Anthony Davis Trade Rumors: NBA Blockbuster Trade Possible With New Orleans Pelicans?

Anthony Davis trade rumors have enveloped social media this week. Davis has posted MVP numbers through the first four games of the NBA season, but his New Orleans Pelicans are at 0-4 so far. A report by NBA.com quotes Davis, who hasn’t been pleased with how badly the team has performed. These quotes have created a storm on social media.

“It’s definitely frustrating. We can’t get a win, it’s frustrating. Whatever we need to do, we need to do it fast.”

This isn’t the first time that Davis has expressed his disappointment in how the Pelicans have performed. This is the fifth season for the All-Star power forward, but he has only seen four playoff games in that time. The Pelicans made the 2014-15 NBA Playoffs, but quickly got swept by the Golden State Warriors in the first round.

Last season, the Pelicans tumbled to a 30-52 record, missing the postseason by a wide margin in the Western Conference. The start to the 2016-17 campaign has not been good, with the Pelicans losing to the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, and Milwaukee Bucks in a seven-day span. The next game comes on Wednesday night (Nov. 2) against the Memphis Grizzlies.

New Pelicans forward Solomon Hill also weighed in on how the team has done to start the year. He was with the Indiana Pacers when the team lost three-straight games to open the 2015-16 NBA season.

“I did that last year with the Pacers, we started like that and made the playoffs. This is just something that, by the end of the season, we’ve gotta look back and be like, ‘Man, remember when we were there? Look how we are now.’ All we have is up, that’s the only great thing we can say about it, but it has to change some day.”

As for the Anthony Davis trade rumors, they have popped up due to how well he has played through the first four games. That includes posting 35 points, 15 rebounds, three blocks, and two assists in the loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. In four games, Davis is now averaging 37.0 points, 14.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 3.0 blocks, and 3.0 steals per game. He is doing it all in just 37.5 minutes a night and has been shooting 48.5 percent from the floor. Those would easily be the best stats of his career, putting Davis right at the top of the list of early NBA MVP candidates.

So are any of the Anthony Davis trade rumors based in reality? The franchise currently has no reason to trade its superstar, especially since he is in just the first season of a five-year contract extension. While the front office needs to keep him happy in order to ensure he stays with the team in the long-term, it doesn’t seem plausible that another franchise could make an offer worth considering.

Davis signed his extension before the 2015-16 NBA season, which is why some NBA analysts are saying he may now regret the decision. There was a lot of money on the table, as his salary will gradually increase from $22 million for the 2016-17 NBA season, up to about $28.8 million for the 2020-21 NBA season. The New Orleans Pelicans had also just made the playoffs, so it was hard to predict how far the team would fall last season.

Davis also hasn’t demanded that the front office deal him, nor have any people in his immediate circle suggested that the superstar wants to play in a different city. While it certainly looks like a situation that could be worked out, the front office has to make sure that the New Orleans Pelicans become contenders before the best part of his NBA career has been wasted. It’s certainly possible that real Anthony Davis trade rumors could surface in the future, but fans should rest easy that he will be in New Orleans for a while longer.

[Featured Image by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images]