Dallas cutting ties with Nico Harrison, the mind behind the bold Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade, was enough to get the rumor mill humming again. People around the league are already wondering if that move opens the door for Davis to hit the trade block this season.
The Mavericks have opened their season mostly without Davis, who has appeared in only five of their first 12 games. Even in that limited run though, he has reminded everyone why he’s still a top big in the NBA, averaging 20.8 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks on 56.3% shooting from the field.
Health concerns aside, plenty of teams would take Davis’ two-way impact without hesitation. The Golden State Warriors naturally enter the conversation because the fit is so easy to imagine. The real hurdle is what it would take to make it happen. Sam Quinn of CBS Sports showed just how steep that gets.
“There are two ways they could do so and neither is easy.
The first? Trade Kuminga and Draymond Green. That’s a bitter pill to swallow, especially since they’d also have to include either Moses Moody’s or Buddy Hield’s money in the deal. Do they want to get Stephen Curry a fifth championship badly enough that they’d trade away his career-long running mate? Would Curry want that? The Warriors are still light on ball-handling even with a Curry-Davis-Butler trio and they’d have few resources to devote to adding it in this scenario. The second scenario is probably a bit more palatable.
That would be trading Butler, who makes essentially what Davis does. Either Dallas would take Butler and some picks or Golden State would have to find a third team.”
