The Knicks and Lakers are equal on Anthony Davis‘ list of preferred destinations, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times. The Clippers and Bucks also remain in the top four, Stein adds. New York may make a bid for Davis before the deadline, but it should be in a stronger position after the draft lottery when everyone knows where its first-rounder will fall (Twitter link).
League sources tell Stein that Davis doesn’t expect to sign his next contract before he reaches free agency in 2020, no matter where he is by then (Twitter link). That means anyone who trades for Davis won’t be assured of a long-term extension.
He has been sidelined with a fractured left index finger, but Davis intends to resume playing regardless of what happens at the trade deadline (Twitter link). He has received medical clearance to return to action, but the Pelicans haven’t divulged their plans for Davis if there’s no trade on Thursday. He was held out of two games this week to avoid further injury.
Here’s a roundup of rumors heading into the trade deadline:
- The Lakers are running out of hope that a Davis trade will be completed before the deadline, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Pelicans GM Dell Demps hasn’t responded to Magic Johnson’s latest offer, and it appears New Orleans is content to run out the clock. The Pelicans may never have been serious about dealing with L.A. and might have been trying to sabotage the Lakers as revenge for what they consider to be tampering, tweets Rachel Nichols, host of ESPN’s “The Jump.” “It’s not just possible, it’s what happened,” colleague Brian Windhorst said today in an appearance on the show.
- The Mavericks will have buyout talks with newly acquired Zach Randolph, Wojnarowski tweets. The 37-year-old hasn’t played yet this season, but he may be able to help a contender.
- The Timberwolves continue to look for someone to take Jeff Teague and Gorgui Dieng, sources tell Chris Hine of The Star-Tribune. Teague has a $19MM player option for next season, while Dieng still has two seasons left on his four-year, $63MM deal. Minnesota hasn’t found much interest, but it may be willing to attach Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson, Anthony Tolliver or Luol Deng as incentives.
- New Pelican Markieff Morris could become a buyout candidate once he’s fully recovered from a neck injury, tweets Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
- The Thunder plan to watch what the Suns do with Wayne Ellington and may be interested if he hits the buyout market, according to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News (Twitter link).
You gotta love how the Pelicans played the Lakers. Lol. Sorry, Le-I’llNeverBeBetterThanJordan-Bron.
Played them how exactly? Demps will get his.
The funny thing is when the Patriots won the Superbowl, LeBron tweeted Brady saying he’s the GOAT with 6 rings behind it. LeBron claims to be the GOAT. The media on LeBron’s tweet: Didn’t Jordan win 6 rings in 6 tries? Brady said “I’d rather be called trash than the GOAT. On the Lakers tampering, yes they do, and they don’t even try to hide it.
You are correct. By forcing the Lakers to give up 5 players and multiple #1’s Demps played the Lakers. Oh wait. He forgot to say yes. Didn’t complete the sting. He didn’t play the Lakers. What he will do is trade Davis to anyone else for less. It’s why his team perpetually sucks.
Agree that the Lakers made a strong offer. However, with the trade rumors being made so public, you can’t deny it has had an impact on the Lakers locker room. They recently had a tense incidence after a game. Coach Walton is even on a bigger hot seat. Bell’s dad is back to making noise. They just suffered LeBron’s worse loss of his career. Opposing fans have mocked the mess that the trade rumors created.
Two fairly big stars (Harris & Kristaps) were traded without the public discourse. Granted neither are as big of a name as the brow. But it shows that trades can be made behind the scenes. The misstep in all of this was that it became so public. Lakers will overcome this, but it’s pretty apparent that it’s impacted their team.
How can you blame Demps for how he’s handled this? The lakers are desperate for another Star so you know their offer will be there this offseason. Plus how are you sold that guys like Ingram, Kuzma and Ball are building blocks for a contending team? I know I’m not. Not to mention the Celtics are pretty much begging the Pels to hold off until this offseason to trade Davis. Putting the lakers and Celtics against eachother is prime for the Pels to get the best offer. Not to mention if Tatum is part of the Boston package he’s much more of a building block than the Lakers young guys.
Anthony Davis just said tonight he will not sign an extension with “anybody.” and wants to test the open market in 2020. Otherwise he has no favorites now.
What? No one thought he was going to be traded before the off-season. The Lakers team would be exactly the same if he didn’t make the trade tasty request
Man thibs botched that gm job. Their roster is a dumpster fire. If he gets another gig that team deserves the butcher job he’s gonna give em
So much for the claims that the Laker youth were overrated. After Rich Paul tried to big-time Demps, he was never going to deal with the Lakers regardless. For the Lakers, it was like dealing with @Ptn, who was ready with the prediction of this neener neener play.
Fortunately for Demps, he may have accidently made the right choice. Depends on what happens with the Knicks & Nets. Or Pat Riley might retire.
The bidding war is over. Knicks & Celtics can fight over AD only so much.
It was actually Coach Popovich whom Demps previously worked for. He told Demps not to deal with the Lakers and do what he did with Kawhi. He said he wasn’t going to be responsible for making the Lakers a championship contender.
Everybody might as well shut up until after the May 24 draft lottery. The Pelicans won’t do anything until they find out who is getting Zion.
For Zion’s sake and his career, I hope he doesn’t end up in Nola. That would truly be a shame, and it would only be abother repeat of AD for the Pelicans. He would star for New Orleans, and they will struggle to make the playoffs, while they are unable to surround Zion with any real help. Then right before his first contract is up, Zion will demand a trade, and we will be doing this all over again…lol
Lol….
If the Hawks get #1, do you think they trade? 50/50
If the Suns get #1, they won’t trade.
If Clev gets it, they won’t trade.
If Chi gets it, they won’t trade,
If Memphis gets it, they won’t trade.
If the Magic get it, they won’t trade.
So you’re putting all your faith in NY getting the pick. Or Atl getting #1 and the Mavs pick conveying so they still get a pick. That’s not a reason to shut up! It is a reason to know the odds of that pick being traded are not good.
The draft lottery isn’t until May 24 when the Knicks will know if they have a chance with New Orleans. The trade deadline is past. Demps can take calls, but he can’t do anything until the draft.
Pops is a bitter old dude. I can almost see him not dealing with the Lakers because of the duels the two teams had. But for him to call another GM and convince them to not deal as well is spiteful. And not only that he is doing his pal Demps no favors. Pops is sitting on top of one of the flagship franchises in the NBA. Demps is at the bottom of the barrel. Say what you want about the five players the Lakers allegedly offered up that’s quite a haul for any team. There is no gaurantee any of these players, or Tatum, or Brown, or Smart ever become year to year all stars. And if one did? He’d leave. Like Chris Paul. Like Anthony Davis. I’d take the quantity. I get Pops doesn’t want to see the Lakers win. But he is hurting another franchise. And I hope Pop wins out.
With the Lakers having nobody to compete with, Demps would have been stupid to take their deal. At least Pops got DeRozan. I’d imagine the Pelicans are looking at Tatum or Williamson. Who knows maybe the Bucks offer a sign and trade with Kris Middleton. Demps has lots of options now. Pop was trying to keep Demps from being steered clear of a con artist.
Keep believing that buddy. Let’s look back in July and see what the Pels get.
Plot twist: AD, Jahlil, Elf, Julius, Niko and Markieff form a Randy Orton fellowship (outta nowhere) and get a ring.
Raptors trade Lowry, Powell and CJ Miles to Minnesota for Wiggins, Teague and Gibson.
Not really a horrible idea. I don’t love the idea of the Raptors making a major trade right now, but if they did this would be a good one. If Wiggins is going to blossom anywhere, it might be in his hometown.
Bro I’m a twolves fan and I love that trade
If Magic & LeBron would learn to keep their mouths shut about players, maybe teams will be more willing to deal with them. I don’t blame the Pelicans one bit. Like Seth Greenberg said last night, the Lakers haven’t won with their young players. Why would the Pelicans want players who haven’t had success? The Lakers overvalue their young players. They aren’t as good as the Lakers think they are.
The Pelicans aren’t trading him now because it makes more sense to do it in summer. Everyone has said that the whole time. If the Lakers give the best offer in summer the Pelicans will take it.
No one can reasonably think it’s the Lakers fault AD is leaving
Holy whoever wrote this…
The Lakers are victims for not catering to the Lakers offers? And the Lake Show are calling prejudice?
Your star player was publicly recruiting AD and their shared agent stratigecly announced AD wanted out just before the deadline to try and force a trade. Problem tho, the Lakers best offer still sucked, and the Pels are leaning towards a trade in the upcoming offseason…..
Did I just read that Minnesota wants to attach Luol Deng as an incentive in a trade? What a difference a year makes. At least it must do Deng’s ego good to know that he is now being offered as a bonus to get people to take bad money instead of being the bad money himself.
Was looking to see if anyone else saw that. I thought the same thing… If they had been smart, which they clearly arent. they would have played him a bit more to demonstrate value. If you want to fool someone into giving up the goods you need to deploy the Dennis system properly.
Demps handled this all wrong. If I’m Boston I’m for sure low balling him when the offseason comes cause he just disrespected the competition. All Knicks have to give us a pick so they are virtually out of the running. Danny Ainge is sitting back laughing at the pelicans this morning. Celtics won’t offer Tatum after playoffs and Knicks won’t have a top 3 pick.
So everyone has been saying collusion or tampering between Lakers, Paul, AD. What about all the GMs calling NO to beg them not to make this trade? I mean what do they say ‘no we talked about an offer of Pau Gasol straight up for AD that’s all.’
The league working together not to make a trade happen, same as black balling a player. I get the benefit to the organization to not let a player 1.5 yrs out dictate a trade. But this is honestly no different than the sign-n-trade deals. This just gives them more time to figure out a deal. The same thing happens the player has a preferred destination isnt going to extend with team x y z that are not on his list.
What a difference a contract makes. 30 mm/2 yr vs 1.5 mm expiring.
how dumb lakers management has been!