Los Angeles Lakers: What exactly was the plan at the NBA Trade Deadline

What exactly was the Los Angeles Lakers plan heading into the NBA Trade Deadline? We give it our best guess with a little satire involved as well.

On the surface, it appears that the Los Angeles Lakers had the worst trade deadline in the NBA. Was that all part of Magic and Pelinka’s master plan?

Basketball cupid shot an arrow at Los Angeles Lakers’ front office members Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka and made them fall in love with Anthony Davis.

After the arrow hit, it seemed like nothing else mattered to the Lakers dynamic front office duo except acquiring the Pelicans star big man.

In the end, the Purple and Gold weren’t able to make a deal with New Orleans and land AD, but at least they did manage to land Reggie Bullock and Mike Muscala (Sarcasm).

To make matter worse it seems that Magic and Pelinka got duped by the Pelicans GM, Dell Demps.

https://twitter.com/Rachel__Nichols/status/1093335045459316736

Here’s what happened (in my mind) after the Lakers got destroyed by the middling Pacers by 42 points:

Dell Demps and two of his college buddies met at a swanky cigar club in New Orleans and ordered the most expensive cognac and cigars. As Dell and his buddies started to get a little drunk, college friend No. 1 leaned back in his chair, took a puff from his cigar, and said, “Dell, you’re the man. Magic and LeBron tried to play you. Who’d they think they were dealing with?”

All three nodded their heads and then college friend No. 2 said, “Anthony Davis wanted to go play for the Lakers, who does he think he is? Now he’s gonna end up on the Celtics next season.”

Friend #1 said, “That’s gonna make his daddy mad.”

Friend #2 said, “Yep, Davis shouldn’t have opened his mouth and demanded a trade.”

Friend #1 said, “Dell, you might lose your job over the summer, but you’re a millionaire and you just destroyed the Lakers season.

Demps finally chimed in and said, “Millionaire? Try multi-millionaire!”

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All three laughed hysterically, then Demps continued on while slurring his words, “You guys are right, I might get fired after the season’s over, but hey I’ve got 3 houses, a bunch of money in the bank, and I took down Magic and the Lakers. Life’s good!”

All three laughed again and then Demps poured out three more drinks.

The Lakers front office got completely punked by Dell ‘Freakin’ Demps. Any rational person, let alone an NBA executive getting paid millions of dollars, could have seen that the Pelicans didn’t have any interest in actually trading Anthony Davis.

They asked for 4 first round picks, 4 2nd round picks, Kuzma, Hart, Zubac, Ball, Ingram, Rondo, and Beasley in exchange for Anthony Davis. Does that sound like a reasonable deal?

After it became obvious that Dell Demps didn’t want to make a trade, why didn’t Magic come out and publicly say that the Lakers didn’t want to make a deal and that they preferred to keep the young core together? That would have been the logical move.

Instead, Magic “I love to talk in front of people” Johnson hasn’t said anything about the Anthony Davis fiasco, nor has he come out and praised the Lakers young core.

To make matters EVEN worse, Magic and Pelinka gifted the up-and-coming Zubac to the Clippers for Mike Muscala. Why? Because he can shoot it from beyond the 3-point line?

Last time I checked, the Lakers already have two good, defensive-minded centers. Do we really need an aging 2-month rental at center? I’m sure 90% of Lakers fans would have preferred the Lakers to keep Zubac and see if he can develop into a top-flight center over the next few years.

Magic and Pelinka’s completely illogical trade deadline has led many fans to ask these three questions:

1. Why did Magic and Pelinka so blatantly put every player on the team, not named LeBron, on the trade block knowing that if they didn’t actually land AD it would ruin the morale of the team?
2. Why did they want Anthony Davis so badly in the first place? Before LeBron got hurt the team was in 4th place in the West and were playing really well, right?
3. Why did Magic and Pelinka tell all the fans in LA before the season started that they truly believed in the young core and that they expected to see their jersey’s hanging from the rafters after they retired, only to change course so drastically and offer Ball, Ingram, and Kuzma up in a trade?