2018 NBA trade value rankings, Part 3: The top 20
6. Anthony Davis
When I first did the list, the Brow was outside the top 10, below all the unicorns you just got through. The reasoning was pretty simple: Davis has a contract set to run out in a little under 30 months, while everyone else was likely to be under team control for far longer.
New Orleans is not winning the title this year, and by next February, it may become apparent that the wisest approach to building their team is to move their generational big man for some ungodly haul.
I asked myself: How high can you really put a player on a trade value list when there is a not-insignificant possibility that his team might be better off trading him in the next 18 months?
When that player is Anthony Davis, No. 6 is about the lowest he can go.
Davis might be the best player in the NBA right now. At the very least, it’s a discussion. He is 24 years old and will almost certainly get better. He is the single most unfair matchup in the league on both end of the court.
Even if he is traded, a player this good and this young hasn’t been moved since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar almost 45 years ago. Since this is a trade “value” ranking, that should carry some weight.
Here’s betting he’s not going anywhere. There has already been talk of Davis wanting to stay in New Orleans long-term and trying to make it work there. If that remains a significant possibility, putting him even this low is probably a disservice to his greatness.