A deep look at Pelicans’ cap situation and how Anthony Davis factors in

Wish as they might, Pelicans fans know the reality. Anthony Davis asked for a trade out of New Orleans. A divorce is always hard on the finances. What would the Pelicans’ cap sheet look like after trading away Davis?

Anthony Davis asked for a trade and the New Orleans Pelicans season went spiraling down quickly. Now, the NBA world has to wait until July 1 for any Davis trade to take place. While hoping for the best, the Pelicans’ front office needs to plan for the post-Davis days at the Smoothie King Center.

The New Orleans Pelicans can still be a formidable team even if Davis is traded away. Jrue Holiday and Zion Williamson will be too talented and too much fun to finish at the bottom of the standings. The Pelicans’ new culture of sustained excellence will not allow for tanking.

Any Davis trade haul is going to include multiple players and draft picks. Those incoming players will likely have a smaller salary cap charge than Davis, creating extra cap space for the New Orleans Pelicans. Determining which trade offer to accept will weigh more options than just the talent and picks on offer.

Several playoff contenders will come up just short of the NBA Finals. That’s the nature of the game. A couple of those teams will decide to roll the dice and gamble on a star transaction, just like Toronto did for Kawhi Leonard. Toronto could decide to make the same gamble play twice, depending on how their NBA Playoffs run plays out.

Would Toronto send OG Anunoby ($2,281,800), Pascal Siakam ($2,351,839), and Fred VanVleet ($9,456,163), plus picks to New Orleans? Would Griffin value the extra bodies and almost $15,000,000 in extra cap room enough to jettison a perennial All-NBA caliber player?

Would adding Anunoby, Siakam, and VanVlet to the core of Holiday, Zion, Randle, Wood, Jackson, Diallo, and Williams be enough to compete for a playoff spot? The team would have room for two max slots, but would any star worth of over $30 million accept the offer?

Trading for young stars in the making might make more sense, but it’s a bet on the scouting department and player development system. So let’s look at a possible Boston Celtics offer.

Jaylen Brown ($6,534,829) and Jayson Tatum ($7,830,000) fit the description of potential stars in the making. Add Marcus Smart ($12,053,471) along with a few draft picks and the Pelicans have three ascendant stars led by Jrue Holiday and supported by Smart’s, uh, smart play on both sides of the ball.

All three combined make $4 million less than Davis. Add those three to the Holiday and Zion-led core and New Orleans would still have over $20 million to spend on the roster. That would be enough to afford another starter and a couple bench mob role players.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ offer follows the same pattern. The reported offer of Lonzo Ball ($8,719,320), Brandon Ingram ($7,265,485), Kyle Kuzma ($1,974,600), and Josh Hart ($1,934,160) still cost over $7 million less than Davis next season.

Without going through all of the 29 other teams, it’s fair to say that trading Davis away will not be the start of the Pelicans’ NBA cap purgatory. Quite to the contrary, trading Davis away might give the Pelicans more options in the future. Keeping Davis may lock the Pelicans into a contention window that divides the Zion era in two.

The Anthony Davis trade is about more than just the initial trade haul. The value of Davis’ presence next season will also be weighted against the opportunity cost of future cap space. If Davis stays, Griffin can make some small moves to create salary cap wiggle room. If Davis demands out, the New Orleans Pelicans will have plenty of options to contend immediately after his departure.