Late Monday night, Harrison Barnes was dealt by the Mavericks to the Kings for Justin Jackson and Zach Randolph. The trade was simple, fair, and made sense for both teams. The Kings received the wing defender they needed to compete in the playoffs and the Mavericks got cap relief they need in order to sign a free agent and pay Porzingis when his time comes. However, what made the trade a big deal was that the Mavericks traded Barnes in the middle of the game that his son was attending. The Mavs, according to NBA rules, removed Barnes from the game once he was traded and he sat on the bench the rest of the night. This caused NBA Twitter, and LeBron James specifically, to go off on the Mavs and once again bring up the debate about player loyalty. The debate about player loyalty and management loyalty is quite a fascinating debate because I am sure you can find examples on both sides when a player screwed a franchise over for them being loyal to him and vice versa. This post is not the time for that debate though. I really want to discuss LeBron's reaction because basically everyone of his Lakers' teammates are on the trading block. The rumors surrounding them potentially being traded no doubt hurt the Lakers (they suffered a 42 point loss the night before the trade deadline), but they seemed to rally back nicely with their dramatic win against the Celtics in Boston. Lebron posted this on Instagram after the news broke:
He made some fair points, but like I said before, it is ironic that he's supporting Harrison Barnes publicly when his teammates were going through the exact same thing. So this leads me to what I really want to write about: The Anthony Davis trade request saga and how the trade itself did not ultimately come to fruition. What led to where we are now and what is the fallout from all of this?
Before we analyze the results, here is the timeline of how everything went down. The Monday before the Superbowl, Rich Paul (Davis's agent) came out and said Davis wanted to be traded to a contender. This request implied that he wanted to go to the Lakers because Rich Paul is the agent for both LeBron and Anthony Davis. Then Anthony Davis's father came out and said that he did not want his son to play for the Celtics. He cited their treatment of Isaiah Thomas as his reason. Although I feel like every team in league makes a deal for Kyrie Irving if he's available, no matter what you give up (that's besides the point though). After that, Davis revealed a list of teams he wanted to go to. He included the Bucks, Knicks, Lakers, and Clippers. Notice how Boston is not on that list. Also note that no team on that list can put together an enticing package except for the Lakers. It is not a coincidence AD's camp listed those teams. Then the Superbowl happened and everyone begged for the Pelicans to trade Anthony Davis during the game because it was so boring. Then the Lakers' offers were leaked to the public by Woj and Shams. The initial offer seemed underwhelming to anyone who read it. The deal included Lonzo Ball, Kuzma, a few first round picks and some other players to make salaries match. Obviously New Orleans turned it down. After that, another deal was leaked. This time it included every young Lakers player, Disneyland, the 405 and about 8 years worth of draft picks. This deal is certainly crazy because it mortgages your entire future plus you have no one on your roster afterwards.
This specific deal is divisive because from one point of view starting a team with AD and LeBron then figuring it all out later is a good starting place. On the other hand though, you give up every future asset you can use to get another star and, once LeBron retires, you are in absolute hell for four to five years after because you have no draft picks and no one to play with AD. However, what really makes this deal crazy is that, according to some sources, this package wasn't offered at all. In fact, some reporters, such as Brian Windhorst, suggested that maybe this was made up by New Orleans in order to mess with the Lakers' current young core and their team chemistry. I, as a person who is a big fan of conspiracy theories, wish that was the case. However, I think that there is some middle ground here. I believe that the first offer given was real, the second was not. I think the Pelicans definitely leaked that second offer though in order to throw off the Lakers.
So can Dell Demps (the Pelicans' GM) do this? Tactically yes. It's actually a good play. Get teams thinking they need to be ready to give up more to get Davis and ruin the Lakers' chemistry at the same time. The morality of this ploy though may depend on who you're a fan of.
Also, why would the Pelicans do that? There are four reasons. First, they clearly dislike the Lakers. The Lakers almost stole their first franchise player in Chris Paul eight years ago and now the Lakers want try again with Anthony Davis. Overall though, the league seems to have a disdain for the Lakers that no other team seems to get (expect maybe the Warriors). Opposing teams feel as if the Lakers do not deserve Davis and in fact, some GMs feel like they did not even deserve LeBron. There is some merit to this dislike. Historically, the Lakers have taken smaller market players away from the teams that drafted and developed them. You do not need to look any farther than Shaquille O'Neal, Dwight Howard, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for evidence of that. Next, it is possible that, since the trade demand was orchestrated in a way to send Davis to LA, teams colluded against the Lakers so that would not happen. There also is precedent of teams colluding against others because they do not want to make them better. We saw this with the Heat in the first year of the LeBron/Wade/Bosh era. Teams refused to trade the Heat a center in order to complete the teams roster because rival GMs saw it as unfair that the Heat suddenly had this All-Star roster. We are even seeing this now with the Warriors. Teams will not deal anyone to the Warriors because no one wants to make them better than they already are. That is why the Warriors have depended so much on drafting and free agents in order to fill out their roster to surround their starters. Third, the Pelicans probably just did not like the Lakers offer because frankly, the team had not played well with LeBron out which, without a doubt, hurt their trade value. Finally, the Pelicans wanted to start the bidding for Davis at the highest price possible so that other teams know what it will take to get him. The Pelicans know that the Celtics cannot get involved in the bidding for Davis until this summer, so they want to make sure the Celtics know that the Lakers are willing to give up the farm so the Celtics should be ready to. This point also applies to the Knicks as well. The Knicks will need to give up everything they can in order to land Davis.
Now that the trade did not happen, what comes next for each team involved. What is the fallout of the deal that did not happen? The simple answer is that the Lakers will come back with another offer in the summer and they will be forced to compete with the Celtics, Clippers, Knicks, and any other suitor that may arise. The Lakers can still offer the same package and the Celtics will counter with their best offer. The Lakers' core and the Celtics' core are basically the same in terms of assets. The biggest advantage the Celtics have with their offer though are Tatum and their draft picks. The Clippers may have messed up one of their assets though because the Clippers' draft pick owed to the Celtics does not convey unless they make the playoffs. The Clippers just traded away their best player in Tobias Harris so they have no intentions of making the playoffs and allowing the Celtics have their pick to use in a Davis trade. In addition, if the Celtics are not willing to offer Tatum then the Pelicans may not accept the Celtics trade either. Like I said before, without Tatum, the Celtics' core offer is not any better than the Lakers. The Knicks will offer a top 3 pick (if they get it) plus Kevin Knox and something else. The Clippers, like the Lakers, will give the Pelicans whatever they want. In the end, the Pelicans will choose the offer that gives them a potential superstar and draft picks to get another great young player. Depending on how this season goes, I see the two stars being either Tatum or Ingram with Kevin Knox having an outside chance. What is also important to note is that the Pelicans will lose leverage this offseason. Teams acquiring Anthony Davis will not have him for a year and a half, just a year. This means Pelicans should not expect the offers to be as good as they would be now. However, the Celtics could be completely out of play if Kyrie decides to leave in free agency this year. In this case, depending on where he goes, a new team could become a front-runner for Davis.
Personally, I am happy that the Lakers did not trade away their young core for Anthony Davis. Yes he is a transcendent player that can change a franchise. I just like seeing young talent stick with their original team because they are more fun to root for. It can be an emotional roller coaster to watch a team draft several young players, have fans root for them like they are on of their kids and then watch them be shipped away or sign with another team. Lakers fans experienced this with both Julius Randle and D'Angelo Russell already. Plus there is something special about seeing a young core become professionals, rise to the occasion, and thrive in big moments. I am thinking specifically of the Celtics last year when Tatum, Rozier, Smart, and Jaylen Brown carried their injury riddled team to the Eastern Conference Finals. Another great example of that is the OKC Thunder from 2012. They drafted James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Durant. The team got hot for one postseason and made a run to the NBA Finals. Even though you knew that they would lose to the Heat, it was still a fun journey to watch as they grew up before our very eyes. I remember them beating the Spurs and everyone thought that this team would be together forever. We also got the first evidence that James Harden's step-back would be unstoppable. We all should have seen that coming.
There is still a lot left to play out in the Anthony Davis trade saga and I expect that we will be going through a very similar exercise to this one in July. What we can take away from this though is that: teams still hate the Lakers and the Pelicans are going to make someone overpay for Davis. They are owned by NFL owners who are used to doing business like a football team, not a basketball team. They were not intimidated by a trade request and did not give into the wishes of Rich Paul. The Lakers did not expect that and now they must wait half a year for another shot at AD. To reiterate, this saga is far from over and I am excited to see how the rest of it plays out.
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