Thursday is not just for deals for your Dallas Mavericks. No, these Mavericks (19-31) are set for a home and home series with the southern foes on Interstate 35, the San Antonio Spurs (34-16). The Mavericks are losers of five straight games, while the Spurs are coming in off of a win over the short handed Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Before this trade deadline day game tips off, here\u2019s what you should be thinking about.<\/p>\n
Can I get a show of hands\u2026 Who is still here?<\/p>\n
The Mavericks could be without a large number of players in this contest, depending on the actions that happen between now and 2:00 p.m. CT on Thursday. Depending on who you trust for your trade sourcing<\/a>, any of Klay Thompson, Daniel Gafford and Naji Marshall could be on the move. Due to the Anthony Davis trade<\/a> of Wednesday, the Mavericks will be down at least two in the active department, as Jaden Hardy and D\u2019Angelo Russell were part of the move. If any of the trio above are set to find more competitive pastures, Dallas could be running a skeleton crew similar to that of when the Cavaliers beat them by about 100<\/a> in Cleveland after Luka Doncic was stolen from us traded. Now, I don\u2019t expect a similar result on Thursday as we saw in that game last year for a variety of reasons. Mainly, Anthony Davis is not Luka Doncic to anyone on the team.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s important to remember that these are real life humans who are going through a lot of real life human emotion during this deadline. Regardless of whether or not any of them actually get moved, there\u2019s a toll to it. We\u2019ll see what happens, but it wouldn\u2019t be shocking to see at least one or two more trades before it\u2019s all said and done.<\/p>\n Who exactly plays for the Spurs, either?<\/p>\n As previously mentioned, the Spurs are on the butt end of a travel back to back, albeit this one being very short travel. But, given the Mavs roster situation, what incentive do the Spurs have to run out their full group for? They might feel safe that they can get by with resting a few starters and just having the basketball version of a bullpen game. So, take the Dallas roster situation, combine it with the Spurs potentially resting a lot of pieces, and you\u2019ve got yourself one steaming pile of basketball. There is one saving grace, however, because\u2026<\/p>\n The Mavericks did the right thing<\/p>\n