It finally happened on Monday morning; the Woj bomb that NBA fans didn’t know when it would come but knew it was inevitable nonetheless finally dropped. Anthony Davis and his agent, Rich Paul, informed the Pelicans that he has no intention of singing his contract extension after next season and would like to be traded. Davis is a top 5 player in the NBA and, if traded, would be the best NBA player ever to be traded. As expected with trade requests, Davis wants to go to a contending team with a chance to win right away. It’s hard to blame him when you think of the lackluster teams that have been put around AD his whole career. Whatever contender Davis ends up going to whether during the season or in the offseason will take a drastic step closer to winning an NBA title and dethroning Golden State; well, unless he gets traded to the Warriors. So where is the landing spot for Anthony Davis? For me, it’s the Celtics or the Lakers.
The two historic rivals are going to go to war again but depending on how long the Pelicans want to keep Davis for, it may not be a fair fight. Since the Celtics traded for Kyrie Irving while he was on his Rose Rule extension they cannot trade for Anthony Davis, another Rose Rule player, until July 1 when Kyrie officially becomes a free agent. The Rose Rule allows a player finishing up his rookie contract to be extended and make up 30% of the team’s salary cap if they have been a 2x all-star starter, MVP, or 2x All-NBA. The Lakers do not have a designated player on their roster so they can do whatever they want in terms of trading for Davis and I suspect they will, quickly. In fact, I believe Anthony Davis chose to say this mid-season because he wants to be in Los Angeles.
Anthony Davis and his agent know full well that Boston can make the most appealing offer to the Pelicans if they were to trade him. So, if Davis wanted to go to Boston, I would think that he would just wait to announce he wants out until the offseason or next season. Of course, if he waits too long, then he looks like a bad guy for stringing the Pelicans along and playing them for a fool; so, it is possible that Davis and his agent simply want to control the narrative around AD. Additionally, one of Lebron James’ best friends just so happens to be Rich Paul. I’m just going to say it; where there is smoke, there is fire and there is an awful lot of smoke around Lebron James. When the Pelicans visited the Lakers, Lebron and Davis went out to dinner after the game. Lebron has also been vocal about his desire to play with AD. And now, AD and Rich Paul tell the Pelicans that they want to be traded at the most convenient time for the Lakers. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe I’m just a salty Celtic fan who took it for granted that we would get Anthony Davis.
I find this whole situation kind of funny to be honest. The New Orleans Pelicans have completely wasted the opportunity to have a generational talent on their team. Now they look for assets, presumably from the Celtics and Lakers two historic franchises who don’t know what it means to waste generational talent to bail them out. One thing is for sure, the NBA trade deadline just got a lot more exciting.
