Five potential destinations for Anthony Davis if the Mavs decide to trade him
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It must be stressed that it is still early. However, there is increasing reason to believe that the Dallas Mavericks may, possibly, conceivably, somehow, have lost the Luka Doncic trade.
After only a few months of evidence, the numbers suggest we may soon be able to call it. It turns out that impulsively sending away one of the greatest offensive players of his generation in exchange for a player from the previous one, in a closed negotiation that never sought to explore proper market value, might not work out in the Mavericks’ favor after all.
The February deal – a move that at the time was described by Mavericks management as a “reset”, and by everyone else as “possibly the worst deal ever” – sent Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, primarily in exchange for Anthony Davis. It is the only trade in the NBA’s eight-decade history to have its own Wikipedia page. This is not a good thing.
Nearly a year later, as a motivated and slim Doncic plays the best basketball of his career while the Mavericks underwhelm in losses to the New Orleans Pelicans, it appears that Dallas may - just may - have miscalculated.
Nico Harrison – the architect of the deal, and possibly the only person in the world who liked it from the Mavericks’ perspective – is gone. Former Mavericks star Michael Finley is in as a replacement, temporarily; more importantly, though, whoever takes the helm of the Mavericks franchise on a permanent basis going forward is said to be free to blow apart the remnants of Harrison’s broken vision. That is to say, they will reportedly be empowered to re-trade Davis. If, of course, they can.
Davis is still a good NBA player. He does not play often, but when he does, he can still post 20-10-2-2 performances, even into his 14th NBA season. The Mavericks, though, are not a good NBA team. There is no point keeping together a team that currently sits second last in the Western Conference with a 3-10 record, while also being the fifth-oldest team in the league. It therefore behooves the Mavericks to try and find a trade for Davis that will send him to a competitive team. (You know, like the Mavericks were with Luka.)
There follows a list of possible trade destinations for Anthony Davis, in no particular order. Spoiler alert: there are no Doncic types coming back.
Davis is a Chicago native – and the Bulls have gotten a bit better. Notwithstanding a four-game losing streak at the time of writing, their dogged determination to not tank has seen a solid nine-man rotation emerge, one which could benefit from a two-way big like Davis.
A counterargument to any union between Davis and the Bulls is that not even the most generous person could look at the current product and conclude they are one great trade away from winning the title. The Bulls of the current moment remain average, looking at being once again on the fringes of the playoffs at best, and their timeline is currently set up for a Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey-led future, which Davis does not cohere with.
Nevertheless, for the right price – and since they do not figure to be doing much with Nikola Vucevic and Patrick Williams anyway – a reunion of player and city has some legs. With two first-round picks in the 2026 draft – assuming the one owed from the Portland Trail Blazers conveys – the Bulls may have an opportunity cost worth paying, in order to get into that sweet, sweet, forever-elusive sixth seed.
In terms of timelines, the Clippers have gone completely the other way. They are by far the oldest team in the NBA, with an average age of nearly 32, and since the NBA’s equivalent of the Golden Girls have come this far, they might as well keep going. They are already so reliant on frequently-injured veterans on the downslope of their careers that they could just put in one more upgrade trade for one in the form of Davis.
An obvious starting point to any trade would be John Collins, whom the Clippers only acquired over the summer, and whose spot in the lineup Davis would take. For reasons of both roster balance and salary-matching, Collins and Bogdan Bogdanovic would almost certainly have to be included; the Clippers are hard-capped at the first apron, and only slightly under it, which makes the requisite trade math very difficult.
The flip side of that veteran roster is the fact that younger legs and greater athleticism might be better things for them to target. The Clippers look old and creaky, play old and creaky, and perhaps should look to de-age and de-creak. Additionally, a two-team deal with the Clippers would see the Mavericks get back - at best - short-term contributors in a season that does not merit them, whose best value would be as 2026 salary relief. The cost of Doncic is long since sunk, but the Mavericks need to avoid a full write-down.
The resurgent Pistons have won nine on the spin, and are top of the Eastern Conference, two and a half games clear of both the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers. It is on track to be the best Pistons season since a young Darko Milicic was in his cigarry prime. And this puts them in a position they have not been in for a while; finding the correct “win now” trade that can open a title window without compromising the very things that have gotten them to this point.
Davis could be that player. Incorporating him alongside Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson could see him be the coveted two-way addition that takes a good team into the realm of an elite one. Some combination of Tobias Harris, Isaiah Stewart, Duncan Robinson and Jaden Ivey – the first three of whom would be replaced by Davis, and the fourth of whom the Pistons have already proven they can thrive without – could form the basis for what the Pistons would be hoping could be a Rasheed Wallace-esque deal.
Sacramento Kings
If the Mavericks decide not to punt for the longer-term, dispense with any entirely logical decision to try and match their roster to Cooper Flagg's timeline, and instead seek to find the best available immediate contributors in exchange for Davis in lieu of greater upside pieces, perhaps they can speak to the Sacramento Kings – a franchise with a history of doing much of the same sort of thing.
The Kings are said to be bristling, looking to make trades in the apparent belief that they have not made enough of them recently. With the former strategy of trading for the veteran core of Chicago’s play-in teams not really working out, the team are said to be receiving offers for the once-prized Domantas Sabonis. And if a deal for Davis can be based around Sabonis, he will surely be the best player that Dallas can get back.
If, say, the Mavericks could trade Davis and Daniel Gafford to Sacramento for Sabonis and Malik Monk, both of the West’s 3-10 teams get a refresh. Neither raises their ceiling or their floor much, but neither has much scope for doing that in any deal anyway. (There also exists scope for a third team to be roped in.)
History suggests that if Davis is on the table, the Miami Heat will be interested. When it comes to trades for the game’s biggest names, they always are.
In addition to 20 years of keeping the ball in the air with veterans, the Heat have also continued to hit on several draft selections, often from sub-optimal picks. And one of their recent successes, second-year big man Kel’el Ware, would immediately draw the Mavericks’ eye.
From a fit standpoint, Ware is not the ideal returning piece for a Mavericks team already overstocked at his position and woefully imbalanced at others. Nevertheless, he also would represent probably the best level of returning prospect they could get. Averaging almost a double-double already in his young career and improving his defensive habits, Ware is a high-upside young centre with a modern profile. The provisional fit with Dereck Lively II can be resolved later, much later.
Acquiring Davis in exchange for Ware would raise the Heat’s ceiling for a couple of seasons. It would not be much longer after that, though, that Ware would likely become the better player. For that reason, the Heat could pass, as could any team with a good young prospect that the Mavericks might be looking to covet. But the star power lure remains, and a healthy Anthony Davis presents an opportunity for the Heat to strike in a down year for the Eastern Conference.
The biggest obstacle to a deal might be finding the right salaries. After all, who knows what is going on with Terry Rozier?
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This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Five potential destinations for AD if the Mavs decide to trade him
