Although the Mavericks will continue fielding calls on Anthony Davis, team sources insist to Christian Clark and Sam Amick of The Athletic that the front office feels no urgency to move the star big man. As Clark and Amick explain, the Mavs have signaled that they’d like to see Davis play alongside Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg and can envision a scenario in which he stays in Dallas long-term.
A report earlier this week indicated that Davis’ preference would be to remain in Dallas and sign a contract extension with the Mavericks. However, AD’s representatives at Klutch Sports, led by CEO Rich Paul, aren’t convinced the Mavs are interested in extending their client and wouldn’t mind getting him to a team more likely to pursue a new contract agreement, league sources tell The Athletic.
While Davis and his camp haven’t requested a trade, Clark and Amick suggest that Paul has encouraged the Mavericks to be “more aggressive” in gauging the 32-year-old’s market rather than waiting for teams to call.
Here’s more from The Athletic’s latest report on where things stand with Davis:
- As previously reported, the Hawks and Raptors are among the teams with Davis on their radar, but it’s unclear how motivated either team will be to get a deal done with Dallas. Atlanta wouldn’t want to take on Davis’ contract without moving Trae Young, who doesn’t appeal to the Mavericks, Clark and Amick write, while a deal with Toronto would require the Mavs to take on significant multiyear money.
- As Amick wrote last week, the door isn’t completely closed on the idea of a trade sending Davis to Golden State. However, with the Warriors still “staunchly” opposed to giving up Jimmy Butler or Draymond Green in such a deal, there’s no feasible path to a salary-matching fit.
- The Bucks are among the teams to convey interest in Davis, league sources tell Clark and Amick. Milwaukee is probably a long shot though, since the club is short on appealing assets and also lacks sizable contracts for matching purposes.
- Many league insiders believe the Mavericks will have to wait until the offseason to find a deal they like for Davis, but there’s also a sense that the lack of dominant teams in the Eastern Conference could make one of those potential contenders more inclined to take a shot on Davis during the season, per Clark and Amick. “Every team in the East believes they’re an Anthony Davis away from making the (NBA) Finals,” a high-level source explained to The Athletic.
Warriors management said they are not taking on long term deals this trade season. Its the media claiming warriors want AD. Green would need to be part of the package. Trading Butler doesn’t make them better because they have a scoring problem and need Butler.
Combination of Warriors media wanting clicks and Rich Paul wanting movement, so his client can sign the extension, and Klutch can get its cut. 💰
More like national media. What else to write about but made up trades. You should read some of those fantasy NBA 2K trades posted by some unknown sport authority.
ImO Davis has a hunger issue and a health issue. Jimmy has a hunger issue. And isn’t getting younger. Jimmy is too passive. AD is too passive at times. Im just not seeing it being too much of an improvement. Sure there’s a chance it looks good on paper. Or at least a little better. If Davis stayed healthy ans gave good D effort… id let one of these two get packed up
All of this is being put out there by the Mavs. Nobody is interested in Davis, the Mavs have been calling around the league, and the media has been misreporting that as teams being interested in Davis. Mavs are desperate to get something for Davis, but aren’t going to, so now they are pushing the nonsense story that they want to see guys play together.
What’s a high level source without a name good for? I call BS on Atlanta wanting Davis, it’s a media beat up. Absolutely awful contract. Got Klutch sports talking heads written all over it.
What if grizz trade for AD? JJJ, Pope, Konchar.
You don’t mean Jaren Jackson Jr do you? Davis is a slight bump away from not playing again.
The Warriors were saying a lot of the same things last year about acquiring Jimmy Butler and the went out and acquired Jimmy Butler.