Anthony Davis has said before that he’s committed to playing in New Orleans with the Pelicans and doesn’t want to be traded. But he also knows an NBA career can pass quickly, and in his sixth season in the league, he has little postseason success with the team that drafted him.
Trade rumors about Davis have seeped through the seams of his narrative for some time now, with the Boston Celtics often mentioned the most likely suitor for him. But each time rumors crop up, he reaffirms his commitment to the Pelicans and stresses how much he likes it in New Orleans.
The duality of Anthony Davis is one of the most interesting storylines of the NBA. Though he’s said again and again he doesn’t want to leave, his name seems to be at the top of the list of players who somehow seem predestined to play somewhere else. But in an interview with The Jump‘s Rachel Nichols, Davis concedes that he’s considered the possibility that he’s wasting his prime waiting around for things to go right in New Orleans.
About two minutes in, Davis talks about how he’s heard that former players like Kevin Garnett regretted not getting traded earlier in his career and wonders if he’s “following in that same path.”
“When you hear that, it makes you think. I’m not going to lie, it makes you think because you wonder if you’re following in that same path,” Davis said. “But then again, you be like, This year could be the year. You don’t know. So you just got to take it year-by-year and just see. See where the team is going, what direction they want to go to, and just see where they’re headed.”
Davis has made the last five All-Star Games but has made the postseason just once, in 2015. The Pelicans currently sit in the final spot in the Western Conference with a 31-26 record. But the loss of DeMarcus Cousins to an achilles injury has tempered the expectations for New Orleans this season and opened up a very uncertain future for both Davis and the franchise.
Davis believes that Cousins is coming back upon becoming a free agent this summer, and he honored him by wearing his jersey to start the All-Star Game on Sunday. Who knows if that will be the case once Cousins hits free agency, but Davis has tried to make it work in New Orleans for a long time. Him leaving would certainly not be a case of him giving up on the Pelicans too soon.
