Both Brunson & Powell: “Ready to go”

It’s been quite some time since Mavs fans have seen Jalen Brunson and Dwight Powell in a Mavericks uniform. For Brunson, he hurt his shoulder back in February and for Powell, he tore his Achilles in late January against the Clippers.

“Shoulder’s 100%. I’m ready to go – plain and simple,” Brunson said.

Brunson underwent surgery in mid-March to repair his torn labrum, right before the league hiatus. When the season resumed play in the bubble, Brunson opted to remain in Dallas to continue rehabbing his shoulder, which was a tough decision.

“Watching that in the bubble was fun watching the guys compete and play but I definitely would not recommend that for anybody, any player apart of a team to be that far away from your team and not be able to contribute, even from a vocal standpoint,” Brunson said. “Watching those guys, it was hard…Going through what I went through, I never did before but now I definitely won’t take this game for granted.”

For Dwight Powell, his journey has been a longer, more strenuous process as coming back from a torn Achilles is not an easy thing to do. But for the Mavericks, who have dealt with this injury in recent years with Wes Matthews and JJ Barea, Powell had the ideal personnel around him.

“Things have been going good. Everything’s on track. Everything’s on schedule, thankfully,” Powell said of his rehab. “No hiccups. Ready to get going.”

Unlike Brunson, Powell joined the team in the bubble to continue rehabbing his Achilles, which he credited as helping with such a controlled environment with no distractions. “The bubble really gave me a chance to be hyper focused and hyper diligent on the rehab…just the nature of the structure of the bubble, I was really able to focus in and listen to my body,” Dwight said of being in the bubble.

With a shorter offseason to acclimate new acquisitions before the season kicks off later this month, it’s good to know that familiar faces in both Brunson and Powell are healthy and ready to return.

“Full go. Ready to get to work.”