The Lakers have pulled out of negotiations with the Pelicans about a trade for Anthony Davis, a source with knowledge of the situation tells Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times. According to the source, the Lakers balked at New Orleans’ “outrageous” requests for Davis.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski follows up on Turner’s report, tweeting that the Lakers would be willing to re-engage with the Pelicans before Thursday’s trade deadline, but no longer want to bid against themselves. They’ll wait for New Orleans to make a counter-offer, per Wojnarowski, who calls the Lakers’ approach a negotiating tactic pushing the Pelicans to be more active in the process (Twitter link).
According to Turner, Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson informed Pelicans GM Dell Demps on Tuesday that the team had made its best offer for Davis and would be moving on rather than continuing to add to that package.
Late on Monday night, the Lakers increased their offer for Davis once more, according to Turner, who says that the Lakers were willing to send their entire young core of Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and Ivica Zubac to New Orleans. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and two first-round picks would also have been included in the swap, and the Lakers were willing to take on Solomon Hill‘s pricey multiyear contract, per the Times’ report.
While it’s hard to see how the Lakers could add much more to that offer, the Pelicans have reportedly sought four first-round picks and multiple second-round picks from L.A. as part of the package. The Lakers don’t intend to send six (or more) draft picks to the Pelicans, per Turner’s source.
“(The Pelicans) wanted more and more and more,” one source told Turner. “There was no more to give. They had cap relief with Hill being in the deal. But the more they wanted, the more it because outrageous and unrealistic.”
Reports we relayed earlier today suggested that the Pelicans felt they needed to be “overcompensated” to seriously consider sending Davis to the Lakers this week, since they think there will be more options available to them in the summer — particularly since the Celtics can enter the mix at that point.
The Pelicans also reportedly believe that the current Lakers offer will still be available in the offseason, though Turner notes that L.A. has indicated that won’t be the case. The Lakers don’t want to get into a bidding war with Boston in the offseason, according to Turner, who has previously suggested that the club may shift its focus to star free agents if it doesn’t acquire AD this week.
Turner adds that one person told him that New Orleans is hopeful that Davis will reverse course and recommit to the Pelicans if he remains on the roster through the deadline, though that seems pretty unlikely. According to Scott Kushner of The Advocate (Twitter link), multiple sources “strongly deny” that the Pelicans are still holding out hope for a long-term union with Davis.
In related news, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported this morning that Davis feels “healthy” following his finger injury and had hoped to return to action for the Pels on Monday night against Indiana, but the organization elected to keep him inactive. The All-Star big man almost certainly won’t suit up for New Orleans again until after the deadline, assuming he returns to the club at all.
I would of took the deal to at least get something in return for Davis since he doesn’t want to be there
*would have… ur better than that, bro
What did you gain from this comment
Smart move. Pelicans wanted too much. AD is still in charge of the trade this off-season. All he has to do is come out and say it’s a temporary stop to his next location and that no long-term deal will be had. If he does that, the Pelicans will be begging the Lakers for half of what they offered this past weekend.
any player can be convinced to stay
That’s simply not true. The list is too long of all the players that asked for trades and got traded. In fact, I can’t think of a single player that ended up staying and extending with the team he wanted to leave.
Kobe is the only one I can think of
Paul George did
George wanted to be traded and got traded. He didn’t say only LA he just said he would like LA.
Absolutely not.
I understand it from both sides. I wouldnt want to gut the roster and the picks if I’m the Lakers, and if I’m the pelicans, I’d want someone with higher upside(tatum) than the players in the Lakers offer.
That just hoping Boston would want to even give up Tatum and no one knows if they would. And if they don’t NO just hurt them self by not just taking the Lakers deal. Unless a team like the Knicks comes out with a amazing deal
The Lakers could make another play for AD over the summer so the Pelicans lose absolutely nothing by waiting. The only risk for them moving forward is the risk of AD getting seriously hurt while playing.
the Lakers won’t offer as much during the summer. Demps is an idiot.
Lakers will look to FA maybe more reasonable trades. They won’t be all in on AD this summer, this is about trying to make a run this season.
I don’t understand this reasoning. AD is a proven superstar. Tatum projects to be a fringe all-star. Boston fans way overvalue this guy. He’s closer to John Salmons/Danny Granger.
John Salmons? LOL.
Tatum is better than you’re making him out to be. And are your at all familiar with Davis’s injury history? As he ages he’s only more likely to miss more time, and already he gets hurt all the time.
AD is a 1 year deal… They have like 3++ years of Tatum.
Let’s not forget that Tatum is on a team with many mouths to feed.
He’d prob be elite on say Phoenix etc.
That said, Ingram+ Kuzma+ Ball+ Hart+ Zubac+ two 1sts
Is way better than
Tatum+ Brown and unproven picks.. Sacramento pick already lost huge value.
So why is it “two firsts” from LA but “unproven picks” from the Celtics? Did the Lakers picks accomplish something already?
Yeah. They are trying to tax the Lakers because they are butt hurt.
It really is strange that Tatum is now viewed with a higher upside than both Ball and Ingram. It’s not really been that long that Ball was drafted ahead of Tatum AND Tatum was viewed as a mild reach at #3 since most mocks had him at 5. Ingram was also a clear #2 just the year before. I get that neither of them have lived up to expectations and Tatum exceeded his. But it is still strange nonetheless.
I think Tatum is way over valued, he’s a better shooter than Ingram but Ingram is a better passer and defender.
Yeah but since that draft Tatum’s value has sky rocketed and Ball’s has lessened. And Ingram’s value has clearly gone down a lot the last couple of years. It seems pretty easy to understand to me.
But the point is the margin isn’t that great , especially considering theyd get a bevy of high-potential players from LA.
I think the margin between Tatum and any of the Lakers is pretty large and the Pels May too. The only Laker I’d have interest in is Kuzma. Ball and Ingram don’t move the needle at all.
Darko Milicic was drafted 2nd, ahead of Carmelo. At some point, draft slot means nothing.
Now Boston doesn’t have to include Tatum. Ainge totally mind F’d Demps.
Boston will eventually trade Tatum. They are competing with other teams now.
They’ve been saying all year that Ingram and Ball’s values have been declining.
Tatum isn’t even that good.
If you want 15ppg, 6 rebs and good D, then they literally can get exact same stats from Lonzo Ball.
Ball= everyone’s favorite guy to underrate
Tatum = everyone’s favorite guy to overrated
But they’re actually same value on the court but at diff positions.
They were both top 50 players in production before Ball’s injury
Who’s “they” ?
Ball had a bad first month, then was a machine up until his recent injury.
AD doesn’t want to go to Boston. The reports I’ve seen strongly indicate that Kyrie doesn’t want to stay in Boston. Only Boston fans think these stars want to go there. Boston isn’t giving up anything close to what the Lakers offered to rent AD for a year.
Haha yep.
Def more likely we see Kyrie and Butler on the Knicks than Kyrie back in Green.
Espec since they’ve been passed by Toronto and Milwaukee in the east.
Your reports seem to be that click-bait garbage, and the Rich Paul/Lebron agenda that was shoved down our throats by the national media perspective the last week. Read the interview transcripts, not the headline and snippets from full quotes, and the Kyrie situation is not what it was made out to be.
Kyrie said he was disturbed by being included in the Laker propaganda.
It’s the “camps” that drive the stories of late. There are no nterview transcripts for that.
At this point Lakers just need to focus on FA and getting a more realistic valuable player. Boston is crazy if they give up Tatum, he is their absolute best prospect and will be their best player in a couple years.
It’s been pretty obvious for a while now that the Pelicans were going to hold onto AD past the deadline unless the Lakers could blow them away with an offer, and they simply do not possess that level of assets.
Now, the Pelicans just need to hope that AD doesn’t seriously hurt himself before he’s likely shut down post-all-star break. Gonna be a nervous couple of weeks in New Orleans until that happens.
No it not that the Lakers don’t have it. It that the Lakers aren’t that dumb to give NO what they want. No one worth 6-8 picks
Late-first picks move the needle very little for a player of AD’s caliber. This is not baseball.
What makes you think they will be late picks? Right now, the Lakers pick would be 10-15. In two years, LeBron will be 36. The pick might be late. Two years after that Lebron will be 38 and probably not a Laker anymore. Who knows where that pick will lie. Two years after that, once again who knows.
I totally understand the Lakers not giving that much. They don’t want to be the next version of the Brooklyn Garnett/Pierce trade.
Why would the Pelicans want to rely on so many “ifs” panning out for the deal to be a success when other teams might be able to offer a more guaranteed, quality-over-quantity return? And a 10-15 pick is still nothing special, particularly during weaker draft classes.
More importantly, the Lakers can STILL offer roughly the same package during the summer. How is that hard to comprehend? If the Pelicans would ultimately determine that the Lakers current offer turned out to be the best one, they could simply accept it then since I doubt Magic would pull it off the table out of spite.
Like it or not, the Pelicans are in the driver’s seat here with the expected feeding frenzy for AD over the summer.
They’re not in as good of a position as you say, though.
The problem comes with what the other teams can offer. Boston has Tatum, Brown, Rozier and late draft picks (Memphis’ pick is top 8 protected, the rest of their picks will be late lottery or late in the first which would be the Clippers, Kings and their own picks). Boston is not going to offer Tatum without Kyrie committing to a deal before that. And they likely can’t eat any salary either. If Kyrie leaves, their trade offers are going to be underwhelming, to say the least.
Who else is offering anything? Potentially the Knicks, depending on their pick this year. Other than NYK, BOS and LAL, I don’t see any other strong suitors for Anthony Davis.
Normally, I would agree that being in this type of situation would be dangerous for a team like the Pelicans. But given the caliber of player involved and the potential for this to be a franchise-altering move over the span of many years, I don’t think the lack of potential suitors is going to be as relevant a factor as it might otherwise be.
Sure, the Lakers could lower their offer in response to a weaker than expected frenzy, but would they really be willing to risk playing hardball? In proposing the offers that they have thus far, the Lakers have basically come out and said “We really, really, really, REALLY want AD”, and for that reason, I wouldn’t expect them to get too cute with negotiations over the summer.
I don’t think Kyrie would leave if he thought AD was coming aboard which, in turn, should help to also alleviate some of the logjam on the Boston roster. But you’re right in that it is possible he walks. The Knicks I expect to want to be involved in the sweepstakes, but their situation is going to be messy since they might want to land a max first before pivoting to obtain AD.
So I agree in the sense that maybe the Pelicans aren’t in as great a position as I said, but I still think their best option would be to wait until the summer.
The longer they wait the less teams will give them. The lakers won’t offer the same package and there is a good chance they move on to pursue other stars. This is a pretty weak draft so the draft picks they could get are bigger question marks than most the young lakers. Not to mention If the lakers do back out demps has to deal with Angie with no leverage. If demps is dumb enough to deal with Angie let him. Tell when the last time Angie lost in a trade. The pels will screw this up they have no idea what they are doing.
LeBron will retire in Cleveland.
6 picks means 12 years. No team has that kind of success window. I use TR because the pages on FB don’t have high quality users, but damn I guess it’s the same here.
Couple things.
From Woj himself: “Pels are waiting on Lakers to overwhelm them w/ an historic haul of picks. To Nola, that means Lakers offering 4 first-round and second-round picks as part of a Davis package.”
Not 6 picks. 4. It makes a difference.
Second, care to do the math of how 6 picks = 12 years? I’d love to see it.
And finally, thanks for the laugh with the FB comment. A word of advice: you might want to quit while you’re ahead, as you might as well be searching for a unicorn or Big Foot. Fwiw, if think the comment section here is bad, the one over at MLBTR is 10x worse (if you happen to be a baseball fan too).
What’s funny in all of this is that I never said the Pelicans shouldn’t ultimately take this deal. All I said is that the should wait if they wouldn’t be absolutely blown away by an offer. Even then, it could still make sense to wait since the Lakers could offer this same package later on since they are mad thirsty for AD.
Don’t get why this site doesn’t have an edit feature like MLBTR. Drives me nuts.
First I thought you were right about the picks so I double-checked to be sure, convinced myself you were wrong, then discovered you were right. In short, I’m an idiot and you’re right on that front.
Still, my main point remains the same. If you’re at a buffet, you don’t stuff yourself at the first table you see even if the food looks good. Walk around a little bit more and you may find there is even more delicious food to eat than you originally imagined.
As an aside, of all the teams in the league, the Lakers are among the most likely candidates to building a long-term winner, thanks to their resources, history and market. I’m not saying they will of course—just look at the Knicks—but if they play their cards correctly, it’s not impossible for them to win over the long haul. Yes, LeBron will get old and be less effective over time, but that doesn’t mean the team would be destined to suck.
NO is nuts not to take that package.
Quality over quantity. Would you risk trading one of the best players in the game for a bunch of players who would never pan out in the NBA? Because that describes the significant level of risk with Ingram, Kuzma, Ball and late-first picks to a tee.
To clarify, by pan out I mean none of them would become very good to great players, not that they wouldn’t be able to survive in the league. And from that group, I think Ball stands the best chance of reaching his potential, but the dude just cannot stay healthy.
But how can you say that about either Ball or Ingram? They’re both really young still (21 years old) and players develop differently. Ingram, in particular, has looked much improved when playing without LeBron (19-6-4 on 51% shooting over the 17 game stretch without LBJ) and he has the measurables that you can’t teach (6’10” with a 7’6” wingspan while showing ball handling and playmaking skills).
Like I said, in Ball’s case, part of it is due to his injury history. The other part of it is that he still needs to become a better shooter. If he cleans up in both areas, I think there’s a solid chance he develops into a good player.
I also think Ingram has potential thanks to his physical profile and the gains he made in the second half of last season, but I’d put Ball ahead of him right now. Again, it all comes down to risk: he is nowhere near close to being a sure thing.
Remember, teams aren’t just looking to trade for AD as a rental. They are hoping to sign one of the best players in the NBA in the prime of his career to a long-term extension, and having that one year together beforehand could make all the difference in convincing him to sign. That’s quite valuable.
Kuzma is close to 20 PPG and apparently thats a risk
If you gave Beasley 30+ minutes a night, he could also hit 20 PPG. There’s a reason teams do not give him that many MPG.
I think Kuzma will be a fine role player in the league, but his lack of defense is a limiting factor, among other things.
Of course, like with any young player, there’s always a chance he can grow and eventually surpass expectations. It’s up to the Pelicans to determine how likely that would be relative to what other teams could offer in the summer.
He’s probably hit his ceiling, or close to it. He’s a nice complimentary scorer.
Not Beasley lol. Kuzma isnt exactly Carmelo with his shot selections.
Kuz defense has gotten a lot better and he has shown he is willing to put the work in to get better.
They are all kids?!? Ingram is putting great numbers for a 21 year old. Ball and Kuz have a lot offer a rebuilding team. They are never going to get what Davis is worth because everyone knows he wants out.
Who knows NO might bite themselves in the foot for asking for too much. Unless some team come out with a better offer and I don’t see alot of teams who can
Summer is the likely time he gets moved. The only person that it helped get AD moved this weeek was LA.
Other teams can offer packages that help them as well. Some are pretty convinced this was the best and it may be. But why limit yourself when another prime contender for him can’t do business until the summer.
If the lakers move in a different direction they lose all their leverage
No they don’t. Because NY will know the pick. They will know how valuable it is along with if they can talk Kyrie into coming.
In addition Boston becomes a player. Because they simply couldn’t trade for AD unless it was for Kyrie.
Believe me. LA is the only one who thought they held leverage here. It’s unlikely they get such a lopsided deal. But it is likely NO can come up with a pretty good offer regardless of the Lakers.
Good. All that and NO wanted them to add 6-8 draft picks, they are flat out delusional.
good. they wanted way to much for one player. on to the the next plan
This was LeBron telling magic to back out until the pelicans come back down to planet earth
Demps just showing again how bad he is at his job. Take that offer. Get this over with and get a ridiculous haul.
Get in there Milwaukee
Stay put Magic! You gave all what you could we still have 48 hours to make other moves!
Yes! Call the Pelicans bluff!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
All this is about the tampering rule. When Pops had Kawhi, he said I’m not going to be responsible for making the Lakers a championship caliber team. He has told Demps to do the same. The Pelicans have asked the league to look into tampering. They blame the Lakers for AD’s trade request. It’s clear now they had no intention of trading with the Lakers.
Like Tatum or not, the Pelicans covet him the most and are willing to wait for him. Ainge has said anyone but Kyrie is available. He would like to keep Tatum, but realizes he may not be able to. Tatum said, “I would trade myself forAD.’
Funny. Lakers are bidding against themselves because AD and his minions arranged it so that there currently are no other bidders. When you create or are given an exclusive window, you can’t complain when you still can’t get the seller’s attention.
in real news the Pels were never interested in LA’s left-over scraps, the amount of fake news pumping AD to the Lakers was staggering
If you don’t get what you want you shouldn’t settle and you shouldn’t deal just because a bigger market comes calling. We’ll see what’s what once the deadline expires.
Demps has got to be the worst GM. He is about to lose a whole lot. Even Vlade got the better end of the deal when they traded Cousins to the pels.
Davis is clearly the most talented player in the NBA, but why is the fact that he’s constantly hurt never discussed? It’s truly insane how often he gets weird injuries that most players would shake off, but it effects him worse and he gets physically hurt. I don’t at all think he’s weak minded, but he sure as heck is one of the least durable superstars I’ve ever seen. He goes to the locker room every game with something and is constantly missing weeks at a time.
His durability is terrible and a major drag with all the games he misses. Why isn’t that discussed much? A guy that averages sitting out 25 to 40 games a year is an issue when he’s one of your two best players.
Get your facts right AD has never missed so much games not even a single season. If you wanna talk about durability kawhi has been much more injury prone every single season of his career, AD is durable.
Get my facts straight?! “AD is durable”?!?! You’re kidding right? He’s hurt constantly. This has to be a joke post. And yes Kawhi isn’t durable either.
Plus how many games has he started over his career and left the game early or spent a lot of time in the locker room because of all the stuff that happens to him? Every other game he’s in the locker room with something. He’s one of the last players I’d call durable. That’s just ridiculous. AD being durable is laughable.
The Pels may be guilty of overprotection in many of these cases.
But yes, Davis’ combination of size and suddenness could be a problem. He learned his movement style while still normal-sized and apparently has not had to make accommodations to his late-growth-spurt size.
If there’s a scenario where you walk away with Ball, Ingram, Kuzma and Hart + salary relief and a pick or two how on earth do you say no?
Tatum, Brown and a couple of those mid late firsts Boston has doesn’t beat that imo.
Very easily. Lakers young players are not nearly as good as Laker fans see them. A neutral observer sees nothing special in any of them, Kuz, Zo, Ingram, Zubac, Hart are all avg. Face it. Truth hurts. As soon as Lebron gets hurt they go into a losing streak, fall out of the playoffs and they just are not All Star caliber.
Im not a lakers fan but I do see 5 players who have already reached floors of nba rotation players while in their early 20s.
Given two years time I could see all 5 being true starters for the pelicans and Kuzma + Ingram will both be 20pt 7reb 4assist players who play D. Hart and Zubac are solid if not spectacular and Ball is the real volatile one. He could be an all star or he could be a fringe starter with no jump shot.
Either way a youthful starting 5, cap relief and picks is a nice haul imo.
I would not argue all 5 being true NBA starters in due time. Agree, all are still young and possibly Kuz can develop into a high caliber player. But when you are giving up top 5 maybe top 3 player who is like 26 and giving up all other offers, giving Lakers ultimate fast track, quick draw priority, Pels should want a heavy return. A potential All-Star caliber player in return plus high value draft picks is the least you should expect. Cap relief & second star is always a nice add on. Time will tell but right now Tatum seems like he has more All Star potential than Kuz but that remains to be seen. Celts have better draft picks also. Those same players were not going to make playoffs in the West what real value do they truly have.
I don’t think they are average. I just think they were stunted by the arrival of LeBron and the weird collection of vets. You had a group of growing young players and the one thing that you can’t have on a lebron led team is young players. It’s been that way since his first run in Cleveland.
Young players don’t thrive with him. Their careers die with that guy. Honestly I wouldn’t be shocked if this stunts them for good. I think Lonzo and Ingram has chances to be valuable players in the NBA. Kuzma is playing above his head. Can score but can’t defend. He should be traded for an asset but they can’t because they have lebron there and they want max cap space for another player to add there.
Totally agree that Lebron is very bad for their development. In my opinion being a starter/valuable player is not enough return when dealing top 3-5 player in the Association. Pels want 1 or even two players back with All Star potential & high quality picks which is a fair asking price, not to mention cap relief and fillers. Lakers youngsters just are not that good or they would have been traded.
“They just are not allstar caliber”
No, but not the point. They are young players with potential, which is what GMs want. Hard to find another group of 5 with as much potential. You don’t have to be a Lakers fan to see that.
However, it is up to what Demps wants. I have read an allNBA player, also a record number of draft picks. Not sure he knows himself.
I don’t believe this was offered. That’s a starting lineup LOL
Awesome
Going to be the lost expensive 1 yr rental ever. Boston better pray Kyrie stays.
Smart move by the Pelicans. There is no rush to make a deal and its not like the Lakers is the only team that AD is open to, so wait until the summer when other teams can get into the mix and give the Pels options.
Finally the Lakers came to their senses. Pels are asking far too much and the last few reported offers were ridiculous.
People seem to forget that KCP has the ability to decline ANY trade he is included in. He will not want to go to NO WITH the current team he is in now, with the SAME fight for minutes, specially with Holiday balling the way he is.
Trade KCP to a contender in the East (Brooklyn for example) for future assets, be it a pick(s) or 1st/2nd year player. Someone who can and will learn to play with LBJ.
I’d also be pulling out of the AD race too, so a good call by Lakers. He has stated he wants to be in LA. What’s the rush now?! It’ll take a while for him and LBJ, not to mention whoever is left on the roster, to all gel together. Specially in a strong Western Conference. Play the season out, see who really stands up out of the young core, go from there. In my opinion, Kuzma is really the only valuable piece worth keeping, with Ball and Hart being a 50/50 to keep. Ingram will be shifted off
Where is my good BUD @Mindless? He predicted the Lakers/Pels deal was going to happen. This proves he has not got a clue about the NBA. Lebron/Paul/Magic have some ”learning” to do about the ethics/etiquette involved in NBA trades. Trying to force a franchise into submission to placate a primary client is doomed to failure and this episode will school them all in failure.
Well said. Just replied to @imindless most recent post asking him if he will leave site Thursday.
Well done, maybe he will dull the nasty edge he tries to bring. He has demonstrated that he will not back up his rants.
Celtics should just say good bye to Irving, say no to Davis, resign Rozier, draft 3 rotation guys in the first round and keep building a fun young team with guys you can root for. If that doesn’t beat one of these super teams then so be it. They will be competitive and fun to root for. It doesn’t always have to be about winning a championship. And maybe they will at some point anyway.
Everyone is talking about if they wait until the summer Boston will give up Tatum, I know Boston loves Davis but I would not give up Tatum anyone else sure but not Tatum. If I were Boston I would trade Irving rn for assets in the Davis deal, then package take Irving’s assets, brown and picks for Davis in my opinion brown is better than any of the lakers players and the picks that Boston has are way better than the lakers as well. The Celtics play better without kyrie if you ask me, rozier, brown, Tatum all playing together is better than them all playing with kyrie commands the ball to much. Don’t get me wrong kyrie is a great great player but there team functions better without him.
Only an amateur refers to the other side’s requests as “outrageous”. Who are you trying to convince-? The media-? And of what-? That the Pels couldn’t possibly actually value AD more than the pieces in a Lakers’ proposed return package (when, of course, the Lakers must as well, or they wouldn’t have proposed it)-?
Good.
Pelicans also wanted 3 ball racks, 2 dozen balls (new), and 8 packs of NBA socks (white/48pair). At that point, its just time to walk away from the deal.
I doubt the offer was outrageous. The Lakers just have terrible assets to trade. It’s like they just assume they’re going to get him. The pelicans can get better in the offseason
I can’t believe the Pelicans didn’t take the Lakers entire young core guys and 2 first round picks. Good for the Lakers though. Pelicans are being ridiculous asking way too much.