Los Angeles Lakers: What made the Pelicans pull the trigger

Now that the Los Angeles Lakers have acquired Anthony Davis, what finally got the New Orleans Pelicans to pull the trigger?

Well after about six months of finger-pointing, speculation and enough rumors for ESPN to produce a reality show, it happened.

The Anthony Davis trade finally got done and we can all go on with our lives. Or at least the Lakers fans can now argue if the Pelicans took the Lakers to the cleaners or not. But at least after a quiet Saturday afternoon, the Lakers do what they always do…upstage other NBA teams with the big news story of the month. Anybody remember who won the NBA title? Does anyone care? It seems Vegas has already moved on and crowned the Lakers champs next year based on the odds.

That’s for next year, let’s deal with the here and now.

The Los Angeles Lakers have made a business decision and sent a message to the NBA. With Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson out for the foreseeable future, the time is now to make championship aspirations.

The Lakers traded Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three first round picks to the New Orleans Pelicans for Anthony Davis. One of those picks does include the #4 pick in this year’s draft on Thursday, so if the Lakers do not make any moves to get into the second round, Adam Silver or Mark Tatum will not be mentioning the Lakers on Thursday night.

This trade may seem expensive to many (myself included) but the deal had to be done on so many levels. Number one, building teams through the draft has never been in the Lakers DNA. This franchise has been built on the pillars of trading for superstars. This has gone back as far as Kareem Abdul Jabbar to Shaquille O’Neal to even robbing the Memphis Grizzlies blind for Pau Gasol. There is always a trade somewhere in the books to make a championship run. Shoot, even Kobe Bryant was brought in via trade.

LeBron James can irritate some with his passive aggressive tactics on the basketball court, but no NBA player period can send a subliminal message better than this guy, no one.

Man’s channeling his inner LaVar Ball isn’t he? Speaking Anthony Davis into existence. But this plan was in effect the day Magic Johnson sat down and took over as President of Basketball Operations. Sure he nuked the franchise twice quitting the final night of the season and followed it up with throwing everyone under the bus on ESPN.

But…

This does not happen without making moves clearing the salary cap and drafting the players and flipping them for the shining superstar everyone says that LeBron James needs. What was the mistake? The front office jumped the gun six months too early and got greedy.

Now that is all behind us. Let’s break down the deal from the Lakers side then we’ll look at the Pelicans side and see what actually made David Griffin pick up the phone.