Early on Monday, it was reported by The Athletic’s Jay King that Celtics star Kyrie Irving has spoken to Pelicans star Anthony Davis about coming to the Boston Celtics.
That could spell trouble for the dynasty in the Bay Area, the Golden State Warriors, which already have to convince stars, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson to re-sign with the team next summer.
If one of the two stars decides to leave, that could make Warriors general manager Bob Myers try to pull some tricks out of his hat to sign another star. Or even trade for another star.
Enter Anthony Davis.
Davis, who signed a five-year extension with the Pelicans in the summer of 2015 would be going into year three of that contract this season.
He averaged 28.1 ppg, 11.1 rpg and 2.6 bpg on 53.1 percent shooting from the field and 82.0 percent from the charity stripe last season with the Pelicans.
Those are elite, superstar level numbers.
The Celtics, the team with the most titles in the history of the NBA, are trying to pry Davis away from New Orleans to add to their star-powered nucleus. They would be younger, more versatile on offense and defense and have a plethora of weapons. In theory, they could leapfrog the Warriors in talent and title-winning probabilities.
However, the Warriors have a couple of things in their favor that could sway the Pelicans big man to move out to the Bay Area.
The first and foremost, is the recent success of getting to the mountaintop three out of the past four years. Next, is the organizational culture that goes from Myers to head coach Steve Kerr, which trickles down to players such as Stephen Curry and Durant. Furthermore, many of the innovative and advanced tech and social media companies such as Facebook, Apple and Google reside in the Bay Area, making opportunities to learn and develop in the tech and social media industries off the court more convenient.
After the Golden State Warriors won their third title in four years this past June, Kerr told Zach Lowe on The Lowe Post Podcast that the roster needs more youth to retain its supremacy in the league.
“We’re going to have to be creative. I think we’ll have a younger roster too,” Kerr said.
Kerr is talking about this coming year’s team, but it does not hurt to look down the road into the future.
That creativity Kerr is talking about could include Davis into an already star-studded lineup. However, it would come with a price. Since Davis’s contract is not up until 2021, he would have to be traded to the Golden State Warriors. Assuming Curry is untouchable, the Warriors would have to trade one of their other three stars in order to acquire Davis. The stars that make the most sense in acquiring Davis are Durant and Draymond Green.
Durant makes sense because of the type of player he is compared to Davis. Although Davis does not have as much mobility as Durant does, he can still knock down the jump shot and is a much better rebounder than Durant. They have the same build and size, which helps on the defensive end. Davis is a bit better on the interior defending the paint than Durant, which will help the rim protection.
Green is the other star that would make sense to trade for Davis. Green like Davis is a versatile defender who can switch multiple positions on the floor. Davis is a more reliable rim protector than Green is. Offensively, Davis is a better scorer and has a more variety of moves in his arsenal than Green. He has a better shooting touch than Green, but Green will look to facilitate and find his teammates more often than Davis does.
The Warriors have the perfect system and culture in place to accommodate Davis. It is just a matter of Davis wanting to come play with Stephen Curry and the Warriors in the Bay Area.
It will be a tug-of-war between the Celtics and Golden State Warriors to pry away highly coveted Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans. But for now, the ESPN Trade Machine and Photoshop will have to be the main source of how Davis fits into Golden State’s roster for Warriors fans.
