The Pelicans will hang onto All-NBA big man Anthony Davis through the trade deadline, agent Rich Paul tells Joe Vardon of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The news sets up the Davis trade talks to be the hottest NBA story of the summer, with several teams expected to make offers. It will be celebrated most in Boston, where the Celtics have been to unable to engage the Pelicans in negotiations for Davis because of Rose Rule restrictions. Those will be lifted once Kyrie Irving opts out of his current deal, and Boston is expected to aggressively pursue Davis with a package of draft picks and young players.
It’s not good news for the Lakers, who lose the advantage of trying to deal for Davis without the Celtics involved. L.A. has offered various packages centered around young talent and future first-rounders, but wasn’t able to make any traction with the Pelicans’ front office, which believes the Lakers’ best offers will still be on the table this summer.
The Knicks and Clippers, who made trades in the past week that could enable them to offer two max deals in free agency, may also pursue Davis in hopes of forming the next superteam. They are both on his list of preferred locations, along with the Lakers and Bucks.
A more immediate concern is how much Davis will play over the next two months and whether it will become a distraction for the Pelicans. Although Davis recently received medical clearance after being sidelined with a fractured left index finger, New Orleans has been holding him out of a lineup to avoid further injury in case a trade was finalized before the deadline. Now that the deadline has passed, Davis wants to get back on the court, and it’s not clear whether Pelicans management will be on board.
New Orleans will be a long shot to make the playoffs, no matter how well Davis plays for the rest of the season. At 24-31, the Pelicans are six games out of the eighth spot in the West and just traded one of their top talents, sending Nikola Mirotic to the Bucks.
Arthur Hill contributed to this story.
NO just wasted all of our time with all the rumors
Agreed NBA just lost a fan…
Anyone else hype about Stylebender vs Anderson Silva on Saturday?
Lol its not the NBA’s fault that an idiot is running the New Orleans Pelicans, and I’m not talking about the owner.
Well the owner should have said you just cost me what 25Mil to keep AD
I mean they shouldn’t make a rash decision just to save money, but I agree. Imo Dell Demps is trying to bluff the Lakers into going all-in and the Lakers called his bluff. The Lakers’ current offer likely won’t be there in the summer and Demps will have to settle for less.
No
Glad the Lakers didn’t get fleeced.
The Pelicans are a joke and the Lakers are smart not to give more draft picks
Smart move. Reassess when more attractive options are available.
Lakers were willing to give everything.
Now already won’t be getting Zubac…
PS… There is literally 0% chance Celtics trade Tatum.
Hopefully AD tares his ACL so we can all laugh at the stupidity of keeping him.
I hope you tear your ACL so I can laugh at your stupidity.
That’s a nice thing to say!
Should have also been directed to Loren above.
I hope you look in the mirror so u can puke at ur ugly head.
I bet if Tatum is the deal breaker he would b dealt in a heartbeat.
Really? For 1 yr of AD who’s gonna bolt for Hollywood anyways…
They’d be really dumb.
You sure seem to have all the facts
when u have football people running NBA team a JOKE …..still mad Rams won
It was obvious once they turned down the lakers offer.
I bet Davis ends up as a Knick or a Clipper.
LA doesn’t have a truly great young player, and they don’t seem willing to tank the rest of the way to try and get a top 3 pick.
Tanking would be the best way to improve their odds of getting AD…they could give Ingram and Ball more touches, let those guys fill up the stat sheet, and raise their trade value.
Instead, LA is going to bring in Melo in a desperate attempt to get into the playoffs so they can get murdered by Denver or the Warriors.
If AD doesn’t end up in LA, LeBron is going to be asking for a trade soon after.
LeBron doesn’t need to ask for a trade, he’s the GM, so he’ll just “take his talents” somewhere else. Maybe he’ll try to get himself onto the Warriors next year after Durant leaves – that seems like the most likely.
Also would improve the value of LA’s 2019 picks
The Knicks offer would be solely reliant on them getting a top 2 pick. The Knicks collection of young players (Knox, Smith, Ntilikina, Trier, etc) arguably have lower values than the Lakers collection (Ingram, Ball, Kuzma, Hart).
And the Clippers are likely too far ahead in the standings to get a top 2 pick in the lottery without some extreme luck in the lottery. And I’m not certain that Gilgeous-Alexander and Landry Shamet on their own are more valuable than the Lakers’ young players (especially since they essentially play the same position and at least one of them would be blocked by Holiday until he gets moved).
I’m not saying AD is a lock for the Lakers, but their offer looks better than what the Knicks (barring a top 2 pick) or the Clippers can offer. The Celtics are a different story, but I don’t see them seriously offering Tatum without assurance that AD is staying in Boston and I don’t see New Orleans sending AD to Boston without Tatum (unless they’re doing it out of spite, which is a terrible way to run a team). Offering up Brown, Smart, and/or Rozier isn’t encouraging and doesn’t offer the Pelicans cap relief either.
Keep in mind the Knicks have two picks from Dallas, one of them unprotected. Toss that in with what you have above and I think that’s what NOLA is holding out for. Knicks would get their max FA, and another FA, though not a max.
Laker fans should be used to being rejected. Pacer’s executives blame Lakers for Paul George wanting out. The Spurs blame the Lakers for Kawhi wanting traded. Now you have the Pelicans blaming the Lakers for Anthony Davis wanting traded. This is why the GM’s in the league don’t want to deal with the Lakers.
lol! Rich Paul not going to be happy with NO.
Cool article…
LA can keep that hot trash
Lakers GM (Lebron) & his agent (Paul) & their underlings (Magic/Pelinka) just got schooled in NBA business acumen. They tried a major power play & just got shredded. Lakers team chemistry has been wrecked beyond repair. Great shot of Lebron sitting on the bench all by his lonesome, poor boy. He made the bed, so enjoy it. His attitude is more like ”you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette” only the eggs have names like Kuzma, Ball, Hart, Ingram, Coach Walton. The Pels pretended to be interested, leaked info to disrupt Lakers team chemistry and it worked. Lakers look like rank amatuers . Dionis might be right, maybe the Lakers miss the playoffs with all this Lebron o drama going on.
Haters galore!!!
Only you. Love everybody else.
Lolakers……