When Anthony Davis, through his agent Rich Paul, made it known that he won’t sign an extension with the New Orleans Pelicans and wanted to be traded on January 28, it set up a once in a generation opportunity for the Los Angeles Lakers.
When LeBron James announced he was taking his talents to Venice Beach to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers in early July, it was generally understood that this was only the beginning of a process for the Lakers that we are all hoping will end with at least one more NBA World Championship for the storied franchise. Now, we could be at an important fork in the road.
Anthony Davis, the dominant big man for the New Orleans Pelicans, will not be signing an extension to remain with them. That means that, unless something really unexpected happens, they will eventually trade him.
Ever since Davis signed on with Klutch Sports, which is the sports agency run by LeBron James’ business partners, speculation started that Davis would demand a trade by the trading deadline this season, as he can opt out of his contract at the end of next season (2019-20). That made him seem like one of the biggest, if not the biggest target for the Lakers in their attempts to complete their championship puzzle.
With the trading deadline arriving on Feb. 7 and the Lakers losing 11 of their last 17 games since LeBron injured his groin, the time is clearly now for them to make an aggressive and swift move for Davis.
We can debate whether they should offer all of their young prospects (Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram and Ivica Zubac) or keep one or two of them and offer the rest, but I won’t cover that here. The point is that the purple and gold should try to go all in for Davis in this next week or so.
There are several great reasons why.