Getty Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans and Team LeBron warms up before the NBA All-Star game.
Amid rumors of an increased asking price from the New Orleans Pelicans, Shams Charania reported that the list of Anthony Davis’ preferred long-term landing spots has been narrowed down a bit since the regular season.
Once composed of the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers, and New York Knicks, Charania claims that the list now is only the Lakers and Knicks.
Anthony Davis Lists Lakers Among Preferred Long Term Destinations
Anthony Davis has focused on the Lakers and Knicks as his desired long-term destinations, per @ShamsCharania.
If this is the case, this severely handicaps the Pelicans’ leverage in negotiations as most other teams won’t be willing to pay the extraordinary asking price for a one-year rental. In essence, it turns the Davis sweepstakes into a two-team bidding war between the Knicks and Lakers. With conflicting reports on the Pelicans’ interest in the Lakers young players, it will be interesting to see how negotiations play out.
Regarding those negotiations, the Knicks and Lakers both hold valuable draft picks with the Knicks at three and Lakers at four. The Lakers seem to have the more talented young pieces to package in a deal as well and barring a third team entering the trade, this seems to be the best the Pelicans are going to get before Davis walks for nothing next summer. Mitchell Robinson looks to have some solid upside as an athletic rim protector and Kevin Knox has shown the ability to explode at times but neither are as well-proven assets as any of the Lakers’ young players.
Anthony Davis Comes With Increased Asking Price
As mentioned above, Anthony Davis is now coming with a fairly increased asking price. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the price tag now seems to be a current All-Star, a future All-Star, and two first round picks. While the Lakers’ don’t have a current All-Star to pawn off, neither do the Knicks and barring a three-team trade, there doesn’t seem to be any route that either the Lakers or Knicks could meet the gaudy price of Davis.