Here’s hoping you haven’t yet had your fill of Anthony Davis rumors this season, because we’ve got another batch waiting for ya.
According to Sporting News’ Sean Deveney, while the New Orleans Pelicans superstar remains untouchable now, the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs are all at least half-hoping to make a run at him this summer:
A new front office, however, could be more open to a complete rebuild in New Orleans, which has a hefty contract belonging to Jrue Holiday ($26 million next season), as well as $32 million committed next season to the troika of Solomon Hill, Omer Asik and E’Twaun Moore. There’s some logic to shedding deals where possible and starting over, even if it means parting with a mega-star like Davis.
At least, that’s the view from other front offices. Several teams — Boston, most prominently, but also Golden State, San Antonio and Chicago — will go into this trade deadline not only with their own rosters in mind, but with some consideration for the potential of a Davis trade this summer.
“A.D. is obviously a great player, but they’re stuck and his free agency is coming faster than you think,” one GM told Sporting News. “It is hard to operate under the gun with a situation like that, so it is something they’ll need to at least explore this summer. If Dell stays on, he is going to want to find ways to keep building and maybe even take a chance on keeping DeMarcus. But if Dell goes, there are four or five teams hoping hard for a fire sale.”
Rumors like this were bound to make a cameo at some point. For one, we’ve already heard comparable variations of this one. But the trade deadline is right around the corner. Things get real this time of year. And the Pelicans just lost DeMarcus Cousins for the season. His absence, and what it means for his future in the league and New Orleans, now gets tacked on to the dose of speculation to which Davis and the Pelicans were always going to be subjected.
No matter what we hear between now and the Feb. 8 deadline, or even between now and next season, we must remember that Davis is under contract through at least 2019-20, at which time he’ll have a player option for 2020-21. The Pelicans needn’t rush into this decision.
Though it would honestly behoove them to see what they could get for his services now, dealing a superstar midseason when you never planned to jettison him in the first place is a nightmare. The Pelicans haven’t had adequate time to field an array of competing offers and take protracted stock of the market place. And even if this was something they’ve been kicking around, it’s tough to imagine them pulling the trigger now, when he has two years before his option and they’ve traveled great lengths to win over his long-term affections.
