Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James showing desperation for Anthony Davis
By Ronald Agers
The Lakers have days to impress the Pelicans with a trade package before the competition starts!
Okay, let’s assume that Anthony Davis wants to come to the Lakers (Okay lets everyone stop laughing in the back! This is serious!) and wants to go nowhere else. The Lakers have a lot of things that they have to do.
First, they have to convince New Orleans that this is not a power move used to bully small markets into giving up their top players for pennies on the dollar. All this has to be done without the illusion of tampering.
Good luck with that!
Right now, that is the narrative that is floating around the NBA. The discussion was brought up strongly by Charles Barkley in the pregame show.
https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1091131709565751297
Whether the Lakers like it or not, the Pelicans probably feel like they are getting set up to be sold a bill of goods. With New Orleans having Davis under contract, they can sit back and wait until the offseason to weigh out all of their options (Oh there are more teams than Boston, trust me!) and the Lakers know that.
That’s why the low-key “rental” threat is floating around to other teams. Plus, the Lakers have to get something done or lose out on Anthony Davis until 2020 when he can sign with the Lakers as a free agent.
By then, LeBron James will be 36 years old and officially be on the downside of his career.
The Lakers borrowed time is based on the Celtics not being able to trade for Davis while Kyrie Irving is on the roster due to a rule that prevents two players who signed “Designated Player Extensions” with the teams that drafted them on the roster at the same time. They also call it the “Derrick Rose” rule.
On July 1, when Irving officially decides to opt out of his contract, that rule no longer applies. Boston then can start making offers that everyone basically in the NBA knows the Lakers can’t match.
That’s what is keeping the Lakers front office up at night.
Plus there are numerous other teams that have significant cap space to make moves in this offseason such as the New York Knicks (Think that Porzingis trade was an accident?), Los Angeles Clippers and Brooklyn Nets. Even in the offseason, the Lakers aren’t afforded any guarantees.
The Lakers have to okey-doke Dell Demps into unloading Anthony Davis as soon as possible and make him believe that Davis staying will only cause such a toxic environment that it will be unbearable. Then make him believe that the young core and draft picks are good enough to make the trade.
Let me tell everyone a little secret here about the long-range plans of the Lakers. This whole plan (on the floor) was not about building around LeBron James. Sorry. The plan was to sign LeBron James and his eight straight NBA Finals appearances to attract a younger superstar to keep the franchise rolling along when LeBron James starts to decline.
We all know that Anthony Davis fits that bill quite nicely. He is easily considered one of the top five players in the NBA and is the “Blue pill” that can get the Lakers out of this mess they are in as soon as the trainers figure out his shoe size.
Now they have to get New Orleans to play ball, somehow.