Why no team should be interested in acquiring Anthony Davis

With the NBA trade deadline less than a month away, several names are floating around as potential targets, as is tradition. 

One player who has been attached to trade rumors for almost a year is Anthony Davis, the former NBA champion and one of the best two-way big men in the league. 

You'd think most teams would love to acquire him in a major blockbuster deal, however the situation is far more complicated than that, to the point where teams should stay away. Far, far away. 

Let's get into it. 

Lack of availability

Since getting sent to the Dallas Mavericks just under a year ago in a surprising trade that involved Luka Dončić, Davis has played just 28 games for the franchise and has dealt with numerous injuries along the way. 

If this was just a recent development and the former All-Star had historically had good health, it'd be easy to disregard this as a minor blip. 

However, Davis' relationship with injuries is a long one, to the point where it's impossible to ignore if you're a team with interest in his services. 

After a surprising 76-game campaign in 2023-2024, it became clear how much of an outlier that season was. He played just 51 games the following year, and in the previous seasons, he logged 56, 40 and 36 appearances, respectively. 

Despite being an enormously talented player who is averaging 24 points and 10.7 rebounds per game for his career, the point of acquiring him becomes moot if he doesn't play. 

Major financial commitment

If Davis were on a contract that made it more tolerable for a team to acquire him and live with the idea that he was going to miss half a season every year, that'd be one thing. 

But the reality is far different. 

Davis has two additional years left on his deal after the conclusion of this season worth a total of $121.2 million in future salary commitment. 

(That's not including the $54.1 million he's earning this year, which represents 35% of the salary cap.) 

It's franchise-altering to add that type of money to your books for an NBA team. 

In fact, the only way to justify it would be to immediately launch yourself into championship contention as a direct result of the acquisition, but given the aforementioned availability issue, that seems like a bit of a stretch. 

It would be irresponsible for any franchise to take on that enormous amount of money with the attached injury history. 

Age is catching up 

Adding another layer of concern is the fact Davis turns 33 in March and is looking less springy than he has in the past. 

This signals the launch of what is an inevitability: a decline, which obviously will only sharpen more drastically as he ages. 

An Anthony Davis who is slowly going through the process of becoming the athlete formerly known as Anthony Davis just isn't an asset. If his production drops off, what then is the logic in relinquishing assets to acquire his services and years of big money to your cap sheet? 

A player who is approaching his mid-30s is also difficult to build around, as the timeline is moved up. A franchise has to win immediately and won’t have years to set up something around Davis, even if he were a pillar of health. 

So what does it all mean?

Davis remains a highly impactful basketball player who — when healthy — adds a ridiculous two-way presence to any rotation. 

It’s just all too risky.

All teams should look at the Mavericks and think, "As long you have that problem on your hands, that's one less team to worry about." 

That sounds harsh, but it's true. Davis, as a human being, isn't a problem. But the contractual obligation is. The lack of availability is. The physical decline is. The overall risk attached to his acquisition is. 

There simply isn't any logical reason to trade for Davis, unless you're a franchise that doesn't care about being competitive and exclusively wishes to make big headlines, with the idea of getting people into the stadium on the rare nights he's available, perhaps through the perspective of selling his arrival as the return of the prodigal son coming home. 

"Frooooooooom Chicago …"