If he ever decides to leave New Orleans at all, that is.
LeBron James restarted the Anthony Davis trade cycle rumors up again when he said he’d want to play with the 25-year-old on Wednesday. That tandem could obviously form a championship unit with the Lakers in an instant.
Though there’s been no statement or rumor from the Pelicans or Davis himself suggesting that he may be on the trade table, the news cycle won’t die any time soon. In fact, that’s holding true even after coach Alvin Gentry said, “We’re not trading him. I can say that to the world. We’re not gonna trade him, no matter what. That’s not an option. It doesn’t matter what anybody says or does. We’re not trading Anthony Davis.”
For those not caught up to speed, Davis won’t become a free agent until at least the summer of 2020. It’s then when the Pelicans will likely offer the “supermax contract.” That deal allows New Orleans to pay Davis more than any other team can to coax him to stay put.
But we know by now, after Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and so many others, that a star doesn’t need to be a free agent to change teams in the NBA. Forcing trades has become a common tactic for the elites, and many suspect Davis could be on the cusp of following the pack.
Davis played through the flu on Friday night, scoring 30 points and grabbing 20 rebounds with five assists only to lose to James’ Lakers. It was yet another example of Davis playing marvelously only for his team to fall short.
So what will it take for AD to force his way out to L.A. or anywhere else?
Missing the playoffs might do it
The Pelicans are 15-18, now in 13th place in a stacked Western Conference. It’s way too soon to write them out, but it’s more than possible they miss the playoff cut for the fifth time in seven AD seasons. And this would be the most crushing.
Last season, Davis got the first glimpse of playoff hope he’d ever received when his team made a major move to swing DeMarcus Cousins to New Orleans. Then, just when things started to click, Cousins tore his achilles, missing the rest of the season and leaving Davis to drag his team to the conference semis and fall short. We’ll always think of what could have been as the Pels opted not to bring back Cousins on the max deal he sought, and he moved to the Warriors instead.
In his place, the Pelicans made moves to acquire Nikola Mirotic, a sharpshooting big, and Julius Randle, an undersized low-post muscle, but it hasn’t been enough. Neither match Cousins’ starpower, and the group is in danger of missing the postseason cut.
At 25 years old, while he’s regularly considered a top-5 talent in the league, would falling out of playoff relevancy be enough to make AD snap?
Maybe he just needs to be strongly recruited
Should New Orleans make the playoffs, it’s unlikely to advance further than it did a year ago. There’s too much talent in the West, and AD has to know that. Maybe it’ll take James, or someone else to paint the picture of what could be elsewhere, or how bleak things could be if he stays put.
Maybe a full plan handed to him will be motivation enough to leave prematurely.
Or maybe, just maybe, Davis is fine with how things are
No two superstars are the same. Some prioritize money. For others, winning. Some want fame. Some stay near family. And Davis could fall into any of those buckets or more.
And that’s all fine!
Eventually, Davis is going to have to say something. But for right now, it’s all early-season smoke.
We can only speculate at what feels inevitable as the biggest chapter of AD’s professional career is approaching.