Mark Cuban says Mavs won’t trade Anthony Davis because ‘we want to try to win’

Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban told The Athletic the franchise would not try to trade Anthony Davis this season.

“We won’t. We want to try to win,” Cuban said Wednesday in an email when asked if he and Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont would seek a deal for Davis, the oft-injured, 10-time All-Star who was the centerpiece for Dallas in last season’s Luka Dončić trade.

In the wake of Dumont firing general manager Nico Harrison last week, and in the midst of a 4-11 start to the season, there has been widespread speculation that Dallas should, and perhaps will, attempt to seek a trade for Davis. It also has become increasingly clear that Cuban, who sold the majority of his shares in the Mavericks to the Adelson family for about $3.5 billion in 2023, has re-engaged with team leadership on basketball decisions.

To that end, Cuban told The Athletic he is “an adviser” to Dumont, the Sands Corporation president and chief operating officer who is Miriam Adelson’s son-in-law. Cuban added that Dumont “makes all the final decisions.”

“I’m here to help him where I can,” Cuban continued.

A team source confirmed Cuban’s role as an adviser to Dumont and reiterated Cuban’s point that it is ultimately Dumont who has final say. The Mavericks also have two basketball executives serving as co-general managers on an interim basis after Harrison’s firing — Matt Riccardi and Michael Finley.

As for the 32-year-old Davis, the 6-foot-10 big man has not played since Oct. 29 due to a left calf strain. Davis wanted to return to the court recently, and, according to a previous report from The Athletic, was urged to by Harrison, but he has remained sidelined on the strict orders of team doctors who are concerned an early return by Davis could lead to a reinjury of his calf or something worse, such as a torn Achilles. As first reported by ESPN, Dumont made the final decision to prevent Davis from playing in the Mavericks’ Nov. 8 game against the Washington Wizards after consulting with Dallas’ medical team.

The Mavericks said Sunday that Davis will be “re-assessed” in seven to 10 days. Before that update, the team had been listing his injury status as questionable before downgrading him to out shortly before tip-off. Ahead of Wednesday’s game against the New York Knicks, Davis was listed as out.

Davis was recovering from an abdominal strain when the Mavericks traded for him in February. He got hurt midway through the third quarter of his Dallas debut on Feb. 8, suffering an adductor strain that kept him out of the lineup for the next 18 games. The Mavericks are trying to avoid another scenario where Davis returns too quickly from injury again, team sources said.

The Mavericks are in a tricky position from a team-building standpoint because of future draft capital they sent out to improve their team around Dončic. They have full control of their own first-round pick in the 2026 draft, but from 2027 to 2030, they don’t control any of their own first-rounders (they do control the Lakers’ 2029 first-round pick as part of the Dončić trade). That leaves the Mavericks with limited options to improve their aging roster around 18-year-old phenom Cooper Flagg, unless Dallas decides it wants to trade veteran players to recoup draft picks.

Harrison’s original plan, which was approved by Dumont, was to build a team with a stout defense anchored by Davis, surrounded by additional, talented bigs like P.J. Washington, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, an all-time great 3-point shooter in Klay Thompson and one of the game’s top playmakers in Kyrie Irving. Shockingly securing the No. 1 pick in last summer’s draft — which the team used on Flagg — only accelerated Dallas’ plans to be a contending team immediately after dealing Dončić.

But Irving tore a knee ligament in March, Davis’ injuries are well documented, Flagg has had an uneven start and the team has otherwise struggled. If those struggles continue, the losing doesn’t stop, and appealing offers for Davis are made near the NBA’s annual February trade deadline, the team would surely listen and weigh them as its decision-makers weigh whether to completely change course.

For now, though, at least as far as Cuban is concerned, the plan is to keep Davis and for a healthier team to turn around its fortunes in the near term.