Brooklyn Nets rumors: Anthony Davis talks heat up with Nets a long shot

The Brooklyn Nets are considered to have a strong package to offer for Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans, but are not on The Brow’s short list.

According to a report, the Brooklyn Nets are believed to be able to make one of the strongest pitches to the New Orleans Pelicans for unhappy superstar Anthony Davis.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Brooklyn isn’t among Davis’ four preferred destinations.

Charania reported Tuesday that rival executives (subscription required) put the Nets in with a group of four teams — including the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks — that have the most to offer new executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin.

While that might sound encouraging, remember that Charania reported back in February when the Davis trade talks first began to rumble that only two of those four teams were on his short list.

Anthony Davis’ representatives have informed the Pelicans that he would sign long-term with the Lakers, Knicks, Bucks and Clippers if he is traded, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 4, 2019

Conditions do change. The Celtics couldn’t make a deal for Davis prior to this season’s trade deadline, because NBA rules prohibit teams from trading for more than one designated player on a max extension and Kyrie Irving was already in Boston.

Assuming Irving opts out of the final year of that extension, as widely expected, Boston would have no such prohibition against dealing for Davis.

Brooklyn’s case gets stronger, at least in the eyes of the Pelicans’ brass, by having Trajan Langdon on board in New Orleans as the team’s new general manager.

Langdon spent the last three years as Sean Marks‘ assistant GM in Brooklyn and has deep information on the roster and assets the Nets have available.

Should Davis get his wish and is traded, he would be leaving considerably large stacks of cash on the table, given the Pelicans can offer him a supermax extension come July 1, an offer no other team in the NBA can match.

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A five-year supermax (ahem … designated player) extension would begin with the 2020-21 season and would be worth roughly $239 million — a cool $47.8 million average annual value.

That is about $84 million more than he could get from any other NBA team on a max extension or a max free-agent deal in 2020.

Supermax deals are limited to players who are still with the team they finished their rookie contract with and meet certain criteria in terms of awards or All-NBA selections.

The reality of the supermax is that it may not be as large an incentive either for players or teams. Devised in the wake of Kevin Durant leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors in 2016.

There are currently four players on supermax extensions: Stephen Curry of the Warriors, Russell Westbrook of the Thunder, James Harden of the Houston Rockets and John Wall of the Washington Wizards.

There are few complaints about Curry and Westbrook, while Harden still seems secure in Houston even though general manager Daryl Morey just threw the entire roster open for bids.

Wall’s contract, however, hasn’t even taken effect yet and it’s already being looked at as a disaster for the Wizards, considering Washington is on the hook to pay Wall $37.8 million next season as he attempts to recover from a torn Achilles’ tendon.

The dollar amounts on Wall’s deals escalate to $40.82 million in 2020-21, $43.85 million in 2021-22 and Wall holds a player option for $46.87 million in 2022-23. It’s hard to imagine opting out of that kind of coin.

Chris Broussard of Fox Sports 1 said recently the Nets could package draft picks with D’Angelo Russell and Jarrett Allen to land Davis.

There are some inherent problems with that proposal, not the least of which being that the draft will be over and done with before the Nets could re-sign Russell and trade him to New Orleans.

Players whose contracts are set to expire on July 1 cannot be traded during the post-NBA Finals window.

If the Nets are going to move draft picks — they hold picks No. 17 and 27 in the first round and the first pick in Round 2 at No. 31 — it is much more likely be as part of a package to clear Allen Crabbe‘s $18.5 million off next season’s salary sheet to free up more cap room for free agency.

The only way a draft-picks-to-New Orleans scenario makes sense is if rather than Russell, it is Caris LeVert who is part of the package headed to the Pelicans.

That would be a shame, because LeVert showed in the playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers that he is once again on a track toward potential stardom. LeVert was hands-down the best player for Brooklyn in its five-game loss to the Sixers and had been on an upward trajectory early last season before dislocating his right foot in November.

The bottom line is that while the temptation to go big on Anthony Davis may be great, bringing him into a similar situation he was in with the Pelicans (big-name star, stripped-down-to-the-bone roster everywhere else) would be less than ideal.

Next. Mocking best player available model, post-combine. dark

Brooklyn fans are starved for a star, a real star and not one that’s already over the 1 million mile mark on the odometer. But the price the organization would have to pay to land Davis would leave little around The Brow upon arrival.

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