Dallas hoped this season would mark a clear slate for Dereck Full of life II after final 12 months’s lengthy damage layoff, however the 21-year-old middle is once more sidelined, this time with renewed ache in the identical foot he had surgically repaired over the summer season.
Full of life is coping with “swelling and discomfort” in his proper foot, and the Mavericks have already dominated him out for his or her subsequent three video games, Christian Clark of The Athletic reported.
The workforce confirmed that Full of life won’t journey on Dallas’ four-game highway journey, which continues in opposition to the Lakers on Friday, and that he will probably be re-evaluated in seven to 10 days. Clark wrote that Full of life “has solely been capable of play in 7 of 19 video games this season,” a continuation of the identical availability points which have outlined the early levels of his profession.
Full of life’s historical past of lower-body setbacks has develop into an actual concern contained in the group. Over the previous week, he missed two video games with what the workforce known as “proper foot damage administration,” and final season he sat for 36 straight video games with what Dallas described as a stress fracture in his proper ankle.
Clark added that in April, then-general supervisor Nico Harrison mentioned he didn’t anticipate Full of life would wish offseason surgical procedure, a perception that “ended up being inaccurate,” because the younger huge man later underwent surgical procedure to take away bone spurs in his proper foot.
Now, the identical foot is limiting him once more.
Dallas traded for Full of life on draft night time in 2023, and the previous quantity 12 choose rapidly grew to become a foundational piece. He began 42 video games as a rookie and performed significant minutes in the course of the Mavericks’ run to the 2024 NBA Finals, incomes comparisons to former Mavericks middle Tyson Chandler for his rim safety and mobility.
Regardless of averaging 8.4 factors, 7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks throughout his profession, Full of life has appeared in solely 98 video games in three seasons, an availability downside Dallas hoped was behind him.
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