Anthony Davis Rumor Roundtable: Trades the Portland Trail Blazers could offer to nab the All-NBA forward
By Doug Patrick
Anthony Davis for CJ McCollum, Zach Collins, and picks
My idea is a simple one. It looks like this:
The idea here is that the CJ McCollum is the best player talent-wise offered to the Pelicans, while Zach Collins is a promising big man to help their rebuild, and the 2019 pick helps New Orleans immediately while an unprotected 2021 first round pick comes when both Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis are not guaranteed to be on the Blazers anymore.
The 76ers could certainly blow this deal out of the water by offering up their ill-fitting Jimmy Butler. But still, the Pelicans should consider how tough their backcourt could be with McCollum and Holiday. With much of the criticism around Dame and CJ being that one of them needs to be more defensive-minded, pairing McCollum with Holiday immediately fixes this problem.
With this deal, the Pelicans still retain Mirotic, Randle, and Moore, which they could pair with other pieces to produce more draft picks from other teams to add young talent to a core that includes an already deadly backcourt and intriguing big man.
I’ll be the first to admit that this deal is likely too thin to get it done, but it’s an idea that retains at least one of Portland’s big-three in Nurkic to create a new iteration of twin towers with Davis.
Three-team trade with the Washington Wizards (Jakob Ashlin)
Site co-expert, Jakob Ashlin (@JakobAshlin), proposes a three-team trade with the Washington Wizards:
If we are being realistic, the Blazers will have to give up a king’s ransom to acquire Anthony Davis. I am not sure if the Pelicans will be interested in CJ McCollum. If not, this is a deal that could work for all three parties. The Washington Wizards have needed to be sellers for a while, and that starts with moving their biggest asset, Bradley Beal.
In this scenario, Washington acquires Jusuf Nurkic, who is only 24 years old and on a great contract. Nurkic has also flashed All-Star potential this season. They acquire Zach Collins, Anfernee Simons, and a first round pick to motivate them to move on from Beal. Maruice Harkless helps make the salaries work.
Most importantly, the Pelicans get everything that they could ask for: a young star (Beal), salary relief, and a first round pick.