According to media reports, the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans have agreed to terms on a blockbuster deal sending All-Star forward Anthony Davis to Hollywood for Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart and Brandon Ingram.
The deal which also includes this year’s Lakers pick (4th overall) and a top-8 protected pick 2021, which becomes unprotected in 2022. The Pelicans also get unprotected swaps in 2023, and unprotected first in 2024 and a unprotected swap in 2025, gives the Pelicans both the top overall pick and an additional selection in the top five at No.4
Once rumored to be a sticking point, the Lakers were able to hold onto former second round pick, Kyle Kuzma and now look to possibly land Kyrie Irving if–and when–he decide to decline his player option with the longtime archrival Boston Celtics.
With the Golden State Warriors bloodied, beaten and broken after losing both Kevin Durant to a ruptured Achilles for at least 12-16 months and Klay Thompson to a torn ACL for a minimum of an estimated 6-8 months, the West is as wide open as it have ever been.
Credit new Lakers de facto boss–and Magic backstabber–Rob Pelinka for having a set of balls to gamble on winning big in 2020.
This trade signals a win-now mode for the Lakers as LeBron James will turn 35 in December, and have to contend with an up-and-coming Denver Nuggets squad, a Kawhi Leonard-led (?) Clippers team, Oklahoma City, Houston and an always dangerous Portland Trail Blazers team led by Dolla Dame in point guard Damian Lilliard.
And armed with both the No.1 and No.4 picks in the upcoming draft on Thursday, along with a young talented core that will now have Ball, Hart, Ingram, the Pelicans will now add projected top pick Zion Williamson and either DeAndre Hunter, Jarrett Culver or Darius Garland.
It’s not often that both teams win a trade, but in this case, both the Lakers and Pels came out with something they wanted.
Just when we thought that NBA free agency–and the NBA Draft–couldn’t have gotten more interesting, leave it to a team from Hollywood and The Big East to add some proverbial Cajun spice to what will be a very interesting summer.