New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis is one of the best at his position in the game today.
The 24-year-old power forward has four All-Star nods in his five-year career, and he led the Pels to the playoffs in 2015. However, he is stuck in a very bad situation.
The Pelicans have two star bigs in him and DeMarcus Cousins, but they don't have too much major talent otherwise. Guard Jrue Holiday is probably the only standout player from the rest of their roster, but he is not on their level. Along with all that, the Pelicans do not have much cap space to bring in any new faces.
Due to all of this, there is a lot of speculation in the NBA circles that Davis might leave. He did sign a huge deal with the franchise, but he might demand a trade due to the state of the roster. This whole situation with Davis was the main theme of a recent podcast on The Vertical. In it, Howard Beck of Bleacher Report and Chris Mannix of CSN spoke about possible suitors for Davis, and only one name really came up in the discussion: the Boston Celtics.
The C's are a superstar away from seriously competing with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East, and Davis might be their guy. Mannix claimed that Boston could send the Pelicans an offer they could not refuse.
“If you're the Pelicans, they're going to be very few offers that make you pause for Anthony Davis,” Mannix said. “Spin it forward to next June and the let's say ping-pong balls fall Boston's way. The Nets are bad, let's say they're number one. The Lakers land in the two through five range. Let's say they wind up at three. One and three and Jayson Tatum? That's going to be hard for New Orleans to turn down.”
Beck added that he believes the Celtics might make a mega package for the young superstar.
“It's reasonable to think that he will want out and that his people will start pressing to get him out,” Beck said. “If you're the Boston Celtics and you're still sitting on that cache of picks and players, you are sitting so perfectly to make that kind of deal. Arguably, given Anthony Davis' talent and his age, this should be the best package we've seen in, I don't know, decades. It should be the kind of package that blows you away. The kind of package people thought they wanted to see Boston do for Paul George or Jimmy Butler. That may be the kind of package we see for Anthony Davis. And if the Celtics pull it off, all the people who were throwing tomatoes at Danny Ainge for not making deals are going to be thinking about him much differently.”
The theory does make sense. Davis would be able to fulfill his potential and really compete for a championship. The Pelicans, on the other hand, would have a great package to build around. This deal would be especially amazing if Tatum turns out to be great in his rookie season.
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