First Devin Harris, then Deron Williams, then Deron again, and now JJ Barea; if you’re a guard for the Dallas Mavericks you might want to lace up your Nike’s a little tighter going forward. Harris hasn’t played a game this season due to a toe injury. Deron Williams missed four games in November with a calf injury before coming back on Wednesday night to only play 9:34 min and get pulled again with the same calf issue. Now JJ Barea has a similar calf injury that will hold him out for an indeterminate amount of time. Leaving Seth Curry as the only healthy full-time guard on the roster and there’s a report that Quincy Acy has been waived to bring back Jonathan Gibson. 

 

The love for Seth Curry has been palpable ever since the Mavs signed him back in July.

 

Looking good in that @dallasmavs jersey @sdotcurry #MavsMediaDay #mffl pic.twitter.com/sZB2GUiyJ0

— Dallas Sports Fanatic (@Dallas_Fanatic) September 26, 2016

 

The big question about Seth before the season was: Where does he get minutes? The roster already had Williams starting at one guard position, Wes Matthews starting at the other, JJ Barea coming off the bench with Devin Harris, and then whatever minutes were left would presumably go to Curry. Last season this was the Raymond Felton spot in the lineup. As the preseason progressed[note]Badly…[/note], there was more and more buzz about this issue. Curry was playing 19 minutes per game but Mavs fans just imagined Carlisle sticking with the four aforementioned veterans and not giving Seth a chance.

 

Now 10 games into the season, Curry is averaging 25 minutes per night and has even started two games (including one against his brother).   Many times this season, Curry has played off-the-ball next to JJ Barea, Deron Williams, or both causing fans to not only demand more minutes for Curry but demand more touches as well.  Curry is averaging 45.5 touches per game, which would rank fifth on the Mavericks[note]Behind (in order): JJ, Deron, HB, and Wes[/note] but is on par with players like Clint Capela[note]47.5 per games[/note], Andre Drummond[note]43.9 per games[/note], DeAndre Jordan[note]43.2 per game[/note], and Hassan Whiteside[note]46.6 per game[/note].  Those figures are bound to increase with the uncertainty of Williams and Barea’s injuries.  

 

It’s terrible that Seth’s opportunity comes at the hands of injuries to good basketball players.  No one should ever hope or wish that a player gets hurt, but as the Cowboys have taught us this season, job security doesn’t include injury.

 

 

All of these Seth Curry fans, as irrational as they may be, are about to see just what Seth can do with all of the minutes and possession time they demanded.

 

Every year, on every roster, there seems to be at least one BFF (Bench Fan Favorites), a young player that the fanbase irrationally falls in love with and believe needs to see more time on the court.

 

Last year MFFL’s BFF[note]Many Fs were given in this piece[/note] was Justin Anderson, the year before it was Al Farouq-Aminu, and before that it was Jae Crowder.[note]Pretty good group[/note] This year, despite being older than half of the roster, Seth Curry has been Mavs Fans’ BFF and now he’ll have his opportunity that fans have been clamoring for since July.

 

There’s just one problem with BFFs. A BFF represents a fan’s hopes and dreams. BFFs are players that have succeeded in small sample sizes and, in many cases, have only succeeded because it was a small sample size. Once that player loses the protection of that small sample size BFFs are completely exposed. This is what is about to happen to Seth Curry. All of these fans that have been demanding their BFF, Seth Curry, deserved more playing time are about to confront a ‘put up or shut up’ situation. Over the next few weeks or months, as Seth Curry starts at point guard for the Mavericks, Curry has the opportunity to shake off that BFF label[note]As well as a lot of Steph-Comparisons[/note] for a better one. No one claims to like labels (until asked to describe anything) but he’s going to get one. Whether that label becomes: established, good, starting caliber, bad, terrible, or fantastic is up to him. Fans who have cherished Curry as their BFF over the last four months, just need to remember what a small cartoon cricket once taught the world:

 

“When you wish upon a star

Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires will come to you”

 

It’s not every year that a BFF gets an opportunity to become something more, but Seth Curry will.