Who Says NO? Anthony Davis Trade Proposal Breakdown

Who Says NO? Anthony Davis Trade Proposal Breakdown

All right, Bulls Nation. Anthony Davis won’t go away. ESPN’s Tim McMahon is just one of several reporters over the last week or so who have stated that it is fully expected the Dallas Mavericks will explore trading Anthony Davis before this season’s mid-season trade deadline in February. And of course, Bleacher Report did what Bleacher Report does Big Dave and Goat, and that is propose themselves the best way to bring Anthony Davis to Chicago. Everybody’s talking about the Bulls being a potential landing spot, partly because of roster need improving what the Bulls have now talent-wise and of course that Chicago connection. Although he was sitting courtside in a Packers jersey at an NBA game the other day, so I don’t want to hear that part of it. But it is an interesting trade, so let’s talk about it. Bleacher Report proposed a three team trade, Joey, if you will want to pop that up on the screen in which the Bulls get Anthony Davis. Caleb Martin also comes to them from the uh Dallas Mavericks as well as Dante Exom. Jaylen Wilson coming from Brooklyn. Yes, that’s right. A three-team trade. The Mavs get Trey Jones. That would hurt. Love him. Zack Collins, Kevin Herder, the Bulls 2026 first round pick with protections, plus the pick they are owed from the Blazers. And then the third team in this trade being the Brooklyn Nets who received Dalon Terry, Javon Carter from the Bulls, the rights to Melvin Elena. Ajinsa, there you go. There you go. Go. Aljinsa um uh who was the 51st pick in the 2024 draft and then also future picks uh of the second round variety from the Bulls in 2029 and 2030. Uh Dave, first impressions. Uh first, I think they need to take a sip of water after going through all that. That is a lot. That’s a lot of That’s a lot of trade pieces. That’s a lot of pieces moving on the board there, man. Um I mean, the only thing, and we discussed this trade, the only thing that bothered me was the 2026 pick. The Bulls pick. Uh yes, not the Portland one. Yeah, that’s fine. But the 2026 pick, I don’t want to bother or mess or do anything with that pick. I understand it comes with protections on it. Um, I’m gonna let go just basically, you know, be brilliant as he always is and talk try to talk me into this. Um, but it’s just that aspect of it that scares me and kind of frightens me, you know, about that because giving that up just I don’t I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to I I want Anthony Davis, though. I do want Anthony Davis. I know you’re going to have to give up something to get that kind of player on your team. you know, the fit that he has uh on this team, he could definitely fit in anywhere. Him and Josh Giddy, oh my god, that would just that would be crazy. So, actually him, Giddy, and Kobe would be absolutely insane. Him, Giddy, Kobe, and I would be absolutely insane. Brazil, like Yeah. Throw Modus in there, too. Yes. Like, all that would be a ton of fun. Um, but man, that that pick, I want it. Like, I really really want that pick and it’s hard for me to to get off of that. So, I’m not going to say yes or no. I’m just going to pass it over to the genius of Will the Gole and allow him to talk me into it. Did they specify what the protection was on the pick? Uh, Bleacher Report did not say what the protection is specifically, just that it is protected. So, I think top 10 protected. Yeah, that that’s the big question here is like what is the protection on this pick? If it’s top four protected, I don’t feel great about it. If it’s lottery protected, I feel much better about it. Um, you look at all the moving parts here, and there’s a lot. I think that the reason they did it this way, and I have not read the whole article, so I apologize if they said this or I’m just making this up. Um, is that incorporating a third team helps the Mavericks get out of the luxury tax, which is a big thing for them. They’re getting two expiring contracts, they’re getting two draft picks, and they’re getting Trey Jones, who I think can help stabilize their second unit. Um, you know, maybe even start for them while Kyrie is out and sort of help Cooper Flag come along and and give them a ton of cap flexibility. So, I can see why they would want to do it. Um, they’re getting off of Caleb Martin’s contract. He’s got three years left at almost 10 million. Um, and then obviously Anthony Davis, who’s got the two years plus a player option left at 62 million in the final year of his deal. From the Bulls perspective, I think a lot of people are just dismissing the idea of Anthony Davis altogether because he’s older and because he’s injuryprone. And I get that there’s it’s this is not without risk. Sure. For sure. But I think if you’re getting a top 15 caliber player who can defend the rim, who can be sort of an offball star in the sense that he’s not going to be dominating possessions and pushing the ball out of Giddy’s hands and then marginal marginalizing what he can do. I think the fit actually works really well here. He solves a lot of their problems. Uh he can score, he can attack closeouts, he can play within the Bulls style. I think the fit from a basketball perspective is really good. and you’re basically just giving up expiring contracts plus the Portland pick and then the one asset that you, you know, would probably want to keep there is is your own pick. So, um I get the hesitation with there. I just feel like if you’re looking at uh star players and trying to bring value into this team, trying to bring a top 15 player onto this roster, how are you going to do that without giving up multiple picks? How are you going to do that without, you know, getting super lucky in the lottery um or signing a guy in for agency? and the pathway to doing that just there there doesn’t seem to be one. So he I I think if you talk about how many of the top 15 or 20 players in the league are available for two first round picks, I think that also fit the Bulls system and like help them solve a lot of problems. I think he might be the only player there. And so I think you have to take that seriously. I totally understand if people just don’t want to do it because of his age, because of the injury stuff, and just not wanting to invest in this team in that way. Um, but I do think that like the riskreward for me is there. I also think there’s probably other scenarios where you’re getting off of different guys. Maybe you try to give up Patrick Williams um and stick them with that contract, but maybe then you have to give up Noah Essen. So, there’s probably other scenarios here. You could do a straightup trade with just the Mavericks and not in include a third team. Um, but at the end of the day, I think this is kind of the in the area of what I would expect him to go for, which is cap relief and like some lightly protected picks. Uh just to ask you, does it matter where the protections lie for that 2026 pick? Like do you matter if it’s a top thousand% top 15? So I wouldn’t feel good about I mean like you hear about the top three in this class being like potential star potential. Um and so you want to give yourselves a chance to get there. But for me, it’s like I probably am not doing this unless it’s lottery protected because if you make this trade and the goal is for you to like make the playoffs and for it to work you have to get there, then you’re willing to give up the pick. But if he’s injured and you’re assuming that risk and now you’re stuck with this bad contract, like then you are in kind of a tough situation where you’re also giving up your pick. So to me, the the lottery protection there would be really important. And that also gives you a little bit of wiggle room to like tank to to protect the pick if you need to. Whereas like when they owed the top 10 protected pick to the Spurs or to um Orlando, it was like they just couldn’t really I guess it was top four protected to Orlando, but they just couldn’t like tank their way into keeping that. And I think with a lottery protected pick, you could. And that’s what would give me more confidence with the idea of keeping that. Yeah. To me, that’s uh the only difficult hangup part of this. Also, knowing yes, of course, the giant red asterisk of injury risk attached to the name Anthony Davis. To me, and no offense to any of these players, it would not as a bulland break my heart, Trey Jones, Zack Collins, Kevin Herder, Dalen Terry, and Javon Carter all being included in this trade because of those names, four of the five I just listed are expiring contract guys anyway. The only one who would theoretically be around if this trade didn’t exist is Trey Jones, who they did bring back on a multi-year deal this past offseason because they liked what they saw from him and that small sample size last season. So, you know, I those players are fine. You know who’s better than all of them combined? Tell me. Anthony Davis. And that’s to me the thing as far as what bugs you or doesn’t bug you, makes you say yes or makes you say no about bringing in Anthony Davis in a trade, whether it be this one or something similar like it. You You got to like it or not like it for the right reasons. If Bulls fans say no, no, no, hell no. Because injuries or because they don’t get the the proper protections on their own first round pick included in the trade, I get that. But I also hear Bulls fans saying like, “No, this is this is stupid because you know, like the Bulls and cap flexibility, you don’t want to spend all that money on Anthony Davis.” Who are the Bulls signing next summer? Who’s better than Anthony Davis? Who are they ever signed in free agency who’s better than Anthony Davis? The answer is no one. No one. So, how about you use that money on a guy who’s already making that money on a contract acquiring him via trade? I think that’s a really important point, too, because um everybody like wants to have cap flexibility. Everybody wants to be able to like be nimble and not have bad contracts and be able to move off of one iteration into another. And I get that, but the flexibility only lasts until you have to sign guys. And the Bulls have to sign their guys this summer. So, would you rather go into next season, maybe they make the play, and maybe they make the playoffs and lose in the first round, whatever. Um but you like start to see momentum and a direction with this group. Would you rather have that happen and then just like resign Herder Collins, bring everybody back and resign Kobe and Io and then not be able to sign anybody or would you rather leverage those trade chips now while you have them and then be able to bring in an actual star player and fill in the back side of the roster when you can’t? I think even in this scenario, you still have depth, you still have nine to 10 good players, but you also have, you know, a superstar level defensive anchor plus somebody that can really fit offensively and make Giddy better while without taking the ball out of his hands. I think the the fit is a no-brainer. Yeah, I that part that you said at the end was going to be a question I was going to ask the nine to 10 good players you still have even though you make this trade because there’s something to be said that Bulls fans don’t want to mess with this chemistry that’s happened with this team so far. So, they like, “No, we kind of want to see this play out and see if they want to, you know, come back next year and see if they can do this kind of thing again because it’s the kind of roster AK uh was building.” But he’s also said he wants a bigname free agent. You know what I’m saying? AK has that made that clear. He wants a bigname free agent. So, you’re going to have to give to get in these kind of scenarios. Like, it’s just not going to work where you hold all your toys and then you get everybody else’s. That’s not how that works. You’re going to have to give up something to get this. And also, you’re not going to get a clean toy because your toys aren’t clean either. So, yeah, of course, you want somebody way better. I’m talking like healthwise, you want somebody way better, but man, Anthony Davis is I I can’t think of anybody on this team right now, probably outside of Josh Giddy, who I’m like, is is Anthony Davis even at that level with everybody else? Like, and Davis is better than all of them, you know, right now. So, that’s just what it is, you know. So, do you want that kind of play on your team or not? I understand Bulls fans not wanting it, like you said, Matt, because of the health, because of the injuries. Uh, but I don’t think it because of the money. I mean, you’re going to have to spend that money some some kind of way. But yeah, not messing with the chemistry. I mean, Anthony Davis is Anthony Davis. You know what I’m saying? You’re going to need that. Could you maybe go to the playoffs, dare I ask, even win a few playoff games or a series before talking to me about messing with the chemistry. Yeah, great chemistry play tournament. That’s also like the package that they got back for Zack Lavine plus a couple picks. So, you’re basically turning Zack Lavine into Anthony Davis, which I think is a good move. And then you’re left with Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis, Josh Giddy, Vu, Patrick Williams, Kobe, Aoro, Io, Jaylen Smith, Modis, Noah, like, and Julian Phillips. Like, that’s your nine or 10 good players right there. You still have your depth. You still have the athleticism, but now you’re you have the capability of being an elite defensive team with Anthony Davis back there with Auroro, with IO, and then you also have some really like it still affords you the opportunity to play the pace and the uptempo style that you’re having success with. It is an intriguing proposition. It is uh we got a long way to go till that February trade deadline. We will continue to moderate whatever is going on with NBA’s leaguewide reporting in AD situation. In the meantime, make sure you subscribe CSO Sports YouTube channel to catch all of our fulllength episodes of CSO Bulls right here. Peace.

Bleacher Report released a highly compelling three-team trade proposal that would bring Anthony Davis to Chicago. CHGO Bulls hosts Matt Peck, Will Gottlieb and Big Dave answer the question to this proposal- Who Says No???

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