NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced on February 10th that Dallas Mavericks power forward/center Anthony Davis will be replaced in the 2025 All-Star Game by teammate and Mavs guard Kyrie Irving. Davis is the second NBA All-Star Game replacement announced by Silver in as many days. The other came in the Eastern Conference, where Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young was named a replacement for injured Milwaukee Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.
This will be Kyrie Irving’s ninth NBA All-Star Game appearance and his first since 2023. Irving currently averages 24.2 points per game, good for 15th in the league. He is also tied with Bucks guard Damian Lillard for the seventh-most minutes per game this season (36.5).
After the Mavericks completed a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers that sent Luka Dončić to LA and Anthony Davis to Dallas, Davis suffered a left adductor strain that will force him to miss several weeks of action, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said on Monday that Davis’ injury is currently being assessed, and he doesn’t have a timetable for Davis’ return yet.
The Luka Dončić trade now looks even worse for the Mavs
I think it’s safe to say that the Luka Dončić-Anthony Davis trade was one of the most surprising moments in NBA History. In fact, Shams Charania wrote, “Yes. This is real.” when he broke the news on February 2nd.
I didn’t have a problem with Dallas trading for Anthony Davis. I would actually go so far as to say that it’s a smart acquisition because Davis is one of the 15 best basketball players in the world right now. The issue is the Mavericks gave away an up-and-coming 25-year-old superstar who led the league in scoring last season for a soon-to-be 32-year-old power forward/center who can’t stay healthy (he has never played in all 82 games during a single season).
Don’t get me wrong, Anthony Davis is a Hall of Fame-caliber basketball player when healthy, as proven by his 26-point, 16-rebound Mavericks debut on February 8th. But the guy is never fully healthy! After all, he suffered an injury in his first game with Dallas that will cause him to miss extended time. While it should’ve been expected that AD would miss some games, I don’t think anybody anticipated him to get injured this soon into his Mavericks tenure.
Meanwhile, Luka Dončić dropped 14 points in his Lakers debut, a 132-113 win over the Utah Jazz. That performance wasn’t nearly as good as Davis’ first game with the Mavs, BUT AT LEAST LUKA WILL PLAY ANOTHER GAME FOR THE LAKERS THIS WEEK! The same cannot be said for AD.
The Luka Dončić-Anthony Davis trade was a head-scratcher if you’re a Mavericks fan, but it was somewhat palatable because it provided Dallas with some much-needed star power at the four/five position. After the injury though, the trade looks even worse than it originally did for the Mavs, and Dallas is now down two stars rather than just one.
The only way this transaction could be worse for the Mavericks is if Davis demands a trade in the off-season. Even if he doesn’t do that, this is still a huge stain on the résumé of Dallas general manager Nico Harrison.
