Dallas Mavericks must avoid this tempting trap at the trade deadline

The 2025 NBA trade deadline is just under four weeks away, and despite all the trade buzz that is going on around the league, the Dallas Mavericks are focused on winning games as their superstar duo remains sidelined due to injuries.

Dallas won their second game in a row on Thursday night when they took down the Portland Trail Blazers at home, and they are starting to find some rhythm amid this tough January stretch. Jaden Hardy, Dereck Lively II, and P.J. Washington led the way for Dallas last night as they all finished with 20+ points in the contest, and things are looking bright for them despite the five-game losing streak that they were in earlier this week.

Hardy has majorly picked up the slack with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving out, and his big performances are silencing any trade speculation that is being thrown his way from fans. While Hardy's name hasn't been brought up in any specific trade rumors yet, a few of the other Mavericks players have.

Both Maxi Kleber and Quentin Grimes reportedly "have a market" around the league, and it has been known for some time that Dallas will shop Kleber ahead of the deadline. The Mavericks are interested in adding frontcourt depth ahead of the final stretch of the season, and a move for a defensive-minded wing could be exactly what they need to go make a run to the NBA Finals.

Mavericks should be careful about trading their first-round picks

Dallas' aggressive trades for Washington and Daniel Gafford last season were pivotal in them reaching the Finals, but their eagerness when using first-round draft capital may need to die down this year. This doesn't mean that they can't be looking to upgrade their roster, as it has already been reported that they are one of the most active teams in the NBA ahead of the deadline, but a bit more of a conservative approach could be the best avenue for the Mavericks since their roster has already proven to be one of the best in the NBA when fully healthy.

The Mavs only have two tradeable first-round picks at their disposal this time around (2025 and 2031), and they can't afford to trade both of them. Building through the draft in today's NBA is important, and while trading both first-round picks along with matching salary could bring them back an impact player, they would be compromising too much of their future for comfort.

Teams like the Phoenix Suns have ended up in nightmare situations by trading all of their first-round picks, and they remain one of the most valuable trade assets that a team can have. They give the team a chance to handpick a player to join their squad on a team-friendly deal and develop their game from the ground up within the organization.

Striking gold in the draft is something that Nico Harrison has done multiple times as he drafted Lively II and Hardy in back-to-back years, and the Mavs keeping their first-round selection this year would give him another great shot at drafting another NBA-ready role