Chandler Parsons expected to have season-ending knee surgery, per report

Chandler Parsons will miss the rest of the season for the Dallas Mavericks with season-ending knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus is his right knee, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon. Parsons left in the third quarter of the Mavericks' loss against the Golden State Warriors on Friday and missed Sunday's game against Portland, with the Mavericks calling the injury "hamstring tightness" that Rick Carlisle told media he did not believe was serious.

The surgery to repair Parsons' meniscus will keep him out for the rest of the season, but it much less severe than last year's cartilage damage on the same knee last year. Parsons should be fully recovered by the summer, per MacMahon, unlike his minor hybrid microfracture procedure last May that caused him to miss the season's first two games and kept him on a minutes restriction for nearly two months. The Mavericks released this report regarding the injury:

The Dallas Mavericks announced today that forward Chandler Parsons will not travel with the team on the upcoming road trip due to a right knee injury. Treatment options are currently being explored.

This injury changes everything for Dallas. This season's playoff spot, already in jeopardy, suddenly becomes much more difficult without the team's best two-way player. Since mid-January, Parsons had been playing perhaps the best basketball of his career, showing his worth as an extremely efficient scorer and playmaker with solid defense. Although the Mavericks beat the Trail Blazers on Sunday without him, it's a much more difficult journey now without him.

On the other hand, this injury might make it slightly more likely that the Mavericks keep Parsons this summer. Dallas is already considered front runners for Parsons, who has been expected to opt out of his player option and enter free agency this summer. It's unlikely the injury changes that plan, given a dramatically rising salary cap and Parsons' strong play over the past month and a half.

In a season that already had gone wrong; however, this is just more terrible news for the Mavericks. Poor Dirk Nowitzki, who became one of four players to score 40 points at age 37 or older on Sunday, hardly deserves this. Parsons, who was committed to helping Dallas make the playoffs, is "distraught" by the news, per MacMahon's report. While the Mavericks' season wasn't going anyone had they made the playoffs, this news doesn't help, especially since Dallas owes their first round pick to the Boston Celtics unless it falls within the top seven.