The New Orleans Pelicans are at a crossroads after losing DeMarcus Cousins for the year. The team reportedly is trying to acquire Nikola Mirotic from the Chicago Bulls, but that deal has apparently fallen apart once although talks continue in hopes of reaching a resolution soon.
With a playoff spot far from guaranteed for sixth-place New Orleans, there’s renewed interest in the services of Anthony Davis around the NBA. That’s if, of course, the franchise centerpiece becomes available on the trade market. Sporting News reported on Tuesday that should the Pelicans find themselves not taking a step forward by the end of this season and make some changes in the front office, they’ll at least have to listen to calls about their superstar.
According to Sporting News‘ Sean Deveney, teams like the Boston Celtics and, yes, even the Golden State Warriors are already making it known they’d be interested in Davis if he were to become available this summer.
As Deveney explains, Cousins’ injury harms both the short and long-term plans for New Orleans. And if Pelicans general manger Dell Demps gets let go, a full-scale rebuild may be on.
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.”
Davis will make at least $25 million over the next two seasons and has a player option for $28 million in 2020-21, so he’s far from a rental for any interested team. Trading Davis away would be a hard decision, but a full fire sale would allow the team to get rid of some big deals and start over with something of a blank canvas. Jrue Holiday is owed $26 million next season, while Solomon Hill, Omer Asik (rumored to be in a potential deal for Mirotic) and E’Twaun Moore will take up $32 million next year.
If the team cannot keep Cousins in free agency this summer, or if they don’t want to, they could push the hard reset button and get rid of Davis. It seems plenty of teams are willing to trade with New Orleans for his services, but after the way he’s played this season it still seems like a long shot that New Orleans would be too eager to part ways with him so soon.
