I've seen a lot of AD to Boston trade ideas on this board, and I just don't see it happening. But it did make me think - what would it take?
(1) The salaries obviously need to work. That means unloading Kyrie, Horford, or Hayward. There is not other way to make it work for Boston unless you trade Tatum, Brown, Rozier, Morris, and Yabu (that ain't happening)
(2) New Orleans would need to get a piece back with a lot of time left on the contract. That means Kyrie and Horford straight up can't happen.
(3) Boston isn't going to give up all of its youth. Any Tatum+Brown deals are non starters.
Given those constraints, which I largely pulled out of my arse, it makes me think the only way to get the deal done is to pull in a third team that would NEED Horford and give close to market value for him. THINKING.....THINKING.... Ah ha! Who got killed in the playoffs because their only big got burned on the perimeter with his stone feet? Toronto!
So here we go:
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ybu9l2ec Boston Gets: Anthony Davis
Toronto Gets: Al Horford, 2018 Boston Pick #27 Overall
New Orleans Gets: DeMar DeRozan (4 years), 2019 Sac pick, 2019 Memphis Pick, 2019 Clippers pick.
I think Toronto would be better and would actually do this deal in a heartbeat.
I don't actually think New Orleans would trade AD for anything until next summer, but if they did they would be equipped to rebuild on the fly while staying competitive.
And of course, Boston would roll out:
Kyrie
Brown
Hayward
Tatum
AD
We could potentially package Rozier and Brown in to the deal to sweeten it for both trade partners as well, giving our 2018 pick to NO instead and allowing them to keep Rozier as the PG of the future.
Toronto Gets Brown and Horford
Boston Gets AD and a filler
New Orleans gets Rozier, DeRozan, 2018 Boston Pick, 2019 Sac Pick, 2019 Memphis Pick, and 2019 Clippers Pick.
In that scenario (
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ychdyc2a ) we roll out:
Kyrie
Smart
Hayward
Tatum
AD
with Morris, Larkin, Semi, and Baynes off the bench.
Win, win, win!