Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban has already come out and stated that the team doesn’t plan to trade star forward Anthony Davis because they “want to try to win, but that hasn’t stopped speculation.
A potential trade involving Davis remains a hot topic in NBA circles, and one Western Conference executive recently acknowledged the Chicago Bulls as a potential trade destination for the big man.
"I could see it," the executive said of a Davis trade to the Bulls, per ESPN. "[Josh] Giddey has worked well with Vucevic, but he could use a roll man to throw it up to."
Playing for the Bulls would be a homecoming of sorts for Davis, who was born in Chicago and went to Perspectives Charter in the city.
This isn’t the first time recently that Davis and the Bulls have been mentioned together. Davis’ college teammate John Wall recently hinted that he had heard that Davis would be open to relocating to Chicago if the opportunity presented itself.
“I wish he was healthy so they could try to see what they have and wait until Kyrie comes back, but I think at this point AD is probably done with it, to be honest. I don’t want to speak for him, but he’s probably wanting to move forward,” Wall said. “… You can’t believe everything you hear on the news, but you be hearing that he wants to go back to Chicago and see what’s going on.”
Davis has only been a member of the Mavericks for less than a year, so it’s not like he has some long-standing loyalty to the organization. As someone who has been traded before, he also understands the business side of basketball. So, if the Mavs want to move on from him, he probably won’t take it personally.
The Bulls have several high-paid players on expiring contracts that they could potentially use to get a deal done for Davis. Acquiring players on expiring deals could be attractive to Dallas as it could provide them with ample cap space moving forward to rebuild the roster around star rookie Cooper Flagg.
In all, the Bulls have over $80 million in expiring contracts between Nikola Vučević, Zach Collins, Kevin Huerter, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu and Dalen Terry. The two teams might ultimately need a third team to get a deal done, but that wouldn’t be prohibitive.
Ultimately it will be up to the Mavericks to decide if they want to move Davis. If they do, there will likely be several suitors and Chicago could certainly be in the mix.