There were a lot of rumors swirling around the Golden State Warriors leading up to February’s trade deadline. One rumor in particular linked the team to then-Dallas Mavericks veteran Anthony Davis. The Warriors have to be more than thankful for that deal not coming to fruition.
A trade for Davis always felt somewhat unlikely for Golden State, but there were still rumors swirling especially as the front office had to figure out what to do with Jonathan Kuminga. Ultimately, Davis ended up with the Washington Wizards while Kuminga ended up with the Atlanta Hawks.
Warriors have to be beyond happy they did not land Anthony Davis
While many fans have complained about how little Kristaps Porzingis has played since joining the Warriors due to his own health issues, Davis is on a whole different level when it comes to lack of availability.
He hasn’t played since early January and hasn’t suited up once for the Wizards at all after he was acquired, having dealt with a hand injury.
Porzingis has at least played for the Warriors, even if it feels like he could go down at any given moment. He’s shown that he meshes well with the team when on the floor, but staying out there is a consistent issue.
As for Davis, when healthy he’s proven he can be a star player. He played in 76 games a few years ago with the Los Angeles Lakers and was an All-Star, but it seems highly unlikely he will ever play in that many games again in his career.
The Warriors are already old and slow and injury-prone. We have seen plenty of evidence of that this season with Jimmy Butler tearing his ACL and Stephen Curry being out since late January. This team needs an infuusion of youth in the worst way but it's hard to see how that happens.
The 33-year-old Davis is also under contract until 2028, meaning the Warriors would have been investing a lot of time and taking on a lot of money hoping that he could stay on the court for them.
At this point in Golden State’s “fading dynasty”, that is just too big of a risk to take. The team will have to take some leap of faith to try to stay competitive, whether it’s bringing back Porzingis in free agency or making a big trade, but they have to be happy they avoided disaster by not landing Davis.