Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win's basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here's Bryan Kalbrosky.

The Dallas Mavericks have a very tough choice to make about Anthony Davis, who is still in the process of recovering from an injury.

Davis, of course, was the main piece that the Mavericks received after their controversial decision to trade Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Dallas front office specifically targeted Davis because of his ability to help them win in the immediate future as one of the best two-way players who can help contribute on both offense and defense.

While he looked dominant during his first game with the franchise following the trade, Davis unfortunately suffered an injury after playing just 31 minutes with the organization. He has not played in an NBA game since his debut with Dallas on February 8, even missing the game when he received a tribute video from the Lakers.

As he inches closer to a return, however, it starting to make less and less sense for the Mavericks to get him back on the court. That is largely because in a moment that suggested Dallas is potentially cursed, the team lost Kyrie Irving for the season when the star guard tore his ACL earlier this month.

In fact, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that it is possible Davis has already played his final game of the season for the Mavericks.

Here is more from NBA insider Marc Stein about the looming decision for the Mavs (via The Stein Line):

"The most interesting scenes, honestly, all involved Anthony Davis on the Mavericks' bench. He's clearly itching to play. Out since sustaining a left adductor strain in his Mavericks debut on Feb. 8, Davis swiped the game ball from the referees during one timeout and wouldn't relinquish it — just like Luka Dončić used to during occasional timeouts while he was sidelined by injury — and was later spotted in the first half facing the basket and hoisting imaginary elbow jumpers without a ball in his hands.

The Mavericks will likely soon have some pretty challenging decisions to make, because league sources tell me that Davis and Dereck Lively II (right ankle stress fracture) are indeed both progressing toward an in-season return. Whether those reactivations actually happen, of course, remain to be seen.

Davis, I'm told, sampled some 2-on-2 play over the weekend for the first time since the adductor injury sidelined him indefinitely and will almost certainly reach the point before season's end that playing in an NBA game is feasible. All I heard all weekend is that he's looking pretty good and I certainly saw a lot of smiles from a seemingly upbeat Davis throughout the afternoon."

While it seems apparent that Davis wants to play, that probably isn't what's actually best for the Mavericks.

Much like when they tanked the end of the 2022-23 season to get a better draft pick that turned into Dereck Lively II, there is candidly not much incentive for Dallas to make the postseason this year.

If the season ended today, the Mavericks would make the play-in tournament due to a 1.5 game lead over the Phoenix Suns (who do not control their own draft pick and have a much bigger reason to make the postseason).

But if the Mavericks were to get eliminated during the play-in tournament, they would guarantee themselves a lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Not only would they lock in one of the first fourteen picks but they could also jump a bit higher, too, and potentially even get some crazy luck and end up with the No. 1 pick with a shot at Cooper Flagg.

So long as they miss the playoffs, they at least give themselves a chance to get a decent pick in the draft. Even if they chose not to use that on a prospect, that pick could have decent trade value to get another veteran to pair with Irving and Davis and Klay Thompson for next season.

That means even if Davis is able to return, that isn't necessarily the best long-term decision for their future.

Peak GOATS

Here is an interesting story from our friends HoopsHype:

"After LeBron James broke the NBA’s all-time scoring record, some naysayers started calling him the Longevity GOAT as a way to avoid calling him the actual GOAT.

Although James, according to us, has by now done enough to be considered the NBA’s GOAT, we still wanted to look at the best five-year peaks in NBA history. (Spoiler alert: James ranks very high in this exercise.)

To determine when exactly each player’s peak took place, we used our own Global Rating Metric and went by each player’s best five continuous seasons. After that, we asked a panel of our writers and editors to vote on which five-year peaks by NBA legends were the best.

No. 1 might be a surprise considering who we just said we have as our outlet’s GOAT, though maybe not a surprise to everyone."

Read more on HoopsHype.

Shootaround

— Stephen Curry now has a Davidson front office job … but how will it work?

— LeBron James appears to rip Stephen A. Smith response to confrontation in leaked audio

— Jayson Tatum gushed about Al Horford after he kept Luka Doncic and LeBron James in check

— SNL parodied Kendrick Perkins on Weekend Update with a hilarious Kenan Thompson

This article originally appeared on For The Win: The Mavericks have a complicated Anthony Davis injury decision to make