MAVS NEWS:

[Smitty]

I get that the end goal -being Lively has to be more available- is a correct and reasonable thing to pursue.

But context matters. And almost every single one of his injuries has been complete flukes. 

Rookie season in order starting from October:

Illness- missed 1 game
Bruised back- missed 1 game
Ankle sprain- missed 4 games
Ankle sprain- missed 4 games 
Broken nose- missed 7 games
Personal reasons (later discovered his mother's illness was terminal and her condition rapidly worsened)- missed 1 game
"Knee"- again later discovered the team let him go to be with his dying mother- missed the last 8 games of the season. Lively's mom passed April 12th

From his rookie year, of the 26 games that he missed, only 8 of them came from actual real injuries that were due to his "fragility". The broken nose was a freak accident. The bruised back came off a putback dunk where he landed hard. And the last 9 games were due to his mothers' rapidly worsening cancer diagnosis and eventual death.

I think that's reasonable.

His 2nd year you can definitely critique being fragile, although I think more of that is due to the Mavs training staff was quite literally a bunch of amateurs employed by Nico.

Going through those injuries and time missed:

Shoulder- missed 4 games
Illness- missed 1 game
Bruised hip- missed 4 games 
Stress fracture on the ankle- missed the rest of the season.

SO yeah, definitely more concerning type of injuries this year. But the Mavs were about to go let Lively play on a sprain before discovering how serious his injury actually was. I blame the medical/training staff than I do put the fragility on Lively. Context matters. Of all his injuries realistically only the ankle stuff has been concerning.

I'm aware. I get it. If you think the lack of availability is all overblown, flukes, training staff... we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Still, my concern is about the future. Some pencil Lively in as a young cornerstone player that will be here 10 years+ with Flagg and play 30 minutes per game as early as this season. I can't get there. He has to show that he can be on the floor year 3, or I'm not even sold on giving him a big extension.