Anthony Davis will be looming over Celtics the rest of the season

There will be plenty of rumors about a potential summer trade with the New Orleans Pelicans involving Davis and the Celtics.

The summer of 2018 was a quiet one for the Celtics with only some minor tweaks to the roster.

Robert Williams, a first-round draft pick, Brad Wanamaker and Jabari Bird came aboard while Greg Monroe, Shane Larkin and Abdel Nader exited.

After spending big money to land Al Horford in the summer of 2016, then signing Gordon Hayward and acquiring Kyrie Irving as part of a major overhaul in 2017, the Celtics were relatively silent last offseason.

When the 2018-19 season comes to an end, either in April, May or perhaps even June, it doesn’t look like the Celtics are going to be in the quiet mode.

Anthony Davis is going to be up for grabs in the trade market, and the Celtics will be front and center in the bidding to obtain him from the New Orleans Pelicans.

Just when it looked like Davis and the Celtics were not going to be a match, the narrative changed dramatically during NBA All-Star weekend in Charlotte.

When Davis requested that the Pelicans trade him late last month, reports surfaced that he asked New Orleans to send him to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Milwaukee Bucks or the New York Knicks.

Then Davis’ father said he didn’t want his son going to the Celtics because of the way Isaiah Thomas was treated, the point guard being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Irving after playing with an ailing hip.

But last Saturday, speaking at a league-mandated news conference, Davis let it be known he was open to being traded to the Celtics.

“They are on my list,’’ Davis told reporters. “I never said Boston wasn’t on my list.’’

As president of basketball operations Danny Ainge started piling up assets since the end of the Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce era, the ultimate goal was to have enough to obtain difference makers such as Irving and Davis.

Pairing the two of them together just might become a reality this summer, provided that Irving re-signs with the Celtics in July and provided a deal can be struck with the Pelicans for Davis.

You thought the free-agent pursuit of Kevin Durant and Horford in ’16 and then Hayward in ’17 was hectic?

The upcoming summer figures to be wild for the Celtics, no matter how far they advance in the NBA playoffs.

Davis, of course, would likely cross the Celtics off his list if Irving decides to skip town after two seasons in a Boston uniform. What seemed like a sure thing last October when Irving told fans he’d be re-signing took a turn on Feb. 1 when he backtracked.

The Celtics, who resume the season on Thursday night in Milwaukee against the Bucks, have 24 games remaining before the playoffs.

The thought of Davis being traded to the Celtics in the offseason will be hanging over their heads, and it will be interesting to see if it becomes a distraction.

The Celtics have had plenty of distractions since October when a season of high expectations began, and the latest distraction came when Marcus Morris blasted his teammates after a brutal loss to the Clippers before the break.

How will players like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown react knowing that Davis is the prize the Celtics appear to be after and that they are the two names being prominently mentioned in trade rumors?

After the Pelicans turned down a decent proposal from the Lakers prior to the trade deadline earlier this month, New Orleans is probably not going to settle for anything less than a rising star like Tatum.

His potential seems limitless after less than two seasons, and the Celtics might have to give up Brown as well to make a deal for Davis work.

“You start to understand that this is a business,’’ Tatum told reporters during All-Star weekend. “I play basketball and I just control what I can control. I love being on the Celtics. I want to be there my whole career.’’

Tatum is going to have a brilliant run in the NBA, but will he ever be as good as Davis?

If the Celtics can put Irving, who turns 27 on March 23, and Davis, who will be 26 on March 11, together in the prime of their careers, it will be a formidable one-two punch to center things around.

Davis has averaged a double-double (23.9 points, 10.6 rebounds) in his 455 career games and is at 28.1 points and 12.9 rebounds this season. He can become a free agent on July 1, 2020, so that is another part of the equation.

There is still a little over a quarter of the schedule to go, and then the playoffs where the Celtics will be one of several teams capable to advancing out of the Eastern Conference.

There could be an interesting three or four months of basketball still ahead, and then comes the offseason when the Celtics will be active players trying to make an Irving-Davis duo a reality.

The door looked like it might have been closed with Davis seemingly having no interest in playing in Boston, but his comments on Saturday have changed everything.

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