The Dallas Mavericks will be without young big man Dereck Lively II as he undergoes another procedure on his right foot and be out for the remainder of the 2025-26 season.
Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II will undergo season-ending surgery on his right foot, as reported by the team on social media.
The third-year big man is expected to make a full recovery and be available for the Mavs' training camp ahead of the 2026-27 season.
Earlier this year, Lively announced that he and his team were going to be moving in a different direction with consultation about his injured right foot, which has limited him to appearing in just seven of Dallas' 25 games to this point.
Lively has also missed time this season with a sprained right knee. When he's played, Lively has averaged 4.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game.
His recent stretch of absences have been listed as "right foot injury management" due to swelling and discomfort, and now Dallas will elect to commit to a long-term recovery rather than continuing cautious rehab and management.
“Dereck has handled every challenge of this season with professionalism and resilience,” said co-interim general manager Matt Riccardi in a statement. “While this is a setback, we’re confident in his long-term future and will support him fully through his recovery.”
The news is a continuation of a concerning trend for Lively and lower-body injuries throughout his career. He underwent surgery on this foot in July to clean out bone spurs that were a result of a stress fracture in his ankle, an injury last season that caused him to miss two and a half months of action.
“For a 21-year-old, it’s tough," said head coach Jason Kidd after Lively started seeking out new treatment options. "He wants to play. Unfortunately, he can’t play right now."
"Hopefully, as he goes through this process of finding other opinions of what he should do, it brings resolve and he can get back to playing because we miss him, but he misses playing.”
Because of this long-term injury, the Mavericks will be eligible to apply for a Disabled Player Exception that allows them to receive $2.62 million to sign or trade for a player who is on the final year of their contract.
However, Dallas would need to remove a current player from its payroll in order to be compliant with the second apron.
The rest of the Mavs' front court rotation has also spent time on the injury report, with Anthony Davis (calf strain) and Daniel Gafford (ankle) also missing games throughout this season.