NBA recap: Pelicans’ next move, All-Star reserves and more
The New Orleans Pelicans’ plan of action moving forward, All-Star reserve choices and a great slate of games headline this week in the NBA basketball realm.
The Anthony Davis sweepstakes have officially started. One of the game’s largest talents and coveted players handed in his official request to be traded away from the New Orleans Pelicans, as he will not sign an extension with the franchise, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Woj continued to say that AD’s agent Rich Paul plans to tell suitors that his client’s preferred destination is the Los Angeles Lakers, but the Pelicans are pushing for the NBA to pursue tampering allegations against Davis and the Lakers, with both potentially getting fined. The Pels released a statement detailing disappointment with the request, but will take their time in assessing their options.
There a number of situations that make this specific trade request so interesting. First, the player. No player of the Brow’s stature and talent has been traded midseason since Wilt Chamberlain was traded in 1965. Pau Gasol in 2008 put the Lakers over the top in terms of title contention, but Pau wasn’t as dominant as AD.
Clyde Drexler was past his prime when he joined the Houston Rockets in 1995. Blake Griffin is awesome in his own right, but AD’s overall talent is well above Griffin’s. Rasheed Wallace moving to the Detroit Pistons helped them start a run that included two NBA Finals appearances in 2004, including a title right away, but Sheed didn’t carry a team by himself. The list is strong, but Davis at the peak of his powers is better than all since WIlt.
Next, the team that can put together the best offer for the Pelicans can’t make an offer until the season concludes. The Boston Celtics have Kyrie Irving on a Derrick Rose Rule contract, and the NBA limits a team to trading for one such player on their roster. The Celtics have obvious interest and assets with young players and draft picks, but they have to hope the Pelicans aren’t blown away before the Feb. 7 trade deadline or lose their chance in the AD bidding over the summer.
Which leads to the final point: Should the Pelicans wait and hold onto a disgruntled superstar for the rest of the season, or begin the bottoming out process now? New Orleans isn’t a destination city for NBA players and they rank 29th in the league in attendance, according to Basketball-Reference, while boasting a solid team with one of the best players in the NBA. Tanking or winning, fans weren’t and aren’t going to show up.
Trading AD before the deadline gives them a chance at plummeting in the West and better odds of getting an immediate top-five draft pick. They lose the Brow, but get start anew with some young pieces and future draft picks. If they hold onto their star until the summer, the locker room may build with tension and the team’s lost season will see them picking in the late lottery with hopes of landing a supreme deal from Boston.
Regardless of their decision, they have to look within for their failure to capitalize on an all-time talent that netted one playoff series win in only two trips to the postseason out of seven seasons.
Jrue Holiday said “90 percent” of the reason he re-signed in NOLA was because of Davis. The Pels’ signings of Omer Asik and Solomon Hill were scoffed at at the time of the moves. They didn’t build a great team around one of the easiest players to build with, and that’s ultimately their downfall.
Who knows whether the move will be done in a week, but it’s a situation where a team loses its best player in franchise history for the hope of the future. These trades rarely work out for the team losing the All-NBA player, and the New Orleans Pelicans are in a lose-lose scenario no matter who they receive in a deal.