Los Angeles Lakers: What made the Pelicans pull the trigger

The Lakers actually showed they were serious about going into “Win Now!” mode

The Lakers won the NBA title back in 2010 beating the Boston Celtics in seven games. Well the Lakers scored a huge victory but his time it was in the front office.

Let that sink in for a minute. Since the curtain opened up on this drama, the entire deal was based around what the Boston Celtics would do. The first time around the track, it was Boston that was reportedly in the driver’s seat in obtaining Davis. If it wasn’t the assets that had people believing Boston would get him, most thought Danny Ainge would at least get a deal done based on his reputation along with well…Rob Pelinka’s reputation.

But when the Lakers moved up in the lottery and the Celtics didn’t, the tide started to shift. Then Kyrie Irving reportedly was looking for greener pastures (Sidebar: If the Lakers can swing that? OOOHHHH scandalous), the Celtics were left with Jayson Tatum, who the Celtics weren’t willing to part with…

The youth movement is over. It really was the worst kept secret in the NBA even though at times the Lakers acted like they didn’t even know it. As soon as LeBron James’ paperwork was put in the computer system, Luke Walton and the young players were gone. It just took the Lakers about a year to make up their minds.

LeBron James’ method is messy and brings a lot of drama, but the one thing the method does for his teams is work. Sorry, eight straight NBA Finals appearances does warrant a little attention to the fact that he may know what he’s talking about. Here’s what keeps LeBron James happy.

1. Hand him a superstar or two to help him with the heavy lifting.
2. Fill up the bench with ring chasing veterans.
3. A coaching staff that will keep all of this in line.

The Lakers fans that believe the Lakers are going in the wrong direction by not thinking about the future really don’t know the history of the franchise. Plus, the Lakers eventually will start losing out on that max deal LeBron James has at this moment. They need Davis in the fold in case LeBron’s game starts to fall of the cliff. Think it won’t happen? Have you read about the Houston Rockets and Chris Paul lately? Looked at his age and contract?

Moving on…

No matter what the Lakers gave up, the team now have the top two players PER wise in NBA history in LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The team now has a player besides LeBron that can go get a bucket at anytime..

Now let’s talk about that salary cap that the Lakers have protected fiercely for the last two years. It has already been reported that the Lakers will try to obtain Kemba Walker in free agency. How much they can offer him depends on this scenario laid out by ESPN’s Bobby Marks…

If Rob Pelinka can pull this off, Lakers fans need to leave the “Heath Ledger” jokes for the Christmas party, because the man is not going anywhere. The Los Angeles Lakers are officially relevant again and Pelinka needs to be given credit for it. Even Magic Johnson gave Rob Pelinka his props…

Charles Barkley was on NBA TV and broke down the trade from both ends. This is looking like a trade that works well for both teams…