New Orleans vs LA

With the NBA trade deadline come and gone for the 2018-19 season, there was no bigger question than: Is New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis going to be traded to the Los Angeles Lakers by the deadline? Davis, who still has another year left on his contract, was eligible to resign with the Pelicans to a 5-year $230 million super max deal after next season, if he wanted. Instead, Davis did not see a future in New Orleans and asked his agent, notably, agent and close friend of Lakers star LeBron James, to ask for a trade.

So the fun began. 

Davis immediately was rumored to want to play for the Lakers with LeBron and would sign an extension with the team but inevitably opened his list of teams he would re-sign with to the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, and Los Angeles Lakers. Now to add a wrinkle into this, the Boston Celtics wanted to be apart of the trade for Davis and wanted the Pelicans to wait until this off season so they could make an offer for Davis, even though their star point guard Kyrie Irving may end up leaving the team in free agency this summer, and Anthony Davis' dad spoke publicly and said he does not want his son playing for Boston. Notable that Davis did not add the Celtics to the teams he would sign with, but Celtics owner Danny Ainge remains optimistic and wants to trade for Davis anyways.

So do you have all that?

Okay good, now here is what makes some of this so interesting.

The Lakers have a good young core with LeBron James as their leader. They have 2017 second pick of the draft Lonzo Ball at the point guard, 2017 27th pick Kyle Kuzma, and a young and talented star in Brandon Ingram. For the Lakers to have a shot at Davis, the Pelicans wanted Ball, Kuzma, Ingram, point guard Rajon Rondo, shooting guard Lance Stephenson, wing Michael Beasley, 2 first round picks, and for the Lakers to take on Solomon Hill's bad contract through next season. So essentially, the Lakers would be giving up their entire young core, both of their point guards, and three of their bench players just for Davis. The Lakers made it very clear they want to win now and want Davis for this season. While Davis is one of the best players in the league and will make a huge impact on any team he gets traded to, that is a steep price nonetheless. Personally, I think the Pelicans were not smart to not accept the trade because it gives them a good young core and some draft picks to work with in the future, but they decided it was not enough and have decided to hold on to Davis through the rest of the season. 

The interesting part about the Pelicans holding off on the Lakers deal, is it makes it apparent that they are intrigued to see what the Celtics will offer them and have a chance at dealing Davis to Boston this summer.

So where do the Lakers go from here?

The NBA is a business and most guys in the league can be traded at any minute, but for young guys, hearing your name in trade rumors can be hard to deal with and bring down your confidence a little bit. This was no more apparent than the other night when the Lakers traveled to Indiana to take on the Pacers and lost by 42 points with LeBron sitting on the opposite side of the bench from his teammates during the game. 

So how do the young guys recover from almost being traded and essentially knowing this offseason they can be traded at any moment while also trying to make a deep run in the playoffs this season? That is something that will be interesting to watch as the season continues but, as far as the organization is concerned, landing Davis this summer is at the top of their priorities because they know, if you get LeBron James and Anthony Davis paired together, the Los Angeles Lakers will finally be a championship contender again.