Analyzing potential San Antonio Spurs trades for LaMarcus Aldridge

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So here’s what we know: the sky hasn’t fallen quite yet. Despite how creative they’ve gotten with their failures, the San Antonio Spurs are only 2.5 games out of eighth place in the Western Conference standings.

Even if things continue at this rate, the Spurs won’t be feeling any “pressure” to find potential suitors for LaMarcus Aldridge (or DeMar DeRozan, even) until February’s trade deadline.

Given what we know about the San Antonio Spurs organization, it feels safe to assume that if San Antonio bottoms out, they’d at least try to appeal to Aldridge’s requests — more than likely, a playoff-to-championship level team. The Spurs aren’t the type to allow a generous benignity to interfere with a rebuild, but shipping him to a postseason contender seems realistic.

For that reason, there were a couple of trades that didn’t quite make the cut.

• A potential trade to Sacramento

One idea executives have thrown around is that the Sacramento Kings, in search of their first postseason appearance since these were a thing, could try to bring on Aldridge via trade.

In the HoopsHype article, one executive pointed out that Aldridge could not only become an excellent mentor for former No. 2 pick Marvin Bagley, but also provide an upgrade over blossoming 26-year-old Richaun Holmes (if you ever get a chance, watch this guy. He’s the master of that scoop, pop-a-shot that you see at those movie theater arcade basketball machines).

So, um, if the Kings aren’t offering their two best bigs, do they think the Spurs are going to take something 20-cents-on-the-dollar?

It feels like the Kings are going to have to offer at least one or two of their core, and that likely includes Bogdan Bogdanovic, whose three-year contract at $9 million this season is going to balloon in next year’s market.

If Sacramento doesn’t feel they want to pay him, he seems like an easy trade piece to take on for San Antonio, if they trust that he’d sign back. A major risk, but that’s why it’s difficult to take this trade all the way serious.

• A potential trade to Boston

The vibe around the league is the Boston Celtics are knocking on the door to title contention. But, if they want to maximize their chances against the Goliaths in the Eastern Conference — think Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Myles Turner — the glaring need for a big who can go toe-to-toe with them is paramount.

As it stands right now, the Celtics only one have one active rotational player that stands over 6-foot-8 (Enes Kanter), and that feels problematic. The last thing Boston needs is a star coming in and stunting the growth of Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum, but if Boston thinks they can go into a Playoff series against these bigger lineups, it could get rocky.

Per NJ.com’s Todderick Hunt, Danny Ainge has already made a list of untouchables: Brown, Tatum, Gordon Hayward, Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart. And unless the Spurs are willing to entertain discussions centered around Robert Williams III or Daniel Theis, this is merely a brief discussion for now.