Anthony Davis requesting a trade has the chance to cause a seismic shift in the NBA’s balance of power, as MVP-caliber players rarely become available on the trade market.
It’s clear that Davis and his representatives at Klutch Sports are trying to get him to the Lakers to play alongside LeBron James or, at the least, to New York with the Knicks, but it will all come down to what team makes the best offer to the Pelicans. While it seems best for the Lakers that this deal gets done in the next nine days, New Orleans is likely best served waiting until this summer when they can field offers from the Celtics and also know exactly where each team’s 2019 draft pick ends up.
Still, expect the Lakers to make a strong push over the next week to try and land Davis with a package of young players and draft assets, even if Lonzo Ball would prefer to make his way to a third team. If, and it’s an extremely big if for a number of reasons, the Lakers can land Davis, it will apparently draw some interest from other very big free agents this summer. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, should the Warriors get a little cute and try to get Klay Thompson to take a discount, he would take a serious look at L.A. if they had LeBron and Davis on board and max space.
https://twitter.com/lakersraw/status/1090126921537544192
Now, given what Klay himself has said for the last year about his impending free agency, he wants to stay in the Bay. This seems like a gentle reminder from his camp that while he wants to be with the Warriors, it’s still important they offer him something close to market value for his services or else he will consider other options.
As for the Lakers, landing Davis in time for a free agency push on Thompson or anyone else may be difficult. As noted above, the Pelicans are likely best suited to just wait until at least draft night to make a deal and, if the No. 1 pick isn’t on the table, might let this drag out into July. Beyond that, given their request to the NBA to look into tampering, New Orleans doesn’t seem too pleased with the Lakers and their potential role in all of this. It’s possible the Pelicans could insist on trading Davis elsewhere, partially out of spite, if they can get close to the same value in return as what L.A. offers.
