Getty LeBron James, left, and Anthony Davis at the Lakers' practice facility
Los Angeles Lakers big man, Anthony Davis raised eyebrows back in the fall when he brought up the Chicago Bulls in conversation.
While speaking to high school basketball players from his alma mater, Perspectives Charter School, Davis addressed it by stating: “Honestly, it’s nothing like playing at home.”
Lakers’ Anthony Davis asked at a Nike event with local kids if he’d ever sign with the hometown Chicago Bulls?
His response? “I am a free agent next year.”
“I don’t know. … I mean, I am a free agent next year, but we’ll see. It’s a possibility.”
The internet went crazy and Davis later clarified his comments on Tuesday by stating: “I said I’d consider anything.”
Will he?
I checked in with Yahoo Sports’ Keith Smith and we discussed this summer’s NBA free agency on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
Check out notes from our dialogue below:
Keith Smith on players that people should be paying attention to this offseason:
“This year’s free agent class isn’t so great. I’m going to take Anthony Davis out of the mix because I think it’s pretty clear that he’s going to stay with the Lakers. It’s really just what kind of contract does he get. So I’ll give you a couple of guys that I think might be a little more off the radar but I think people are going to really interested in…Fred VanVleet – clearly the best free agent point guard this year. It’s not even close. I think the Raptors are in an interesting spot. They’re paying a lot of money to Kyle Lowry next season. They’ve also got Pascal and Ibaka and free agents in the playoffs and what they did in the playoffs. If they made it to the East Finals or maybe they made it back to the Finals, I think you feel a lot more comfortable spending a lot of money keeping that entire group together. But we know Masai Ujiri, he’s going to play with house money for a couple years. He’s not going to be afraid to say, ‘We won. And now it’s time to tear it down.’ And there’s a handful of teams that need point guards too. So I think he’s really going to be an interesting guy on the market. And then we got Christian Wood, the free agent from the Pistons. I think he’s a major free agent this year; big man who can play both of the power forward and center spots, he’s really extended his range, defensively he needs some work but, if you can put him next to a defensive minded big, you’ve got a guy that’s really talented and the people don’t know that his numbers didn’t total much this year because of Andre Drummond. But once he was traded, he really took off. And another guy I’ll give you a veteran free who I don’t think that gets mentioned too, too much but I think someone who could really help a lot of teams and that’s Danilo Gallinari. He’s a good scorer, good shooter, still gets to the foul line a decent amount; I think he’s a guy who – I think this might be one of those contracts for a one or two year deal for a ton of money, but for the right team he’s a guy that could really step in and help teams, go deep in the playoffs or get back to the playoffs if you’re a rebuilding squad.”
The NBA season has been on hiatus since March 11 when the coronavirus pandemic halted play.
Some believe that the season can be resumed at a neutral location like Disney World or the Las Vegas Strip. No official word yet on if the pause will cause free agency dates to potentially change.