft. But that doesn't mean he still isn't valued highly within the organization.

The Athletic's Tim Cato reported the Mavs "would be very hesitant to trade Green at this point" and that one member of the front office said the 22-year-old is "the team's third-most important player after [Luka] Dončić and [Spencer] Dinwiddie."

Green is nursing an elbow injury that has forced him to miss five games. Before going down, he showcased his clear potential to Dallas. Through 25 appearances, he's averaging 7.0 points and 1.2 assists while shooting 58.3 percent overall and 44.4 percent from three-point range.

Cato explained why his skill set is also something the Mavericks badly need.

"The best teams are filled with athletes like [Green], players you have to run off the line due to their three-point ability but who can do something once they're chased away from it," he wrote. "... Dallas just doesn't have enough players like Green to completely shift away from this 3-centric approach."

Upgrades to the supporting cast around Dončić are clearly required. Dallas is 15-15 and ninth in the Western Conference, and the backcourt still has a Jalen Brunson-shaped void after he signed with the New York Knicks.

A trade of some sort feels inevitable, but Green for all intents and purposes appears to be untouchable.

Dallas Mavericks point guard Luka Dončić is out for Saturday's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers because of a right quad strain, the team announced.

In addition to Dončić, the Mavs (15-14) will be without Spencer Dinwiddie (knee), Josh Green (elbow), Dwight Powell (thigh) and Maxi Kleber (hamstring).

Dončić's absence will be felt the most against the Cavs (19-11), as he's the focal point of the offense and leads the team with averages of 33.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 8.7 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

The 23-year-old missed 17 contests in 2021-22 while dealing with injuries to his ankle. He also missed the first three games of the postseason after he suffered a calf strain in the last game of the regular season. The Mavericks went 10-10 last year when he was out of the lineup, including the playoffs.

One of the best players in the NBA, Dončić is coming off a stellar run while competing for Slovenia in the EuroBasket tournament last summer. He nearly set a EuroBasket record with 47 points in a win over France, the second-highest point total in the history of the European championships. He averaged 26.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 6.6 assists in seven games during the tournament.

While Dončić is out, the Mavericks offense will need multiple players to help replace his production. Power forward Christian Wood, who was acquired over the offseason in a trade with the Houston Rockets, will likely get more touches on the offensive end.

Former Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies guard Tyrell Terry announced his retirement Thursday and discussed his mental health in his Instagram post.

Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News passed along the message Terry called "a very difficult one to share."

While Terry pointed out how basketball led to "lifelong friends" and included "amazing accomplishments" and "unforgettable memories," he also said he "experienced the darkest times of my life. To the point where instead of building me up, it began to destroy me. Where I began to despise and question the value of myself, much more than those surrounding me could ever see or know."

The Stanford product also offered a look at the anxiety he has experienced:

"Intrusive thoughts, waking up nauseous, and finding myself struggling to take normal breaths because of the rock that would sit on my chest that seemed to weigh more than I could carry. This is just a brief description of the anxiety this sport has caused me, and while I'm grateful for every door it has opened for me, I can't continue this fight any longer for something I have fallen out of love with."

Terry played collegiately at Stanford for just one season in 2019-20 and was a Pac-12 All-Freshman selection while averaging 14.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game and shooting 44.1 percent from the field and 40.8 percent from deep.

Dallas saw enough to select him with the 31st overall pick of the 2020 NBA draft.

However, he appeared in just 11 games as a rookie and missed time for personal reasons. He told reporters during the following media day, "I was dealing with some mental health stuff that runs in my family. I wasn't really aware it was creeping up on me; it hit me kind of serious."

The Mavericks released him ahead of the 2021-22 campaign but still thanked him and called him "family for life" in a tweet:

Terry joined the Grizzlies and appeared in two games in 2021-22.

He had not played a game this season prior to his retirement announcement.

The Dallas Mavericks will be without Maxi Kleber for an extended period of time because of multiple injuries.

The team announced Kleber tore his right hamstring during practice Tuesday, and he has no timetable to return.

Per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, Kleber also sprained his right knee.

Kleber sat out the Mavs' 144-115 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Saturday with right foot soreness. He returned Monday against the Oklahoma City Thunder and had eight points and seven rebounds in 31 minutes.

Dallas was already thin in the frontcourt, and losing Kleber will force head coach Jason Kidd to make significant adjustments, particularly on defense.

"Kleber has proven instrumental to the Mavs' defense," Sports Illustrated's Grant Afseth wrote. "He is often trusted to slide over a small-ball 5 role to close games while deploying a switch-everything scheme while being capable of spacing out from beyond the three-point line on offense."

Kleber hasn't started a game this season, but he has averaged 25.6 minutes per game. Christian Wood is the only big on the roster who plays more than Kleber (26.2 minutes).

Kidd has been reluctant to use Wood in the starting lineup in part because he's a liability on defense.

Wood's only start this season came in Saturday's loss to the Bulls. It would be unfair to blame him for the Mavericks' defensive issues in that game. In addition to Kleber, Luka Dončić sat out with a quadricep strain.

If Kidd wants to keep using Wood as a sixth man, Dwight Powell will likely remain in the starting lineup. Wood will be the primary backup, and JaVale McGee will get time off the bench.

The Mavericks have lost three of their last four games. Their 14-14 record ranks ninth in the Western Conference.

The Detroit Pistons and Dallas Mavericks have reportedly had trade talks involving center Nerlens Noel, according to Ian Begley of SNY.

Noel has "drawn interest from several contending teams," per Begley.

Detroit acquired Noel in an offseason trade from the New York Knicks, but he has struggled to find playing time with his new team. He's appeared in just six games this season, scoring 11 total points and grabbing 19 rebounds.

The 28-year-old hasn't played in any of the Pistons' last six games despite the squad falling to 7-20 on the season.

The Pistons have instead been relying on young centers Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren, making Noel expendable.

Despite his limited action in 2022-23, the veteran could still be an impact player in the right location.

Noel averaged 4.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game during the past two years with the Knicks, especially helping on the defensive end. In 2020-21, his 5.2 win shares ranked second on the team behind Julius Randle as the squad earned the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.

His 3.8 defensive box plus/minus was the best in the NBA that year, per Basketball Reference.

Noel's rim-protection could make him a valuable part of a rotation for any contender, especially one looking to upgrade defensively.

Dallas is fourth in points allowed per game due to the team's slow pace, but the squad is just 11th in defensive rating. No one on the team averages more than one block per game, while veteran shot-blocker JaVale McGee has seemingly fallen out of the rotation.

Adding Noel alongside Dwight Powell could provide depth to the frontcourt as the Mavericks look to build on last year's run to the Western Conference Finals.

Luka Doncic is carrying a Herculean load every night for the Dallas Mavericks, but coach Jason Kidd is worried about the long-term sustainability of his workload.

“For 82 games, it’s no way that he can play at this level, the usage is just way too high,” Kidd told Yahoo Sports' Vincent Goodwill. “No one can. You know, the things that we ask him to do on the offensive end and then asked him to defend on the other end. It’s a lot.”

Doncic is leading the NBA at 33.4 points per game while also adding 8.5 rebounds and 8.5 assists per night. His usage rate is third in the NBA behind Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid, who have both been playing much of the season without their top costars (Khris Middleton and James Harden, respectively).

It's likely Antetokounmpo and Embiid will see their usage rates lower to more sustainable levels as the regular season progresses.

Doncic? He's playing with the roster he's got.

The Mavericks have done a largely dreadful job of surrounding Doncic with talent over the course of his career. Arguably the best teammate Doncic has played with has been Jalen Brunson, a non-All-Star point guard who Dallas allowed to walk this offseason because the front office botched contract extension negotiations.

Dallas is paying Tim Hardaway Jr. $19.6 million this season to shoot 36.3 percent from the floor. Hardaway is under contract through the 2024-25 season and is owed $34.1 million over the next two years.

Dāvis Bertāns is collecting $16 million this season and has played a grand total of 64 minutes. He's also under contract through 2024-25 and is owed $33 million for the next two seasons.

Reggie Bullock is shooting 29.9 percent and making $10 million. The Mavs will have to pay him $5.5 million next season to get him off the books.

This is a 25-win roster being propped into relevance by Doncic's brilliance. It's an abject failure of the front office, one that Kidd correctly notes leaves him unable to even allow his star a quick breather.

“We got to get them help and we got to look to see how we can do that,” Kidd told Yahoo Sports. “His minutes are extremely high. You try to hold him [on the bench] but a lot of times you gotta bring him back early just to get back in the game.”

Doncic has given no indication he's unhappy at this point, but it would be fair to wonder if Dallas will be the location of the next disgruntled NBA superstar looking to find a better situation.

The Dallas Mavericks "have interest" in trading for New York Knicks guard Derrick Rose, according to Ric Bucher of Fox Sports.

Bucher noted that Rose and four first-round draft picks are among the trade assets the 10-13 Knicks can "dangle" on the trade market.

The Mavericks are looking for guard depth and signed former Knicks veteran Kemba Walker last week, although general manager Nico Harrison admitted Thursday on Dallas radio station The Ticket (h/t CBS Sports) that Walker's knee is "not good."

Walker is yet to appear in a game for Dallas and hasn't played since February.

Rose has been productive in recent seasons, averaging 12.0 points and 4.0 assists per game for New York last year while shooting 40.2 percent from three-point range.

The 34-year-old has seen his numbers decline this season, however, averaging just 6.4 points and 2.0 assists in 21 appearances, all off the bench. Free-agent addition Jalen Brunson has emerged as a go-to option in the backcourt, leaving Rose with just 13.6 minutes per game after he averaged 24.5 minutes in 2021-22.

It makes Rose expendable for the Knicks, but the Mavericks could use guard depth after losing Brunson in the offseason.

Luka Dončić is one of the best offensive players in the NBA, but he has limited help since just three other Mavericks average double-figure scoring. Rose could give the team another backcourt option alongside Tim Hardaway Jr. and Spencer Dinwiddie.

With 15 years of NBA experience and 51 career playoff games, he could help provide what Dallas needs to compete with the top teams in the Western Conference.

Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison admitted in a radio interview that recently signed point guard Kemba Walker's left knee is "not good" but that he could still play on it.

"It’s not good," Harrison said on The Ticket Sports Radio (h/t Josh Bowe of Mavs Moneyball).

"It’s not good at all. But he’s rehabbed it and it’s the best he’s felt in the last two years so, we’ll see how long that lasts."

In a follow-up to those remarks, Harrison said:

"Well, it hasn’t been good for a few years. Even last year, he had 30-point games on it. But it actually feels better now. The reality is, if you look at it, it’s not good, but that doesn’t mean he can’t play on it."

The 32-year-old Walker is a four-time All-Star who joined the NBA with the Charlotte Bobcats in 2011. His most recent pro action came with the New York Knicks during the 2021-22 season.

During that campaign, Walker averaged 11.6 points on 40.3 percent shooting and 3.5 assists in 25.6 minutes per game over 37 contests.

Walker has suffered numerous injuries to his left knee during his career, including a torn meniscus (2015 and 2016). He underwent an arthroscopic procedure in 2017 and sat 10 games with left knee soreness in 2020. A stem-cell injection in his left knee later than year kept him out until Jan. 17, 2021.

Unfortunately, his knee continued to give him trouble with the Knicks, and he was shut down in February.

When healthy, Walker can be an offensive juggernaut. He notably dropped 44 points on the Washington Wizards last December to cap a three-game stretch in which he averaged 31.3 points. Walker followed that up with a triple-double against the Atlanta Hawks on Christmas.

However, Walker struggled for much of the remainder of his campaign as his knee continued to give him trouble. Following the Christmas Day game, he averaged just 7.8 points on 35.4 percent shooting.

The pressure won't be on Walker to run the offense in Dallas like he did in New York with superstar Luka Dončić leading the way, but he could be a huge boost to the Mavs as a reserve playing quality minutes off the bench, albeit in smaller stints.

On Thursday, Kidd gave an update on where Walker is right now, per Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News.

He joins a team in need of some help after a 10-11 start, including a 1-8 stint on the road. Walker did not play Thursday in the team's loss to the Detroit Pistons. His next chance to play is Saturday in a road game against the Knicks.

Luka Dončić can add a record-breaking trading card sale to his resume.

TMZ Sports reported a 2018 National Treasures Rookie NBA Logoman Patch card of Dončić sold for $3.12 million at a PWCC auction Thursday. The one-of-one card, which sold in a private auction for $4.6 million in 2021, set the record for the price of a basketball card sold at a public auction.

The card features a game-worn jersey patch, an autograph and a quote from Dončić in which he joked he would retire if he ever dunked on LeBron James.

That a Dončić card set the record doesn't come as much of a surprise considering he is just 23 years old and already on the short list of the best players in the NBA. He was the Rookie of the Year in that first season and is a three-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA selection.

Dončić is averaging a league-best 34.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 2.1 steals per game this season, so he could be adding an MVP to his list of accomplishments in the not-too-distant future.

If he does, the price of his trading cards will surely only increase.