Quality over quantity. More is less. Less is more. All of these can be used to categorize Boston Celtics fans and the pros and cons of trading for New Orleans Pelicans’ PF Anthony Davis.
It makes sense on many levels. Davis is a top-five player in the NBA. He hasn’t averaged under 20 PPG in a season since his rookie year. Currently, he’s averaging a career-high 29.3 PPG, third league-wide. He isn’t at the peak of his athleticism and is the definition of a two-way player.
Oh, and the Celtics have been linked to trading for Davis since he was at Kentucky he entered the league.
That doesn’t mean Boston Celtics’ President of Basketball Ops Danny Ainge should.
As listed above, Danny Ainge has been stockpiling assets for Davis for years. This includes Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and draft picks. Based on what’s been churning through the rumor mill, the Celtics are going to have to give up at least two of the following to acquire Davis:
- Kyrie Irving
- Jaylen Brown
- Jayson Tatum
- Multiple first-round picks
- Gordon Hayward
- Al Horford
- Marcus Smart
- Marcus Morris
- Terry Rozier
Here’s the problem with giving up those players.
Kyrie Irving
Due to the NBA’s CBA, the Celtics couldn’t trade for Anthony Davis this season without including Kyrie in the deal. Despite Rozier’s strong showing in the playoffs last postseason in Irving’s absence, no one on the Celtics roster can replace what Irving does, including the potential addition of Davis.
What’s more, Davis’ father had some choice words about the rumor that his son might be traded to Beantown.
Boston is receiving backlash for trading a player that played after his sister died unexpectedly and was a fan favorite. How is the rest of the NBA going to react trading a top-five PG in his prime?
Jaylen Brown/Jayson Tatum
The 2016 and 2017 third overall picks are going to have to be included in any potential Anthony Davis deal. That won’t change whether it’s before this Thursday’s deadline or in the offseason. And, that’s understandable.
As much as Celtics fans would like it to be this way, Danny Ainge can’t trade for Davis for Al Horford or Gordon Hayward straight up. In order to get talent, you have to give up talent. An eye for an eye, so to speak. Except the Celtics would be giving up an arm, a leg, and an eye for a new liver that may reject its new host.
If Davis left in 2020 and the Celtics gave up one or both of the former no. 3 picks, they’d have more than indigestion.
Multiple first-round picks
The draft is overrated. Look no further than the aforementioned Isaiah Thomas trade to Cleveland. The Celtics gave up the sought after Brooklyn pick in exchange for Kyrie Irving, and the Cavaliers have Collin Sexton and 11 wins to show for it this season.
Sarcasm aside (the draft is overrated), at the time, the trade was a blockbuster. The Celtics were giving up one of the game’s premier scorers, depth, and a likely lottery selection for a player that could leave in a couple of seasons.
Sound familiar?
It remains to be seen whether Kyrie Irving will re-sign with the Celtics after season’s end, but follow me down
Let’s just say that Kyrie Irving leaves the Celtics, it doesn’t matter where, just that he leaves. The Celtics then have to decide if they want to commit to Marcus Smart as the full-time PG for their next three seasons, or if they want to sign Terry Rozier to a long-term deal. There are some issues with the latter.
Terry Rozier has never had a field goal percentage above 40% in the regular season and the postseason. He’s only eclipsed that mark twice (40.2% in 2016-17, 40.6% in 2017-18). He’s a career 35.5% shooter from deep in the regular season (and 35.2% in the postseason), which roughly equals to being league average.
These aren’t presented to say that Rozier is average, but it’s been proven in both the regular season and postseason that it’s uncomfortably easy to shut down Rozier, which, for whatever reason, turns him into Marcus Smart pre-2018-19.
Marcus Morris, Al Horford, Aron Baynes, Terry Rozier, and Daniel Theis could all be free agents at the end of this season. That’s not to say they’ll be, and all have expressed interest in staying in Boston, but if one or both of Brown and Tatum are gone, they may not be as warm to the idea. Playing with AD is enticing, but not if the starting five is Rozier-Smart-Ojeleye-Williams-Davis.
The Celtics would be back where they were before they traded for Isaiah Thomas – trying to create a championship roster.
Gordon Hayward
Similar to the idea of trading Isaiah Thomas and Kyrie Irving, how’d the Celtics look if they traded a player who suffered a potentially career-ending injury just a year after they heavily recruited him?
Thank you, next.
Al Horford
As much as it pains me to write this (he’s my favorite player in the league and yes, I’m dead serious), this one does make sense on a lot of levels.
Horford has a player option for next season at roughly $30 million. No team is going to pay him that much money entering his age-33 season. So, if the Celtics believe he’s going to leave in the offseason, it’d make sense to try to get something now or use him in a deal to get a younger/better player who plays the same position.
If Horford was traded it wouldn’t be frowned upon too much, even if he was one of the biggest free agent acquisitions in recent Celtics’ history, especially if he helped land them AD. He helped create a championship culture, even if he wouldn’t have won one before his
Sometimes, though, disrupting chemistry and removing a leader hurts more than it helps, no matter how much sense it makes financially.
Marcus Smart
Marcus Smart is the heart and soul of this Celtics’ team. He too lost his mother recently and is posting career numbers (nearly) across the board in the first year of his four-year contract extension.
He may flop and be an irritant, but there’s no denying his elite defensive ability and playmaking skills.
Whether one or both of Irving and Rozier leave this offseason, the Celtics can’t afford to be down to Brad Wanamaker.
Marcus Morris
Marcus Morris has arguably been the Celtics’ most consistent player, not just this season, but since he arrived in Boston last season.
This year Morris is putting up career-highs in PPG (14.7), RPG (6.1), FG% (47.7%), 3P% (41.9% on 5.2 attempts a game) and FT% (87%). He’ll be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, so it’s up to Morris if he decides to stay.
But, let’s say he’s included in a potential Davis deal, and the Celtics manage to include just one of Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown. The Celtics would be giving up either their second and third or their third and fourth leading scorers, respectively.
It’s hard to win a championship without surrounding pieces, AD or no AD.
Terry Rozier
Rozier was touched on in depth earlier, but if the Celtics were to trade one of their PGs, they’d have a much easier time trying to sell Dell Demps on Kyrie Irving and/or Marcus Smart than they would restricted-free-agent to be Terry Rozier.
Put differently, the Pelicans would much rather have a Kyrie Irving-Jrue Holiday or Marcus Smart-Jrue Holiday backcourt than a Terry Rozier-Jrue Holiday backcourt.
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