Coach: Davis staying put
WALTHAM — The Celtics and Pelicans have yet to engage in any discussions regarding a trade for Anthony Davis, but, in a Herald exclusive, New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry set the price for a potential transaction between the clubs. “I know there’s been rumors about Boston trying to trade for him or whatever,” said Gentry, “and my response to that is, yeah, we’ll trade him. But they’re going to have to give us the New England Patriots and the two planes that they just bought . . . . And I don’t think they’re going to do that. So we’re not even thinking about those kind of things.”
Like, hey, nice buzzkill, Alvin. Actually it’s healthy for Gentry to keep a sense of humor concerning the numerous stories of teams coveting an uber-star who’s under contract for three more seasons after this, with that final year ($28,751,774 in 2020-21) being at the player’s option.
One would think such talk, even of the media-driven variety, would be highly disturbing to a coach trying to develop a team into a single-minded unit. Distractions are destruction in his line of work.
But Gentry is undeterred. “That stuff doesn’t bother me,” he said. “It’s white noise. You just block it out and you move on. I don’t really pay it very much attention at all.”
As for the stories about Davis at each stop on the Pelicans’ itinerary, Gentry said, “It doesn’t matter. To me, he likes it, he likes being here and that’s the only thing that matters. Every indication I get when I talk to him is that he’s committed to being in New Orleans. I mean, he’s a once in a lifetime player, and he’s happy here. I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but he’s never said anything to me but, ‘I want to win and I want to do it here.’ So it’s up to us to just continue to try to put the necessary players around him to get that done.”
Also, Gentry doesn’t want to hear about your trade machine packages of young talent and draft picks.
“No, no, no, no, no,” he said. “I would never trade a great player for good, and I don’t think that our management would be willing to do that either. We have one of the premier players that’s going to be in the Hall of Fame one day, and what you do is you try to build around him to try to put a championship team together. You don’t trade him.”
With Davis and Jrue Holiday already making more than $20 million a year and DeMarcus Cousins a free agent this coming summer, there is other talk that, in a market the size of New Orleans, the club won’t be able to afford three max players and what it takes to sign the right pieces around them.
But Gentry isn’t buying that either. “No, we don’t have that problem at all,” he said. “Our owner (Tom Benson) is going to do what’s necessary. He did it with the Saints, you know, whatever it took to win the Super Bowl 10 years ago, and it’s the same thing with us. Whatever it takes to win, he’s willing to do it. Obviously we have to try to acquire those people, but the financial part is not even an issue. Whatever it takes to win, our owner’s willing to do that.”
After Davis went for 45 points and 16 rebounds, the Pelicans left Boston with a 116-113 win and a 23-20 record, good for sixth place in the Western Conference. At some point, they will need to show progress to keep their top people happy.
“I think we’re really close,” Gentry said. “We’ve got two guys that are in the top five in their position in the league, and you could argue that they may be the best at their position in the league. And Jrue Holiday is playing great. I think the thing is that we’ve just got to be consistent in what we’re doing, and we’ve got to keep our health. If our health is fine, then we’ll be OK.”
Besides, what kind of point guard would Tom Brady be at age 40?