Anthony Davis joining the Boston Celtics long-term wasn't going to happen, and the star forward's agent Rich Paul made sure Danny Ainge knew that.
As just about everyone knows — unless you've been living under a rock — Ainge highly coveted Davis. But he wasn't necessarily too keen on trading away some of his young stars like Jayson Tatum.
Had he decided to give up Tatum and more for the 26-year-old, the C's would've put themselves in a deep hole as Davis would've walked in free agency.
"The last thing you want to do is put a GM in a situation where he trades away an asset and then the guy walks out the door," Paul said according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "Like, you can't do business that way. So it's not really a hard conversation to have."
What's even more interesting, is the fact Ainge continued to pursue Davis, according to Paul — knowing he wouldn't return at the end of his five-year, $127 million deal.
"And I don't think it stopped Danny Ainge from trying. It's just that maybe he didn't have the deal [he wanted]. He wasn't willing to give up the young players, which I don't blame him. I wouldn't give them up either if the guy is not going to re-sign."
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Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin noted that Paul did a terrific job of pushing away any competition for Davis — a.k.a the Celtics.
"Rich had done such an effective job of smoking out all of the competition for the Lakers that we were left with the sense that the best deal is going to very likely come from them," Griffin said. "And if we can get X-Y-Z, we have to execute the deal."
The Lakers always were going to provide the best deal for the Pelicans, so going that route obviously made the most sense. Although they couldn't land Davis, Ainge referred to the additions of Kemba Walker and Enes Kanter as his "Plan A," which definitely is interesting considering he wanted to re-sign Kyrie Irving as well as acquire Davis above all else this summer.
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