While Anthony Davis is back on the court for the Pelicans after last week’s trade deadline drama, things don’t look quite right in New Orleans. On Tuesday night, the Pelicans were run off their home court by the Magic, suffering a 118-88 loss to a team outside the playoff picture in the East.
“We sucked,” Davis said after the game, per Brett Martel of The Associated Press. “Nobody was interested in playing, is what it looked like.”
It certainly seems possible that Davis’ trade request and all the speculation about his future continues to impact the Pelicans’ performance on the floor. Head coach Alvin Gentry was in no mood to have that discussion though, as Martel relays.
“What we’re trying to do is just move on from it. We need to bury it,” Gentry said of Davis’ decision to request a trade. “Whatever our new normal is, we want to get back to that and put all the other stuff behind us and just start playing and trying to win basketball games, and trying to compete and try to get our young players better. That’s all I want to do. That’s it. And I’m not going to talk about it anymore. I’m done talking about it.”
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- In a column for The Advocate, Scott Kushner argues that the Davis saga – particularly his return to the court – has been a “prolonged, smug jab at the intelligence of Pelicans fans.” In Kushner’s view, the Pelicans and Davis are no longer invested in one another, and the team should either stand up to the NBA by benching Davis or have someone from management or ownership publicly address the situation.
- Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley appeared likely to be traded leading up to last week’s deadline, and admitted that he had trouble sleeping and checked his phone “a thousand times,” as Royce Young of ESPN.com details. Conley, who described Thursday as a long, emotional, and difficult day, has been fairly quiet on the court since the deadline, scoring 11 points on Saturday and then missing Tuesday’s game with an illness.
- In advance of Jonas Valanciunas‘ debut with the Grizzlies on Tuesday, David Cobb of The Memphis Commercial Appeal explored how the team’s newest big man would fit in. The plan is for Valanciunas to come off the bench behind Ivan Rabb, but if he keeps playing like he did last night (23 points and 10 rebounds in 21 minutes), that plan may be short-lived.
- During a radio appearance on KESN-FM 103.3 ESPN in Dallas, Bobby Marks examined how the Mavericks might use their cap room this summer after moving Harrison Barnes, suggesting that Nikola Vucevic will be among Dallas’ top targets (link via The Dallas Morning News). The Mavs’ interest in Vucevic was previously reported.
For a short while, Conley was the highest paid player in the history of professional basketball. Never been an All-Star. Hard to fathom that he could hardly sleep “worrying” about being traded. We should all feel sorry for him!
Yea, coz money clearly overrides everything else. If your employer traded you to Utah, how would you react? Time to pack all your crap, tell your kids they have to move away from all their friends, set up new living arrangements at the drop of a hat. Sure, money will help pay for some of the hardships of moving, however, you overlook the human element of this. You can’t fault a guy for being paid, no one put a gun to ownerships head and forced that contract. You can be jealous and come off like a heartless hater tho.
Lmao! Jealous and a hater…. how about that! Jealous and hating on a guy a train with everyday in the summer at OSU, and I told him myself how we all feel so sorry for him that he may have to move to another team and have a different signature on those 4mil per month checks! Lol! He laughed himself.
Great comment tho!
*I train
Lol Now you’re hating
Would you like a gluten free organic cookie because you cracked a joke with a guy you “trained” with? I cracked jokes with my buddy at the gym after his girl left him. He laughed too…doesn’t mean he was ok with the situation. You diss a guy for being the highest paid player without being an all star, doesn’t sound like love. You speak of his salary like he is undeserving, yet he didn’t force anyone to pay him. You choose to make a comment that seems to rag on a guy you saw in a gym once…sorry for misinterpreting your admiration of the dude. My sincerest apologies for offending you
Lmao Try that psychology on someone who’ll fall for it. U wasted waaay too much time on that lol!
Btw… its trained – not trained with. Thx
Anthony Davis is making himself very unlikable. I’m not sure it will cost him $$$, but NBA fans and possibly management will not forget this anytime soon
Agreed. Something to be said about keeping stuff behind closed doors. This turned into a soap opera that made Davis, his agent, and LeBron look bad. LeBron has been heckled by opposing fans at games like crazy. Last game the chants were ‘Kobe’s Better’.
That’s because Kobe is better. But all of that aside, LeBron hasn’t done anything for L.A. Even having a hand in picking the players around him, they still aren’t winning. I will give him a tiny break because I know he has been hurt, but he hasn’t made his teammates better this year. Kobe always did.
You kidding, right? Kobe was the most selfish player ever. Shaq won the first 3 rings for him & Gasol the last 2. So pleeease never say Kobe is better, no fan will ever agree with you.
Man vucevic would be nasty on mavs with porzingis but honestly i think mavs should try to aquire jrue holiday, his shooting and great defense would fit nicely next to doncic.
Vucevic and 2 knock down shooters. Now that they have Luka and Zinger. Getting Vucevic and adding shooting should be the mission. I also like the THJ addition too. If he can adapt to a playmaking role when Luka sits and not just jack up shots. Then he’s a good addition.
@Pelicans ownership and @NBA need to agree to keep @AntDavis23 far away from the New Orleans arena. Its a farce and Davis doesn’t deserve to play due to the situation he selfishly created. I would MUCH rather watch some young players that are invested in the opportunity play with intensity and focus.
All is the fault of the pels, everyone knew that was gonna happen if they didn’t trade AD. They had a great offer, they didn’t wanna move him, so what they expect of him. They are out of the playoffs, taken his name out of the team presentation… so hardly he should be playing out of his skin for them, right? Anyway he as always is doing the best for the pels, the last thing they want now is to win ball games ahead of their rebuild, they wanna lose & lose big so they can get a good pick at the draft, so they are quite happy. In all of this the only victims are AD & the fans, personally I use to like the Pels now they shown to be beyond competent, they deserve him to walk out no signing & not getting anything for him, that would put them right.
True man they should’ve took Lonzo,Ingram,Kuzma,Hart,Zubac plus two firsts. Swapped Solomon Hill w KCP to clear some more cap for next year. After that domino Holiday would’ve went too along w Mirotic for more assets. Instead they got this debacle
If Dallas gets Vucevic, then it could be one of the fastest out house to penthouse rebuilds in this era. They’d just need a wing to play with Doncic and Brunson on the perimeter. They’ll have their 1st and more cap space in the summer of 2020.
Totally agree, I think if Dallas do well this summer they can be beyond scary for next year.
Agreed. Keep in mind that Cuban has a man crush on Cousins. Add either Vucevic or Cousins and this teams gets scary impressive real fast. Vucevic would make the Mavs essnentially a European All Star team.