It appears the 2025-26 basketball season is over after just seven games for third-year Dallas Mavericks’ center Dereck Lively II.

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported late Wednesday morning that Lively will undergo a season-ending procedure on his right foot “to address lingering discomfort.”

The phrase “lingering discomfort” is an apt one, not just for the sensation pulsing through Lively’s right foot, but also for the general Mavs’ fan experience in 2025.

After playing 55 games in his rookie season, that number has decreased in each of the last two. The big man out of Duke played just 36 games last year, and now it’s fair to question whether Lively’s body will let him make the impact his potential shows he can over the course of an NBA career. He has now played in just 98 of 185 possible ga

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