Lakers Rumors: Anthony Davis requests trade, LeBron James’ corporate takeover begins!

Recent Los Angeles Lakers rumors involve Anthony Davis, who has asked for a trade from the New Orleans Pelicans and with the Lakers atop his list.

Recent Los Angeles Lakers rumors are going to get fans excited. Anthony Davis finally dropped the other shoe that the world was waiting on and powered up the NBA trade rumor carousel. He dropped the biggest bomb on the NBA since the news that February was the next month in the 2019 calendar.

On Monday, through his representation, Anthony Davis let it be known to the New Orleans Pelicans that he will not sign the super max deal of five years at $240 million dollars. Plus he said the magic words that every NBA superstar is using these days seemingly.

“I want to be traded.”

Anthony Davis is eligible to be a free agent in 2020, which means the Pelicans probably are in no rush to make any moves, instead, finding the best deal that works for them. They can afford that luxury considering that they own his rights for the rest of this year and the next.

Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to break the news and has quotes from both sides… 

First let’s hear from Anthony Davis’ agent, Rich Paul…

"“Anthony wants to be traded to a team that allows him a chance to win consistently and compete for a championship,” Paul told ESPN. “Anthony wanted to be honest and clear with his intentions and that’s the reason for informing them of this decision now. That’s in the best interests of both Anthony’s and the organization’s future.”"

The Pelicans had their own statement on the Anthony Davis situation…

"“Although we are disappointed in this decision, our organization’s top priority is to bring an NBA championship to our city and build our team for long-term success,” the team said. “Relative to specific talks of a trade, we will do this on our timeline. One that make sense for our team and it will not be dictated by those outside of our organization. We have also requested the League to strictly enforce the tampering rules associated with this transaction.”"

Here’s where the article starts. The Pelicans are not stupid and they know that there is a power play going on. Klutch Sports is the agency that represents Anthony Davis. Rich Paul is the super agent handling his affairs.

Oh yeah, he happens to be LeBron James‘ best friend and confidant. Everyone wants to talk about tampering surrounding the “dinner” that LeBron James and Anthony Davis had a month ago when the Pelicans were in Los Angeles. 

Pfft…please. LeBron James is too smart for that, he has the most connected agent in the NBA in his camp, why would he do that? Rich Paul didn’t get to where he is by being spoon fed instructions on what LeBron James wants.

Will Davis be a Laker in about 10 days? Who knows. What I do know is that the Pelicans are going to channel some San Antonio or OKC energy when they were faced with the same situation. Meaning the Pelicans will expect the same amount of assets with similar results.

Also, I know that history is about to repeat itself all over again with LeBron James strolling into an NBA franchise and basically destroying the future for his personal agendas. Lake Show Life has numerous articles on the website in the offseason basically predicting the events that are happening now.

If fans were paying attention, it’s really easy because he did the same thing in Cleveland. I saw this picture on Twitter and the caption is exactly what LeBron James was going to do the second he signed his four-year deal in the summer.

Let’s look at the moves that are potentially happening now compared to four years ago.

Kevin Durant is right about LeBron James and the media fascination. His quote was misunderstood!

In the media, one quote or one soundbite (Television) can set off a media frenzy. Nobody brought that to the light like Kevin Durant did a couple of months ago.

"“So much hype comes from being around LeBron from other people,” Durant said. “He has so many fanboys in the media. Even the beat writers just fawn over him. I’m like, we’re playing basketball here, and it’s not even about basketball at certain points. So I get why anyone wouldn’t want to be in that environment because it’s toxic. Especially when the attention is b******* attention, fluff. It’s not LeBron’s fault at all; it’s just the fact you have so many groupies in the media that love to hang on every word. Just get out of the way and let us play basketball.”"

Let’s break down a few words in this quote right here…hype, BS attention and fluff.

There is a lot that can be said about LeBron James on the court. The media constantly feeds the narrative that LeBron James is the best in the world. There’s only one problem with that scenario.

LeBron James is not winning. Now the Golden State Warriors with Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and company are. This is a different era from earlier generations. Not only is the style of play different, but the standards of the best players are as well. It’s not about winning championships anymore. It’s about how much attention can you bring to the NBA.

Now that’s where LeBron James is King! No question.

The only problem is that hype from the media can only last so long. There are already questions about the legitimacy of LeBron being the best player in the NBA.

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When Michael Jordan ruled the roost in the 90s, there was no question about if he was the best player in the NBA. Because his team won basically throughout the decade. Outside of the Houston Rockets winning back to back championships when Jordan was chasing curveballs, the Bulls dominated both conferences for most of the era.

When Jordan’s era was over, the Kobe/Shaq era was in effect with three straight championships. Kobe Bryant was a major factor in those first three, but it was the two more championships in three Finals trips that set Bryant at a level that is revered to this day.

Both have retired and have moved on to various business ventures that were successful. But they knew that championships matter as basketball players. There is nothing else, just winning. Championship brings power to the brand organically.

The longer LeBron James goes without titles (Two years with this year slipping away) while his peers are accomplishing more on the court, the legitimacy of his agenda will be questioned.

What does LeBron James want? Does he really want to win titles at this point of his career or does he just want political power within the NBA team he plays for?

Let’s look deeper.

Let’s compare what’s going on with the Lakers with what happened four years ago.

LeBron James’ relationship with David Blatt? There was none! 

Four years ago after the Miami Heat got rolled by the San Antonio Spurs, LeBron James made his exit out of Miami and headed north to Cleveland.

The Cleveland Cavaliers were in a youth movement with young players such as Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and a number one overall pick in Andrew Wiggins. After firing Mike Brown (For the second time!) David Blatt was hired by the Cavs to develop the young players (does this scenario sound familiar?)  It took a while before the two started talking about the team or what color they liked (does this sound familiar?).

LeBron James did not fool a soul with his discontent for Blatt. Even though the Cavs made it to the Finals against the LeBron bully…Golden State. No one really knew how strong this team was at that time because Kevin Love got hurt in the playoff run and Kyrie Irving‘s knee gave out in Game 1 of the Finals after giving Steph Curry the business.

But explain this. The Cavs are the number one seed going into the All-Star break the next year and Blatt gets fired. Sure, Tyronn Lue came in and a Draymond Green brain cramp suspension gave the Cavs the momentum and the rest was history…BUT, Blatt still got fired.

Watch the interview of LeBron James talking about Tyronn Lue when things weren’t going well a year ago. Understand this is LAST YEAR after the Irving trade. There were rumblings about Lue’s performance. Now he replaced Blatt.

Now check out the quote of Raja Bell, who used to work in the Cavaliers front office back when Blatt was in trouble.

"I knew David Blatt was on the hot seat. I like David, I spent a lot of time with him after games. That was my job, talk to David about the nature of NBA players, what happened in our postgame, just kind of chop it up, give him different ideas and stuff like that — David Blatt that is. So David Griffin and I are walking over there, and he’s like, ‘I think my feet might be to the fire here, I might have to fire David Blatt.’ I’m like, ‘don’t do it. Don’t. Let’s not do it, give me a chance to go talk to LeBron.’ So I pull LeBron aside after shootaround that morning, and everybody goes to get on the bus. And we spend about 15 minutes talking. I’m talking to LeBron about his legacy, and what, ultimately, that is — it’s not about what you did in Miami, but it’s gonna be whether you can get this championship back to Cleveland. David Blatt is our guy right now, but in fairness to David Blatt, you as a team haven’t played hard for David Blatt. [LeBron] had just come back from that little hiatus in Miami, and I said, ‘we as a staff can’t really judge David on his merits, because we haven’t seen you guys play hard for him. So if you can get everybody to play hard for him, and give him the opportunity to show us what he can do, then we can make a judgement, and help you get the guy — if he’s not the guy — that you’ll need to do that.’ And so LeBron, he looked at me and he said, ‘I can do that.’ They came out and they did that. They rolled the Clippers that night, and things took off a little bit."

Oh well, we saw how that turned out. The Cleveland Cavaliers was the number one seed going into the All-Star break. He was fired. What NBA extravaganza is going to happen in about say two weeks?

Luke Walton is basically getting set up for failure…hopefully he knows it!

Here’s a nice LeBron James fact for Lakers fans for clarity here…Luke Walton and LeBron James were drafted the same year way back in 2003.

They were teammates in Cleveland during James’ first tenure in Cleveland. LeBron was the superstar while Walton was so far down on the bench he had to watch the game on cable. Now the dynamics have changed.

Back then it was James running the team, (Hello? it was reported that LeBron James was not fond of Paul Silas either back then!) Coming into this season it was Walton supposedly running the team. Right?

Well last week, there were reports that LeBron James’ camp preferred a coaching change.

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ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan was on the “Brian Windhorst & Hoop Collective” podcast last week about the front office rumblings…

"MacMullan: “There’s a lot of tension in that building. A lot of tension in that building, and I think people are wondering about Luke Walton even though Jeanie Buss came out very strongly and said ‘I want Luke to be here, I back him 100 percent,’ but then also made the point that has to be made, and that’s that she hired Earvin Magic Johnson to make these decisions, and if Earvin feels differently she gave him the power to make those kinds of decisions. It’s clear to me, and probably to you Brian, that LeBron’s camp would prefer a coaching change. They’re not too subtle about that.” Windhorst: “LeBron publicly hasn’t talked publicly in a month.” MacMullan: “Not LeBron, but all the people around LeBron, and they’ve made it known. I don’t think this a shock, is it? For me to say this?” Windhorst “That’s a fair thing to say. That’s a fair thing to say.”"

The NBA is a players league folks. Their names are on the marquee. Fans come to see them play. If you think coaches are not replaceable, just carry a short conversation with Dwane Casey, the reigning NBA’s Coach of the Year who got fired from the Toronto Raptors after setting a franchise regular season record in wins last year. Oh by the way, he was replaced by a coach, Nick Nurse who had ZERO head coaching experience. This is under normal circumstances.

LeBron James is the face of the entire NBA right now, not just the Los Angeles Lakers. I see it very difficult for James to look at Luke Walton as a “supervisor” (because if you look at the hierarchy of the Lakers actually by business definition he is…) after…

–Leading eight straight teams to the NBA Finals

plus…

–based on their past relationship in Cleveland, LeBron James may not see Walton as his peer subconsciously.

That was on display with the story that broke about LeBron ignoring Walton’s play calls on the sideline…

Brian Windhorst’s report on the NBA scouts observations…

"The scouts also have noticed that when James is running the point, he rarely looks toward the bench to receive play calls from coach Luke Walton. Even when he has seen them, the scouts say, he ignores them and runs the play he prefers. Walton has adjusted, and now when James is running the show, Walton will typically just let him call the game. This probably shouldn’t be considered a slight — it’s just James being James."

My point exactly.

It’s just James being James.

LeBron James plays with a certain set of players…veterans, stars and his friends!

Since leaving Cleveland for Miami, LeBron’s teams have been tailor-made for his talents along with superstars and veterans who could be counted on in crunch time.

In Miami, not only did LeBron James have superstar players like Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh who knew the game well enough to adjust to playing off the ball, but there were players like Mike Miller, Ray Allen and Shane Battier who James trusted when times were tough.

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a young core of the consensus number one pick, Andrew Wiggins of 2014, Anthony Bennett, the number one pick the year before and Kyrie Irving.

At the time, the Cavaliers were a dumpster fire with no veteran leadership. When LeBron James came back to Cleveland, the first order of business was to get Kevin Love.

Kevin Love was forcing his way out of Minnesota at the time and was the most coveted power forward in the NBA at the time (Sounds familiar…most coveted power forward!).

The Cleveland Cavaliers traded out their two previous number one picks that the Cavs were building their future on to appease James.

After that, the Cavaliers signed Kevin Love to a max deal that at times they regretted as they tried to unload that contract at times over the next three years. Think about it...he was rumored to be traded for…Ryan Anderson!!!!

There was always Boston and New York! Guess who they wanted off the Knicks roster at the time…

Carmelo Anthony!!!

I could go into the Kyrie Irving situation that LeBron James was rumored to be involved in to get him traded out of Cleveland to Phoenix for a potential teaming with Paul George and Eric Bledsoe. But the recent “apology” from Irving to LeBron shows that the situation is dead so let’s move on. They have.

When LeBron James came to Cleveland the second time around, the Cavaliers were loaded with young talent. By the time LeBron James left the second time around, the roster was loaded with overpriced veterans so old they could have been collecting social security.

If I was Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball…I’d really be worried!

Well, it’s not like Lake Show Life did not see this coming.

Playing with LeBron James?…Good Luck Fellas…You’ll Need It!

LeBron James is a member of the Los Angeles Lakers! Hurray! The best player in the NBA plays for LA!! Okay now that he's here...now what?

LeBron James is in his 16th year in the NBA. Did you really think that he was going to change a formula that got him eight trips to the NBA Finals in a row? Really?

The young core really did not have a chance and with the Lakers going after Anthony Davis, wasn’t going to get one. It’s hard enough for veterans to play with LeBron James, did you think these guys were going to hack it?

Let’s look back to what Channing Frye said prior to the season about the experience of playing with James …

"“I think the thing that they’re going to come to and I think a lot of guys are going to have to deal with is this. There’s who you expect to be and then who you are when you play with LeBron. It’s two different things. I don’t know if they truly understand what it’s like to play with him because there are no room for mistakes. Because in all actuality, he could do it himself. He could lead a team to 40 wins himself. I think for all of them they’re going to have to have a reality check, not only them but the people around them. There’s going to say, not a growing period, but a humility.”"

How humble is being traded? They are going to get a 10-day lesson of humility listening to which combination of the three will be unloaded for Anthony Davis.

Like Luke Walton, these three have done as much as possible to contribute to the Lakers success this season. Since LeBron’s injury hiatus, a 6-10 record is as good as anyone could ask for especially considering all of these players have dealt with injuries and a suspension (Ingram) that kept them off the floor at times this season.

These three have done everything in their power to adjust to playing with James…

EXCEPT!

Get 10 years experience in three months!

LeBron James possibly sees the possibility of watching the playoffs ON TV!

Stop and think for a second. Outside of his personal claim that he is the G.O.A.T. on his own TV show…

https://twitter.com/uninterrupted/status/1079526745730998272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1079526745730998272&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2019%2F01%2F09%2Flebron-james-claims-g-o-a-t-title-real-faux-pas%2F

…and his injury report on when he’ll get back on the court, is he generating any excitement in the NBA right now? That honor belongs to his friends over in Golden State with Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, who has run his last two Cleveland teams out the Finals in a combined nine games.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, they have DeMarcus Cousins who is playing well and he’s not in NBA shape yet!

The other source of excitement is James Harden who scores these days when the mood hits him (Man the dude has been moody for say about 22 games straight now?). A Warriors winning streak that includes a thorough beat down of his Lakers last week in the Staples Center and a losing streak that could put the Lakers in the 11th or 12th spot in the West? Concern?

With the Lakers currently in the 9th seed in the Western Conference with the toughest part of the schedule coming, LeBron James is thinking about the danger of watching all of his buddies play in the playoffs in the comforts of his Los Angeles mansion!

Remember his greatest failure in his opinion.

Every active member (Carmelo Anthony is out until a Lakers roster spot mysteriously appears…wink wink!) of the “Banana Boat” crew is currently in the playoff chase if the season ended today (Yep! Dwyane Wade’s Heat is in the 7th slot!).

How many people think that LeBron James will sit by and put up with the embarrassment of all of the hype of coming to L.A. to send Lakers fans home again in April? How about seeing his friends enjoying an extra playoff check? Imagine that! LeBron won’t let you!

He won’t be able to deal with the backlash!

Business wise, I really don’t see Anthony Davis in a Lakers uniform in 10 days. The Pelicans are in a bad way, but I can’t see these guys just unloading him to the Lakers without a King’s ransom. It wouldn’t be good for business.

LeBron James should know that…

You just read some of his history!