Getty Lakers star Anthony Davis
The Los Angeles Lakers traded Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart to the New Orleans Pelicans in the summer of 2019 for Anthony Davis and immediately reaped the rewards.
Behind LeBron James and Davis, the Lakers won the 2020 championship over the Miami Heat in the Walt Disney World bubble for title No. 17 in franchise history.
However, the last two seasons have been disappointing for the purple and gold. They lost in the first round of the 2021 playoffs to the Phoenix Suns and didn’t make the postseason this campaign. Meanwhile, the Pelicans are in the playoffs this year and defeated the Suns in Game 2 of their first-round series behind 37 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists from Ingram.
One-time NBA champion Festus Ezeli took to Twitter after the Pelicans beat the Suns and the former Golden State Warriors big man said the Lakers made a “mistake” trading Ingram for Davis.
I know Lakers won a bubble chip but Everytime i see Brandon Ingram hoop i can’t help but think how much of a mistake it was to trade him
Davis appeared in only 40 games for the Lakers this season due to injuries. He averaged 23.2 points and 9.9 rebounds while shooting 53.2% from the field. Los Angeles went 33-49 and lost all of its games to New Orleans.
Meanwhile, Ingram averaged 22.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists for the Pelicans. The 2019-20 Most Improved Player of the Year shot 46.1% from the field, 32.7% from beyond the arc and 82.6% from the free-throw line.
Lakers Have a Title Thanks to Davis
The Lakers won the 2020 title thanks to Davis’ elite play. He averaged 27.7 points and 9.7 rebounds during the 2020 playoffs in 21 games against the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets and Heat.
Even though Davis has been injury-prone the last two seasons, the Lakers have a championship because they acquired him and paired him with LeBron. It’s uncertain if Los Angeles would have won it all in 2020 had it kept Ingram and not traded for Davis, who was named one of the top-75 players in NBA history this season.
During his final media session of the season, Davis opened up about his future with LeBron, who becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2023 if he doesn’t sign an extension this offseason. AD, who has the same agent as LBJ, remains bullish on his partnership with the King.
Davis Still Believes in Partnership with LeBron
The Lakers are 75-33 since 2019-20 when LeBron and Davis play, which is why the latter still believes he and the former can be the core of a title team moving forward.
“I think us two can. We’ve shown that we can,” Davis told Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “I don’t know that’s something we just have to reevaluate in the offseason, upstairs, me and him talking about this season and what we would like to see next season and kind of just figure it out.
“… [We will] come together as a group … to get back to championship mentality that we had our first year. So that would be a very interesting conversation just from the standpoint of what changed. I mean, injuries, but even when we were healthy, I don’t think we were able to reach our full potential — for whatever reason. So I think we want to figure it out and just get back to that championship pedigree that us as players know we’re capable of.”
Davis has averaged 24.1 points and 9.1 rebounds in 138 regular-season games with the Lakers. In 26 postseason games with Los Angeles, the Chicago native is putting up 25.7 points and 9.1 rebounds per contest.