The six Dallas Mavericks most likely to be moved at the 2025 trade deadline…

The Dallas Mavericks are among the most interesting trade deadline test cases in the NBA this year. As currently constructed, the Mavs are leaning right up against the first salary cap apron, but suddenly, star guards Luka Dončić (calf) and Kyrie Irving (back) are on the shelf with injuries. An argument could be made for a bold move to keep the team in the hunt in the Western Conference playoff race, but once again, they don’t have a ton of assets with which to take a home run swing in the trade market.

Underestimate Nico Harrison and the Mavericks’ front office at your own peril, though. He put on a moving and shaking masterclass to bring PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford into the fold last year, when Dallas was also famously asset-poor.

So, who might be on the trading block this year? The moves the Mavs make over the next month — the NBA trade deadline is Thursday, Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. CST — will shine a light on not only the Miriam Adelson regime’s appetite for spending over that first cap apron, but also on the front office’s level of belief in staying the course after disastrous injuries have threatened to derail the season. In no particular order, here are six Mavericks who might be moved before then.

Quentin Grimes

No one wants to see Quentin Grimes go at this point, but circumstances may be conspiring against him staying in Dallas long-term. The “Does Grimes stay or does Grimes go?” question is a bellwether for whether Miriam Adelson and her ownership team are willing to spend above the first — and maybe even the second — salary cap apron and incur the penalties that come along with doing so. Grimes is averaging 10.4 points in 22.5 minutes per game, plus career-high marks of 4.2 rebounds and 40.7% 3-point shooting this year. He’s come up big in some big moments when called upon to fill a larger role, too.

Dallas is currently about $500,000 under the first apron. Expanding the team payroll past that would limit the Mavericks’ ability to use various trade exceptions, make sign-and-trade deals and take back salary in trades this offseason. If the consequences for passing the first apron don’t sound all that punitive, the team payroll currently sits about $11,000,000 shy of the second apron. Passing that threshold would mean losing the mid-level trade exception, the ability to trade first-round picks, the ability to send cash as part of deals and a host of other slaps on the wrist that make the cost of doing business this off-season prohibitively high.

Grimes is currently in the last year of his rookie contract and reportedly turned down Dallas’ qualifying offer, believed to be in the neighborhood of teammate Naji Marshall’s deal (three years, $27 million), in October. Turning that offer down was a bet on himself, one that will likely net him a bigger contract in free agency this summer. All this is to say that the Mavericks are left with a big decision to make at the trade deadline.