LA Clippers: 3 Reasons Not To Trade For Anthony Davis

Reason One: Depletes All Their Assets

Trading for a star of Davis’ caliber does not come at a cheap price. Prior to the Pelicans winning the draft lottery, there were rumors swirling that whoever did win would flip that first overall pick along with other assets in exchange for Davis. Now that the first pick is off the table, the Pels will likely get some haul of picks and young assets.

For the Clippers to even come close to matching some of the speculated offers, they would have to give up quite a lot of their assets.

The main drawback? They would likely have to give up one of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Landry Shamet. Both young guards were outstanding in their rookie seasons, making the All-Rookie Second Team.

While neither looks like they will develop into a superstar on the level of Davis, losing their potential still hurts. Shamet is a knockdown shooter, something that the league values highly. Gilgeous-Alexander has already shown that he can run an offense and is a complete point guard.

Couple losing one of these great young players with the amount of draft picks that would likely have to give up and the trade seems less and less worth it. One would imagine that the Pels would ask for the 2021 unprotected first round pick via the Miami Heat that the Clips obtained in the Tobias Harris package. An unprotected pick is one of the most valuable assets a team can have.

Even though that pick could in a complete bust, the potential benefit of it may be worth more than Davis himself. Teams are always in a delicate balancing act of trying to compete now and holding on to assets for the future, so getting rid of most of your pieces for the foreseeable future just doesn’t make sense.