Brutal Anthony Davis injury tanks his already-questionable trade value

Atlanta Hawks could roll the dice on Anthony Davis anyway

It appears that a team trading for Davis this season can't rely on having him on the floor, even less than a team can normally rely on the injury-prone Davis. The Hawks are in a unique position where they have expiring assets that won't be usable after February.

Kristaps Porzingis is making $30.7M in the last year of his contract, which gets the Hawks a long way toward matching Davis' salary. That's a valuable trade chip, especially since CJ McCollum's expiring $30.7M deal can't be combined with other salaries in a trade this season. But if they do trade Porzingis, they need to do it before the deadline.

The Hawks are 18-21 and in ninth place in the Eastern Conference with -1.0 point differential, clearly a level below the contenders. Still, they can't really tank, because the San Antonio Spurs own swap rights for their first-round pick. They, in turn, can swap for the Cleveland Cavaliers' pick, and own outright the better of the first-rounders held by the Milwaukee Bucks and New Orleans Pelicans.

Confused? Essentially it means the Hawks have an excellent shot at a high lottery pick via the Pelicans, but losing doesn't improve their draft position. Davis' injury won't help their lottery odds, but it could lower the asking price from Dallas, given that Davis has now missed 59 percent of his games as a Mavericks, with that percentage about to rise.

If Davis does need surgery, it's most likely that all trade talks are tabled until the summer, especially to most contenders. The Hawks may be the only team who would trade for a banged-up Davis before then.