Making sense of latest developments in Anthony Davis trade demand saga

It's been an avalanche of news over the past two days since Anthony Davis officially made his trade demand public on Monday morning to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com, with the goal of landing with a contending team. Let's try to make sense of all the reports (sometimes conflicting) that have surfaced since then, how certain teams and agents are likely trying to posture publicly, and sort through what's believable, what matters and what can be ignored.

Development No. 1 (Monday afternoon) Is Kyrie not staying after all? 

Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports came out with an alarming piece for Celtics fans on Monday evening that emphasized that Boston is not considered a top landing spot for Davis personally, according to sources, since "There’s a growing belief of uncertainty that Kyrie Irving will re-sign with Boston, sources said, even though he vowed to do so at the beginning of the season.”

Reaction: How should you interpret this? A league source indicated to BostonSportsJournal.com on Tuesday that the Celtics still feel very good about their standing with Irving over the long haul. Seeing that the Celtics will not be able to land Davis via trade until Irving makes a decision about his future (i.e. re-sign with them in July), the wording of this report does not make a lot of sense from a logic standpoint. Teaming up Irving and Davis has always been the plan for Boston and if Irving has doubts about staying in Boston, you can bet Danny Ainge would have an idea about that by now and consider moving the All-Star guard. That's not happening, according to

multiple sources.

The key thing about Irving to remember for the Celtics is that there is no way to replace him if he walks in free agency. The Celtics are not going to have cap room for a max player even if he walks (they will be over the cap with their other commitments) so seeing him walk away would be the nightmare scenario. Trading him now in order to land Davis ahead of the trade deadline (since the C's can only acquire one player on a Rose Rule contract at a time) does not serve Boston well either since Irving's value on an expiring deal will bring far less than equal value and this team with Davis and no Irving is short of a top contender.

Haynes' sourcing here sounds like a team that is trying to influence the Pelicans' trading timetable. New Orleans needs a reason to deal Davis before the trade deadline and so floating the possibility that Irving might walk could make the Celtics hesitant (in theory) about giving as much up in a deal for him this summer or at least diminish what they are willing to promise right now to get the Pelicans to wait on dealing him until the summer. If Boston isn't willing to put Jayson Tatum on the table now with a promise, the Lakers can tell the Pelicans, "Here's our best offer, better take it now since the Celtics might not offer anything as good in the summer anyway if Kyrie walks." It's an interesting strategy but a flawed one as evidenced by the response on a couple of fronts over the past 24 hours.

Development No. 2 (Monday evening) 

Pelicans release public statement on trade demand on Monday evening 

This past weekend, Anthony Davis’ representatives informed us that Anthony does not wish to sign a contract extension with our team and subsequently has requested a trade. Although we are disappointed in this decision, our organization’s top priority is to bring an NBA championship to our city and fans and build our team for long-term success.

Relative to specific talks of a trade, we will do this on our terms and our timeline. One that makes the most sense for our team and it will not be dictated by those outside of our organization. We have also requested the League to strictly enforce the tampering rules associated with this transaction.

Reaction: This can almost be seen as a direct response to the reports linking Davis to the Lakers. Magic Johnson has already been fined for tampering on multiple occasions in the past couple of years and LeBron James' best friend Rich Paul is also the agent for Davis at Klutch Sports, who is pulling all the strings here and is likely a source from some of these leaks to Haynes and others. The Pelicans emphasizing that they are going to make a deal on their own timetable is a direct shot at the Davis camp going public with the trade demand and the leaks that he prefers LA as a destination, (which will only hurt the asking price the Pelicans can ask for in a deal since teams will worry about him re-signing after 2020).

Development No. 3 (Tuesday morning) Celtics send their own message

The Celtics appeared to send a message to the Pelicans this morning via  ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who indicated (via sources) that Ainge will be willing to roll the dice on trading for Davis, even if he's not willing to commit to stay long-term in Boston.

Reaction: Essentially, this is signaling that Boston will remain as a buyer even if Davis goes a step further in the next week to up the pressure on the Pelicans by stating that he will only sign long-term in LA.

The Celtics clearly want to have a chance at trading for Davis this summer, so this is the best they can do right now while they sit nervously on the sidelines. The question is now is

a) Whether they will float some hypothetical offers/promises the Pelicans way to keep them waiting

b) If they don't make any promises, if the Pelicans take them at their word enough to wait for their offer in summer.

The good news for Boston is that any offer the Lakers can make now will likely still be there in the summer. All of their young players are under contract, so there is no real incentive for the Pelicans to do it now unless they just want to get the PR awkwardness over and think that the trade offers will diminish this summer. They may end up losing a few contenders from the bidding this summer who would have given up more to have Davis for a title run for two years guaranteed (this spring and next spring). However, the NBA Draft Lottery could bring more assets into play for major market teams like the Knicks (once the order is settled) and a No. 1 or No. 2 pick can be shopped around as an offer.

Either way, expect the posturing to continue and don't be surprised if Davis' camp makes it public in the next week that he wants to go to LA (via leaks) to exert maximum pressure on the Pelicans to deal him now,  so he gets to the destination of choice. The Celtics will be sweating nervously over these next eight days in hopes that the Pelicans don't get antsy or offered a deal that they can't refuse.

Either way, this should end up being one of the most dramatic trade deadlines in NBA history, but the signs are positive for Boston that New Orleans is going to remain patient in order to maximize the return on their future.