Mavs Trade Rumors: What Coveted Covington Says About A Minnesota Swap

The Dallas Mavericks are among the many teams being attached to a February trade-deadline deal involving Minnesota wing Robert Covington. We've tried to make sense of the concept here.

Covington himself is trying to make sense of it, too.

“I’m not even focused on that,” Covington said, as noted by The Athletic’s Kelly Iko. “My main focus is with this team and what I do every day. I don’t get caught up in the rumors and hype and whatnot. Right now, I’m a Minnesota Timberwolf and that’s all my focus is (on).”

That surely is not to say that Covington would balk at the idea of moving on from Minnesota (where he was acquired in 2018 from Philly a part of the Jimmy Butler trade. The T'Wolves are just a few games out of the eighth spot in the West, but most observers see that this program (again) isn't going anywhere.

But the Mavs? They've long had an affinity for Covington, now 29, who is a classic 3-and-D guy and maybe even a premier one. He's scoring about 13 points per game, with 5.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.7 steals, and a block while also serving as a three-point threat.

The money isn't an obstacle; his deal has two more seasons on it ($12.1 million and $12.9 million) and a value for a player who might be the third-best performer on the Dallas roster, behind only Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, should the Mavs find a way to engineer a swap.

We've speculated as to what it might take to pry lose Covington from Minny (starting with our analysis of a Bill Simmons post on the subject, click here) and that's likely what this will come down to: Not Robert Covington's desires and not even Dallas' general appreciation of him, but rather, a bidding war to see which contender desires and appreciates him the most.