Boston Celtics: Is trading for Anthony Davis a realistic possibility?

Anthony Davis is the best big man in the NBA and the Boston Celtics are known to be interested in trading for him. If they choose to pursue him, is trading for him a realistic possibility?

ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowksi recently appeared on his show with Zach Lowe (Woj & Lowe) and discussed the future of Anthony Davis with the New Orleans Pelicans. He was on record stating the worst-kept secret in the NBA: The Boston Celtics have interest in the big man from Kentucky.

The interest in him is not surprising, as there have been rumors for quite some time that they would like to add Davis. The Celtics have interest, but so does every other NBA team.

Anyone would love to have a game-changing player like him. He’s in the run for MVP again this season and has done some pretty spectacular things when he’s on the court. He’s currently putting together another great year, averaging 28.0 points, 12.4 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 2.8 blocks and 1.7 steals per game.

To say that he’s having a great season is an understatement. It’s pretty incredible what he’s been able to do for this team. The Pelicans are a good team, but they’re nothing near as good if he isn’t on the court. The scary part about Davis is that he’s still just 25 years old.

Here’s what Woj had to say during the show (h/t CBS Sports‘ Pete Blackburn):

"“Boston has been hawking Anthony Davis for years,” said Wojnarowski. “They always hoped that it would be — whether it’s the end of this season or the beginning of next before the trade deadline — that they would gather up all those assets, all those picks Danny Ainge has, young players, and they’d be the team to be able to get Anthony Davis.”"

The Celtics have a lot of young talent and if it came to the point where they wanted to make a deal, they more than likely would be able to. They could have up to four first round picks in the 2019 NBA Draft, barring any changes in where the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings end up.

Mix that in with the young talent they have now and they could easily find a deal. Notice that in the video, Woj says the Celtics would like to add Davis during the offseason or as late as the 2019-20 season.

That’s because they’re unable to trade for Davis right now because of the Rose rule, which is further explained in this video by NBC Boston‘s Chris Forsberg.

The only issue with Davis is that he seems to never stay healthy for a full season. He has never played a full 82 games, but has appeared in 75 games twice. One thing that the Celtics will need to examine before giving up a large part of their future is whether they can win with Davis.

The answer is most certainly “yes,” regardless of whether he misses 20 games because Davis is one of the best players in the league. Any team should look at the possibility of adding a player of his caliber. Assuming that Jayson Tatum is off limits as a young asset, the Celtics would be looking at a Big 3 of Kyrie Irving, Tatum and Davis.

That is a scary three-headed monster and one that would be a force to be reckoned with for years to come. All three of those players are young, with Irving being the oldest at just 26 years old.

The Los Angeles Lakers are another team interested in Unibrow. They have a lot of young assets too and would love to pair him with LeBron James. It looks to be the Lakers and Celtics having the strongest chance at landing Davis. This situation will be closely monitored from here on out.

The Brow has a player option after the 2019-20 season. If he doesn’t accept a massive contract extension from the Pelicans this summer, he most likely will opt out of that contract and earn a lot more money as an unrestricted free agent. If he doesn’t accept that extension, however, the easy answer to the question about the Celtics having a realistic possibility of trading for him is “yes.”

The only question is if it’s worth the cost of a lot of young assets, knowing the price of his future contract and health, but since he’s still only 25 years old and already a perennial MVP candidate, adding him would make Boston a title contender for years to come.