Top 25 trade assets ranked by Anthony Davis contenders

[Spilling Green Dye]

Trading Jason Tatum for Anthony Davis would be akin to if the Warriors had traded Klay Thompson for Kevin Love... You just don't trade away young wings who can hit .40+ from 3 in todays NBA.

Davis is a waaaaay better player than Kevin Love.

Naw, he's just he modern version of the 25 year old Kevin Love (the season before Love was traded). 

I like Anthony Davis by the way, but he's a lot closer to being the third best player on a contender than he is to being the 1st.

You're comparing a player who has made 3 All NBA 1st teams and has had 2 top 5 finishes in MVP voting to someone who made a pair of 2nd teams and never had a top 5 MVP season.

Only once did Love's team win more than 31 games and he never made the playoffs in Minnesota. Davis has made the playoffs twice, advancing out of the first round once.

Davis is a more skilled offensive player than Love ever was while also being an All NBA defender. Love was always a bad defender.

There's no comparison here. AD is a much, much better player than peak Love and I don't see any reason he couldn't be the best player on a champion.

And to get back on topic: Nice to see Tatum ranked #1.

There's pretty clearly a comparison between Davis and Love.  You literally just made it - and it was fairly convincing.  If you want to bring in the 2019 version of Kevin Love, I don't blame you.  Most Celtics fans were dying to bring in Kevin Love when he was 25 too.  Both guys put up phenomenal numbers on terrible teams.  Both guys are talented. 

Here's the numbers:
Kevin Love age 25, 2013/2014 season
Pts     Reb    Ast    2p%  3p%  FT%   W/S  PER
26.1   12.5   4.4   .457  .376  .821    14.3  26.9   

Anthony Davis age 25 per/game Last season
Pts     Reb    Ast    2p%   3p%  FT%  W/S   PER
25.9   12.0   3.9  .547    .331   .794   9.5   30.3

Davis has spent the majority of his career on teams that couldn't sniff 40 wins... Guys who are bonafide superstars win games.  It's that simple. Great player - but definitely overrated and definitely not the best player on a contender.  I would NOT give up Tatum for him. 

Annnnd... It get's worse, he's a Rich Paul Client who's already shown his contract doesn't mean anything to him.  He just demanded a trade with 3 years left on his contract (1 year was a player option) and tanked the season for his team.  We just survived the Kyrie Irving drama... do we really need another overrated diva holding the team hostage?

That's a good comparison if you forget that on the other side of the ball one of the players is like Kevin Garnett  on defense and one is like Isiah Thomas....

And that's not even mentioning that Anthony Davis shot 10% better from 2P%.... 10% is a MASSIVE difference.  Any PER over 30, like Davis', is a relative rarity in the NBA. 

[Moranis]

Trading Jason Tatum for Anthony Davis would be akin to if the Warriors had traded Klay Thompson for Kevin Love... You just don't trade away young wings who can hit .40+ from 3 in todays NBA.

Davis is a waaaaay better player than Kevin Love.

Naw, he's just he modern version of the 25 year old Kevin Love (the season before Love was traded). 

I like Anthony Davis by the way, but he's a lot closer to being the third best player on a contender than he is to being the 1st.

You're comparing a player who has made 3 All NBA 1st teams and has had 2 top 5 finishes in MVP voting to someone who made a pair of 2nd teams and never had a top 5 MVP season.

Only once did Love's team win more than 31 games and he never made the playoffs in Minnesota. Davis has made the playoffs twice, advancing out of the first round once.

Davis is a more skilled offensive player than Love ever was while also being an All NBA defender. Love was always a bad defender.

There's no comparison here. AD is a much, much better player than peak Love and I don't see any reason he couldn't be the best player on a champion.

And to get back on topic: Nice to see Tatum ranked #1.

There's pretty clearly a comparison between Davis and Love.  You literally just made it - and it was fairly convincing.  If you want to bring in the 2019 version of Kevin Love, I don't blame you.  Most Celtics fans were dying to bring in Kevin Love when he was 25 too.  Both guys put up phenomenal numbers on terrible teams.  Both guys are talented. 

Here's the numbers:
Kevin Love age 25, 2013/2014 season
Pts     Reb    Ast    2p%  3p%  FT%   W/S  PER
26.1   12.5   4.4   .457  .376  .821    14.3  26.9   

Anthony Davis age 25 per/game Last season
Pts     Reb    Ast    2p%   3p%  FT%  W/S   PER
25.9   12.0   3.9  .547    .331   .794   9.5   30.3

Davis has spent the majority of his career on teams that couldn't sniff 40 wins... Guys who are bonafide superstars win games.  It's that simple. Great player - but definitely overrated and definitely not the best player on a contender.  I would NOT give up Tatum for him. 

Annnnd... It get's worse, he's a Rich Paul Client who's already shown his contract doesn't mean anything to him.  He just demanded a trade with 3 years left on his contract (1 year was a player option) and tanked the season for his team.  We just survived the Kyrie Irving drama... do we really need another overrated diva holding the team hostage?

That's a good comparison if you forget that on the other side of the ball one of the players is like Kevin Garnett  on defense and one is like Isiah Thomas....

And that's not even mentioning that Anthony Davis shot 10% better from 2P%.... 10% is a MASSIVE difference.  Any PER over 30, like Davis', is a relative rarity in the NBA.

Yeah Davis is better, but Klay was also probably a better prospect then than Tatum is now.

[Fafnir]

That's a good comparison if you forget that on the other side of the ball one of the players is like Kevin Garnett  on defense and one is like Isiah Thomas....

Yeah KG is the prime example I think of whenever people scream "stars win games!!111!!".

KG was a monster when he won MVP, was a monster when he missed the playoffs the next three years, and was a monster when he got to Boston until his knee injury. (even after he was still great just no longer MVP caliber)

[IDreamCeltics]

That's a good comparison if you forget that on the other side of the ball one of the players is like Kevin Garnett  on defense and one is like Isiah Thomas....

Yeah KG is the prime example I think of whenever people scream "stars win games!!111!!".

KG was a monster when he won MVP, was a monster when he missed the playoffs the next three years, and was a monster when he got to Boston until his knee injury. (even after he was still great just no longer MVP caliber)

I'm actually glad you brought this up, because it's important.  KG was drafted in 1995, after his rookie season the Timberwolves went to the playoffs 7 consecutive times and had 9 consecutive season with a w/L record of .500% or better.  This is my whole point.  Superstars in their primes win games.  Anthony Davis puts up gaudy stats but his team isn't better for it.  He's been in the league for 6 seasons, his team has won less than 40 games in four of those seasons...

He's a star, yes but it should be obvious he's a lot closer to Kevin Love than KG. 

[BitterJim]

Trading Jason Tatum for Anthony Davis would be akin to if the Warriors had traded Klay Thompson for Kevin Love... You just don't trade away young wings who can hit .40+ from 3 in todays NBA.

Davis is a waaaaay better player than Kevin Love.

Naw, he's just he modern version of the 25 year old Kevin Love (the season before Love was traded). 

I like Anthony Davis by the way, but he's a lot closer to being the third best player on a contender than he is to being the 1st.

You're comparing a player who has made 3 All NBA 1st teams and has had 2 top 5 finishes in MVP voting to someone who made a pair of 2nd teams and never had a top 5 MVP season.

Only once did Love's team win more than 31 games and he never made the playoffs in Minnesota. Davis has made the playoffs twice, advancing out of the first round once.

Davis is a more skilled offensive player than Love ever was while also being an All NBA defender. Love was always a bad defender.

There's no comparison here. AD is a much, much better player than peak Love and I don't see any reason he couldn't be the best player on a champion.

And to get back on topic: Nice to see Tatum ranked #1.

There's pretty clearly a comparison between Davis and Love.  You literally just made it - and it was fairly convincing.  If you want to bring in the 2019 version of Kevin Love, I don't blame you.  Most Celtics fans were dying to bring in Kevin Love when he was 25 too.  Both guys put up phenomenal numbers on terrible teams.  Both guys are talented. 

Here's the numbers:
Kevin Love age 25, 2013/2014 season
Pts     Reb    Ast    2p%  3p%  FT%   W/S  PER
26.1   12.5   4.4   .457  .376  .821    14.3  26.9   

Anthony Davis age 25 per/game Last season
Pts     Reb    Ast    2p%   3p%  FT%  W/S   PER
25.9   12.0   3.9  .547    .331   .794   9.5   30.3

Davis has spent the majority of his career on teams that couldn't sniff 40 wins... Guys who are bonafide superstars win games.  It's that simple. Great player - but definitely overrated and definitely not the best player on a contender.  I would NOT give up Tatum for him. 

Annnnd... It get's worse, he's a Rich Paul Client who's already shown his contract doesn't mean anything to him.  He just demanded a trade with 3 years left on his contract (1 year was a player option) and tanked the season for his team.  We just survived the Kyrie Irving drama... do we really need another overrated diva holding the team hostage?

1.5 seasons left. The only way he would have ever opted in is in he fell off a cliff or got seriously injured. It was only part of the contract for his benefit.

And is requesting a trade worse than leaving in free agency? Its not like the team has to honor his request. If you aren't happy with the team and want to leave, requesting a trade at least means that they get something in return.

Not to mention that the Pelicans tried to shut him down after the trade deadline and he petitioned the league to force the team to keep playing him. Does that sound like someone that isn't honoring their contract?

[Fafnir]

He's a star, yes but it should be obvious he's a lot closer to Kevin Love than KG.

Hmm I wonder what the difference between KGs 8 year playoff run (where they lost in the first round 7 times) and his 3 year playoff drought post-MVP year was? Did he suddenly get worse? Or did his team just decay around him? Could it be possible it takes more than one player, even a MVP/all-nba caliber one, to make the playoffs consistently?

I am 100% convinced you'd be making the same arguments against KG when he was getting swept out of the playoffs in the first round year after year that you're making about Davis.

This isn't Cousins, who never sniffed the playoffs once in Sacramento. Davis made it twice and was awesome both times. Sadly NoP put pretty garbage teams around him.

[PhoSita]

When did Minnesota Kevin Love ever make the playoffs and demolish a talented opponent en route to a sweep?  Lets' remember that more or less the same Portland team made the WCF this year.  AD dispatched them in a sweep just a year ago.

AD in 9 playoff games last year:

30.1 pts 13.4 reb 2.0 stl 2.3 blks 7.1 FTA 53.4% EFG

In short, he was awesome.


My concerns re: AD are

- Ability to stay on the court

- Intangibles

- Reliance on other players to get him the ball.


There shouldn't be any question that he's a MVP caliber talent.  He's shown it before.


It's really hard to overstate the paucity of NBA rotation-worthy players on the Pelicans during AD's tenure there.

[Fafnir]

It's really hard to overstate the paucity of NBA rotation-worthy players on the Pelicans during AD's tenure there.

E'Twaun Moore was their fourth/third (once Cousins went down) player in 2017-2018.

That is something.....

[Moranis]

It's really hard to overstate the paucity of NBA rotation-worthy players on the Pelicans during AD's tenure there.

E'Twaun Moore was their fourth/third (once Cousins went down) player in 2017-2018.

That is something.....

Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon, Tyreke Evans, Ryan Anderson, Omer Asik.  They were all on the same 30 win team.  That team also had Dante Cunningham, Alonzo Gee, Toney Douglas, Alexis Ajinca, Norris Cole, Luke Babbitt, Kendrick Perkins, Ish Smith, Tim Frazier, and James Ennis all play.

Now if you want to claim that Davis never had a real legit #2 guy (aside from Cousins) that has merit as Holiday, Gordon, etc. are really best suited as #3 players, but there has actually been a plethora of quality players that have played next to Davis during his time in New Orleans.  The real issue with New Orleans is Davis penchant for missing significant time.  That is perhaps the greatest reason they haven't won as much as they should have with someone of Davis' perceived talent.  Though the fact that they really haven't won that much should be concerning if you are relying on Davis to be the main man.

[RJ87]

It's really hard to overstate the paucity of NBA rotation-worthy players on the Pelicans during AD's tenure there.

E'Twaun Moore was their fourth/third (once Cousins went down) player in 2017-2018.

That is something.....

Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon, Tyreke Evans, Ryan Anderson, Omer Asik.  They were all on the same 30 win team.  That team also had Dante Cunningham, Alonzo Gee, Toney Douglas, Alexis Ajinca, Norris Cole, Luke Babbitt, Kendrick Perkins, Ish Smith, Tim Frazier, and James Ennis all play.

Now if you want to claim that Davis never had a real legit #2 guy (aside from Cousins) that has merit as Holiday, Gordon, etc. are really best suited as #3 players, but there has actually been a plethora of quality players that have played next to Davis during his time in New Orleans.  The real issue with New Orleans is Davis penchant for missing significant time.  That is perhaps the greatest reason they haven't won as much as they should have with someone of Davis' perceived talent.  Though the fact that they really haven't won that much should be concerning if you are relying on Davis to be the main man.

Gordon, Holiday and Evans all missed significant chunks of time due to injury over their tenures. Jrue has arguably been their 2nd best player, but due to a combo of injuries and personal (his wife's brain tumor) he's only managed to play over 70 games in a season once in his NOLA career - last season when they made the playoffs.

Gordon missed 189 games out of a possible 410 in his 5 seasons. That's a ton of time.

[hwangjini_1]

Trading Jason Tatum for Anthony Davis would be akin to if the Warriors had traded Klay Thompson for Kevin Love... You just don't trade away young wings who can hit .40+ from 3 in todays NBA.

Davis is a waaaaay better player than Kevin Love.

Naw, he's just he modern version of the 25 year old Kevin Love (the season before Love was traded). 

I like Anthony Davis by the way, but he's a lot closer to being the third best player on a contender than he is to being the 1st.

You're comparing a player who has made 3 All NBA 1st teams and has had 2 top 5 finishes in MVP voting to someone who made a pair of 2nd teams and never had a top 5 MVP season.

Only once did Love's team win more than 31 games and he never made the playoffs in Minnesota. Davis has made the playoffs twice, advancing out of the first round once.

Davis is a more skilled offensive player than Love ever was while also being an All NBA defender. Love was always a bad defender.

There's no comparison here. AD is a much, much better player than peak Love and I don't see any reason he couldn't be the best player on a champion.

And to get back on topic: Nice to see Tatum ranked #1.

There's pretty clearly a comparison between Davis and Love.  You literally just made it - and it was fairly convincing.  If you want to bring in the 2019 version of Kevin Love, I don't blame you.  Most Celtics fans were dying to bring in Kevin Love when he was 25 too.  Both guys put up phenomenal numbers on terrible teams.  Both guys are talented. 

Here's the numbers:
Kevin Love age 25, 2013/2014 season
Pts     Reb    Ast    2p%  3p%  FT%   W/S  PER
26.1   12.5   4.4   .457  .376  .821    14.3  26.9   

Anthony Davis age 25 per/game Last season
Pts     Reb    Ast    2p%   3p%  FT%  W/S   PER
25.9   12.0   3.9  .547    .331   .794   9.5   30.3

Davis has spent the majority of his career on teams that couldn't sniff 40 wins... Guys who are bonafide superstars win games.  It's that simple. Great player - but definitely overrated and definitely not the best player on a contender.  I would NOT give up Tatum for him. 

Annnnd... It get's worse, he's a Rich Paul Client who's already shown his contract doesn't mean anything to him.  He just demanded a trade with 3 years left on his contract (1 year was a player option) and tanked the season for his team.  We just survived the Kyrie Irving drama... do we really need another overrated diva holding the team hostage?

That's a good comparison if you forget that on the other side of the ball one of the players is like Kevin Garnett  on defense and one is like Isiah Thomas....

And that's not even mentioning that Anthony Davis shot 10% better from 2P%.... 10% is a MASSIVE difference.  Any PER over 30, like Davis', is a relative rarity in the NBA.

Yeah Davis is better, but Klay was also probably a better prospect then than Tatum is now.

we have now officially entered non sequitur world. 

[gouki88]

Trading Jason Tatum for Anthony Davis would be akin to if the Warriors had traded Klay Thompson for Kevin Love... You just don't trade away young wings who can hit .40+ from 3 in todays NBA.

This guy just literally compared Anthony Davis to Kevin Love.

I'm dead.

Man a block/ignore button would be good, eh?

[Monkhouse]

Trading Jason Tatum for Anthony Davis would be akin to if the Warriors had traded Klay Thompson for Kevin Love... You just don't trade away young wings who can hit .40+ from 3 in todays NBA.

This guy just literally compared Anthony Davis to Kevin Love.

I'm dead.

Man a block/ignore button would be good, eh?

You and me both know that's not going to happen...

[celticsclay]

It's really hard to overstate the paucity of NBA rotation-worthy players on the Pelicans during AD's tenure there.

E'Twaun Moore was their fourth/third (once Cousins went down) player in 2017-2018.

That is something.....

Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon, Tyreke Evans, Ryan Anderson, Omer Asik.  They were all on the same 30 win team.  That team also had Dante Cunningham, Alonzo Gee, Toney Douglas, Alexis Ajinca, Norris Cole, Luke Babbitt, Kendrick Perkins, Ish Smith, Tim Frazier, and James Ennis all play.

Now if you want to claim that Davis never had a real legit #2 guy (aside from Cousins) that has merit as Holiday, Gordon, etc. are really best suited as #3 players, but there has actually been a plethora of quality players that have played next to Davis during his time in New Orleans.  The real issue with New Orleans is Davis penchant for missing significant time.  That is perhaps the greatest reason they haven't won as much as they should have with someone of Davis' perceived talent.  Though the fact that they really haven't won that much should be concerning if you are relying on Davis to be the main man.

I am confused, are you saying these players were bad non-nba caliber players or that they were serviceable? I believe Gee, Douglas, Cole, Babbitt, Perkins, Ajinca are all out of the league or on their way out. Asik is out too. Ish Smith is a capable backup, frazier may be ok as a third string point guard.

The other problem with those teams is they had terrible injury luck. Gordon was out or beat up most of the time. He missed between 20-40 games every year he was there and was probably not healthy when he played (he shot 41% worse in 3 of the 4 years). Holiday was incredibly injury prone also (140 games combined between 2013-2016).

Would have been really interesting to see how that teams would have played and finished with a few better supporting cast and no injuries. Probably isnt even a trade request from Davis.

[Moranis]

It's really hard to overstate the paucity of NBA rotation-worthy players on the Pelicans during AD's tenure there.

E'Twaun Moore was their fourth/third (once Cousins went down) player in 2017-2018.

That is something.....

Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon, Tyreke Evans, Ryan Anderson, Omer Asik.  They were all on the same 30 win team.  That team also had Dante Cunningham, Alonzo Gee, Toney Douglas, Alexis Ajinca, Norris Cole, Luke Babbitt, Kendrick Perkins, Ish Smith, Tim Frazier, and James Ennis all play.

Now if you want to claim that Davis never had a real legit #2 guy (aside from Cousins) that has merit as Holiday, Gordon, etc. are really best suited as #3 players, but there has actually been a plethora of quality players that have played next to Davis during his time in New Orleans.  The real issue with New Orleans is Davis penchant for missing significant time.  That is perhaps the greatest reason they haven't won as much as they should have with someone of Davis' perceived talent.  Though the fact that they really haven't won that much should be concerning if you are relying on Davis to be the main man.

I am confused, are you saying these players were bad non-nba caliber players or that they were serviceable? I believe Gee, Douglas, Cole, Babbitt, Perkins, Ajinca are all out of the league or on their way out. Asik is out too. Ish Smith is a capable backup, frazier may be ok as a third string point guard.

The other problem with those teams is they had terrible injury luck. Gordon was out or beat up most of the time. He missed between 20-40 games every year he was there and was probably not healthy when he played (he shot 41% worse in 3 of the 4 years). Holiday was incredibly injury prone also (140 games combined between 2013-2016).

Would have been really interesting to see how that teams would have played and finished with a few better supporting cast and no injuries. Probably isnt even a trade request from Davis.

those guys were all serviceable bench players as they had Holiday, Gordon, Evans, Davis, and Anderson (along with Asik).  So when you are talking about 7 or later on the depth chart, those players were fine. 

As I said, Davis never really had a quality #2 (aside from the brief stint with Cousins) and he missed a lot of time.  Those were the issues, it wasn't a "paucity of NBA rotation-worthy players"