If the Los Angeles Lakers strike out on adding a max-level free agent, they still can make a trade. We rank the team’s assets to offer in a deal.
The Los Angeles Lakers are looking to make a big splash this offseason and one of the options is via trade with the New Orleans Pelicans. Anthony Davis has consistently been the talk of the town on just about all NBA tv and radio stations for some time now.
After the Pelicans hired David Griffin as their new General Manager, some hoped that Griffin would present a desirable pitch to Davis for the superstar to remain a Pelican despite requesting a trade midway through this past season.
Reports this week, however, indicate that Davis still wants out, by expressing that Griffin has begun listening to trade offers for the 26-year-old big man. This doesn’t come as too big of a surprise, but after New Orleans won the NBA draft lottery, some speculated that Davis could have changed his mind, and want to remain in New Orleans.
Trade scenarios arise for Anthony Davis on the daily, but now they’ve just entered a more serious stage with this most recent news. Anthony Davis wants to be traded, and David Griffin being the intelligent general manager that he’s proven to be in the past, will try to secure a nice package for the superstar sooner rather than later.
The teams that are consistently the most involved in the Anthony Davis trade sweepstakes are the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics and Lakers. Some other teams that have shown some interest and may be capable of presenting quality offers for Davis, too, are the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Clippers.
We’ve seen situations similar to this, with superstars desiring to be traded to particular destinations, and not play out in the player’s favor. In the past three seasons, we’ve seen Kyrie Irving, Paul George, and Kawhi Leonard all request trades from their respective teams. George and Leonard expressed their desire to be traded to Los Angeles, while Irving has expressed interest in the Knicks, Heat, Spurs, or Timberwolves.
None of the three perennial All-Stars ended up on any of the aforementioned teams they wished to be traded to, however. So when people close to the situation talk about Los Angeles, New York, or even Boston being the most engaged teams in the Davis trade talks, it wouldn’t be entirely shocking to see him land somewhere else. Nonetheless, Los Angeles and New York have leverage over other teams in that Davis seems hellbent on a future with either of the two most valuable franchises in basketball.
The Lakers are reported to be Davis’ most preferred destination, and many including myself believe they hold the best assets that can realistically be traded to New Orleans for AD. Their most valuable assets include Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and the No. 4 overall pick in this year’s draft. If Los Angeles is going to try and acquire AD though, they’re going to need to prioritize their assets in order to secure optimal bargaining power and determine the most desirable packages for themselves to trade away.
It’s important to note that the gap between the Lakers assets’ value is slim but nonetheless critical to recognize. Here are the Lakers’ current assets ranked five through one.