Getty Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram of the Los Angeles Lakers watch play from the bench in the first half during their game at Madison Square Garden.
Over the past two days, Anthony Davis trade rumors going wild and a reported offer from the Lakers of Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and the fourth pick in the NBA Draft seems to be in place. However, the Lakers are hesitant to move Kyle Kuzma who the Pelicans feel would round out the deal.
While the Lakers have been pursuing Davis for months now and fans just want to see them get the deal done, the Lakers need to tread carefully and ensure they aren’t bidding up the price against themselves.
With only a single year left on his deal and an agent who is making it well known that he wants to hit free agency in 2020, the Pelicans need to strike a deal. Despite how strong they posture in order to drive up the price, the fact remains they NEED to get some assets back in return before he walks for nothing.
Analyst Warns Lakers To Not Trade Everyone or They Will ‘Become the Knicks’
📺@ColinCowherd: “Lakers, don’t give up the farm for Anthony Davis or you’ll become the Knicks when they got Carmelo Anthony. Stand firm and never ever negotiate against yourself.”
While Colin Cowherd is normally known for his questionable Lakers takes, he comes through with a strong point here. While a pairing of Anthony Davis and LeBron James is incredibly tantalizing, the Lakers would have zero depth to surround James and Davis and would be even lacking a starting point guard, shooting guard, and center.
Cowherd wisely compares this to the Knicks sending a king’s ransom to trade for Carmelo Anthony. While Carmelo got to the second round once with the Knicks in 2012, his tenure in New York was mostly just him getting buckets while surrounded by an incompetent supporting cast.
Davis and LeBron can’t win a championship alone and the Lakers need to be smart in how they hold onto assets and fill out their roster in order to help build a contender with whatever money they have left over after the potential deal.
Lakers, Celtics, and Knicks in Running For Anthony Davis
Outside of the Lakers, two of the other teams mentioned most frequently as being in the chase for Davis as well are the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics. While initially thought that Boston might duck out of trade talks in light of new information that Kyrie Irving would prefer to play in either Brooklyn or Los Angeles.
While the Celtics have the heftiest set of assets to deal from, they might not be able to afford parting with all of them anymore seeing as Irving is likely not going to re-up with the Celtics. Instead, they need to build an offer where they’re able to keep either Jayson Tatum or a combination of Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart (rather than a godfather offer of all three).
For the Knicks, their most appealing asset is the third pick in the upcoming draft and while Kevin Knox and Mitchell Robinson surely have some upside, the player package pales in comparison to what the Lakers and Celtics can put on the table.