Winners and losers of the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline

Winner: New Orleans Pelicans

Don’t get it twisted: The New Orleans Pelicans never assembled a contender around a generational talent, and they will lose that talent this summer because of it. That will eventually make them losers, no matter the return. Even so, their manipulation of the Lakers was exquisite, from leaving them on “read” all week to leaking information about their trade offers to giving a fat middle finger to Rich Paul and the Lakers for what they believed to be tampering.

Tampering isn’t what will cost them their MVP this offseason, but the Pelicans’ pettiness was the best strategy. It damaged the Lakers’ interior chemistry with the knowledge that LeBron James was cool with pretty much any of his teammates being shipped off (did you catch that 42-point loss to the Indiana Pacers?). Perhaps just as important, it was the patient and practical approach, allowing the Knicks and Celtics time to assemble their packages this summer and hopefully, give NOLA its maximum return. If they’re losing the Brow, it might as well be for the best possible offer.

Loser: Anthony Davis

Sharing a powerful agent with LeBron James can be a blessing sometimes, as Tristan Thompson and his ludicrous paychecks can attest. It can also backfire, as it did this week when his power moves to get his client to join the King in L.A. just pissed the Pelicans off and led to Anthony Davis being stuck in an uncomfortable situation for a few more months at least.

New Orleans will let AD play out the 2018-19 season once he’s healthy, but this is going to be awkward. Everyone knows he wants out, and the fans will probably respond in kind when he returns to action. The Brow didn’t get his wish, the Lakers didn’t assemble an attractive package and now he’s stuck on a worse squad until this summer, when the best offers will likely come from teams that aren’t the Lakers.