The Anthony Davis trade sweepstakes are now one week old, as the New Orleans Pelicans center declared last Monday that he would not be re-signing with New Orleans and was requesting a trade.
Davis did not list a preferred destination in his trade request, but most attention has focused on Davis possibly ending up with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he would be united with LeBron James. Various reports throughout the week hinted at the various teams Davis was willing or unwilling to end up with. Davis cannot be a free agent until the summer of 2020, and while the player cannot declare that he won’t go to certain teams, he can declare where he would and would not re-sign.
Now, a new report specifically lists the teams where Davis would be willing to re-sign. According to reporter Shams Charania of the Athletic , via Twitter , Davis “would re-sign long-term” with one of four teams: the Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Milwaukee Bucks, or the New York Knicks. Davis has informed the Pelicans that those are the teams with which he would re-sign.
Not on the list is the Boston Celtics, a team often mentioned as a potential Davis destination. Last week, Davis’ father, Anthony Davis Sr., declared that he didn’t want his son to play for Boston, citing the Celtics’ trade of Isaiah Thomas two years ago and the team’s disloyalty to him.
The Lakers have been frequently mentioned as a Davis destination, while the Clippers play in the same arena and also have significant amounts of salary cap space. The Knicks recently cleared out a massive amount of salary cap space by trading Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas, although they’re left without many tradeable assets, while the Bucks do not have much trade capital that matches New Orleans’ needs.
UPDATE: It appears the four teams on AD’s list include the Knicks, Bucks, Clippers and the Lakers. https://t.co/J3oiEvENv2
— Lakers Outsiders (@LakersOutsiders) February 4, 2019
Davis could be traded by the Pelicans either prior to the NBA’s trade deadline, which is Thursday, or in the offseason. Davis will be eligible this summer to sign a “supermax” contract with whichever team he’s on at the time. He could be traded to one team and then become a free agent again a year later. Should a team not on Davis’ current list trade for him with the intention of making a run, they could convince Davis to re-sign with them.
Anthony Wojnarowski of ESPN also tweeted Monday about the situation, reporting that the Lakers “have offered a new package to New Orleans that includes multiple young players, multiple draft picks and Pelicans salary cap relief.”
