Los Angeles Lakers: What made the Pelicans pull the trigger

Lake Show Life brings back David Grubb to break down the Pelicans’ mind frame

Throughout the entire Anthony Davis trade drama, David Grubb has been the insider who could help share the view on the New Orleans side of negotiations providing insight to Lakers fans. He provided the blueprint of what the Pelicans wanted from the start and was my source to when the deal would potentially go down.

In 2013, he joined the team at SportsNOLA.com as a contributor before working his way up to cover the New Orleans Pelicans.

David is currently a featured columnist for CrescentCitySports.com as well as The Bird Writes for SB Nation. He is a regular contributor to “The Bird Calls,” a weekly podcast covering the Pelicans.

Along with being a regular on Sports 1280 AM in New Orleans, he has also been a fill-in host for “The D-League” (Sports 1280 AM) and “Sport-a-facts” (WBOK) and is a regular guest on a number of sports talk shows in the New Orleans area.

In short, he provided Lakers fans with an insight not many others could provide, a realistic overview of what was going on throughout the negotiation process.

I asked him a few questions on what is the atmosphere was in New Orleans leading up to the deal and the aftermath.

Well the deal is finally done, Anthony Davis is traded to L.A. What happened that made the deal go down Saturday?

David Grubb:

"The biggest thing in this deal for New Orleans is the power that the Pelicans got over the Lakers draft picks for years into the future. It’s an unprecedented amount of potential assets for the Pelicans to either use in the draft or use as capital to continue to build around Zion Williamson as he develops."

Umm… this is what David is talking about…

The Lakers need to figure this out this tear Everyone thought the Houston Rockets pushed all in to catch Golden State. At least that team had some players. The Lakers have five under contract now. This trade has been compared to two disasters spread over two sports.

In the NBA…that Brooklyn Nets KG/ Paul Pierce deal…

If Rob Pelinka needs any intel on the aftermath of that deal, he can give the “new guy” Lionel Hollins a call. Why? Because he had a front row seat to that horror show. He was the Nets head coach when the Nets were stuck in purgatory after Pierce and Garnett were long gone. To put this perspective, the Nets just got out that deal this year.

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne compared the deal to NFL’s Herschel Walker trade…

"For the Pelicans, this could be a Herschel Walker-type haul for a player they were going to lose in a year. They essentially got three top-five lottery picks out of the deal, two of which have already gone through their NBA growing pains. Just the idea of Lonzo Ball throwing lobs to probable No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson is enough to bring fans back to the Smoothie King Arena. Ball and Jrue Holiday might already be the best defensive backcourt in the NBA."

To the ones that don’t know (or remember…) the Dallas Cowboys traded Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for a whole bunch of draft picks. The Cowboys loaded up with players that helped bring home a dynasty in the 90’s. The Vikings? Well Walker became a journeyman for the rest of his career.

The message is clear to the Lakers, to quote the late Raiders owner Al Davis…

Just Win Baby!

Let’s delve deeper…