Boston Celtics: Analyst has outlandish Anthony Davis proposal

The Boston Celtics don’t need a trade that would shake up their core considering their recent NBA Finals appearance and league-best record through nearly a quarter of the 2022-23 season, but it’ll be a cold day in Cabo when the national media isn’t trying to do it anyway.

Talking head Colin Cowherd of The Herd recently came up with an offer that isn’t as offensive as usual — with neither Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, or Marcus Smart involved — but it still is wildly unlikely to happen.

Cowherd’s proposal would send Anthony Davis, who is currently the top player on a Los Angeles Lakers squad that looks like an NBA Play-in team at best, to the Cs for currently injured center Robert Williams III.

What an Anthony Davis trade to the Boston Celtics would look like

Why the Lakers would send away their best trade asset for an oft-injured big man who has yet to play more than 61 games in any given season is the first question, but where the $26 million difference in Anthony Davis’ salary and Robert Williams’ is the most important.

In order for such a swap between AD and ‘The Timelord’ to work money-wise, one big salary (like Al Horford, Malcolm Brogdon) or several (Derrick White, Danilo Gallinari) to match inbound and outbound cap figures given Boston’s status as an over-the-cap team.

Truthfully, a swap involving both Horford and Williams (and draft capital) would be fair value for Davis, but it’d be erasing the frontcourt that got the Boston Celtics to the Finals last season in the first place.

Because of that, the best interest of the team’s front office would be to keep the core together until true cracks start to show — and if they do, cross that unfortunate, albeit hard to see development at this point in time, bridge when they get to it.