my take on lakers and pelicans trade

 I know this thread has been done tons already but im creating another one, deal with it…

so here are the details of the trade

lakers get anthony davis

pelicans get brandon ingram, lonzo ball, josh hart, the #4 pick in this years draft, lakers 2021 first round pick(top 8 protected, unprotected in 2022 if its pushed back), rights to swap first round picks in 2023, and the lakers first round pick in 2024 which the pelicans can defer to 2025 if they choose to. 

Lakers angle:

pro—they get a top 5 player who is 26 years old and entering his prime. He wont turn 27 until next march as the season is winding down. By the time lebrons 4 year deal is up, davis will still be 29 years old. The lakers havent made the playoffs in 6 seasons and the effort to do it through the draft has resulted in mediocrity. They needed a superstar, not only one that compliments lebron and will help to get the most out of his remaining years, but one that can continue to be a focal building point well after lebron. 

the lakers still have a good amount of cap space to either throw all at one guy they consider elite or to spread around to handful of contributors. Also, the lakers management decided that of all the young pieces they had, it was kyle kuzma who they liked the most and were hoping to keep and sure enough they did just that. Kuz averaged 18ppg last season and stylistically is a perfect fit next to lebron and davis (and whoever else). No he doesnt play defense. but he is a scorer with utmost confidence who wont hesitate to attack or let it fly and he doesnt over dribble or stop the ball when he has it. If he cant catch and score, then he gets rid of it. No iso ball while the clock ticks down. 

Lakers have been unable to land elite free agents for awhile. Paul george didnt even give them an interview. Lamarcus aldridge told them to kick rocks. They were never going to be irrelevent. But fans were getting restless and the prestige of being a laker was dwindling around the nba landscape. Now in a span of 12 months, they added two of the best players in the game. Hoping that young guys and draft picks would pan out was just not an ideal scenario at this point in time

another thing is people compare this to the nets giving up numerous future picks to build a win now contender which backfired on them badly. well paul pierce was 36 years old when that trade was made and was no longer playing at an all-star level. he lasted one season with the nets and averaged 13ppg and was clearly on his last legs. kevin garnett was 37 and lasted 1 1/2 seasons with the nets averagin 6ppg for them and was obviously done as an nba contributor from the day he put their jersey on. while the lakers gave even more then the nets did, they also arent getting back anything close to what the nets got either. 

cons——obviously they lose lots of solid talent. Im particularly high on lonzo ball. He got very inconsistent minutes under luke walton. Ingram was torching it up before getting hurt last year, I think his final 8 games or something he was averaging 28ppg and looked like a man on a mission. He has all-star potential. Hart is solid and a guy who does all the right things on the court. And then of course there is the picks which we cant know for sure what theyll mean for quite some time but the lakers sacrificed a lot to get here. 

Lakers (as it stands today before free agency) are 3 deep. Even after they fill out the roster, they need an aging lebron and an injury prone davis to stay healthy. Thats life in the nba though, but still when you give up so much and put all your eggs in a small basket, those concerns for injuries are magnified.

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Pelicans angle:

pros: The pelicans really started the post davis era with landing the #1 pick(aka zion williamson). Zion will single handidly make this process significantly smoother. They got lots of talent as I mentioned above and of course the picks to set themseleves up long term. Media is applauding them for this deal and rightfully so considering they were gonna lose AD in a year regardless. They save a lot of face for a team losing their franchise player on this and it wouldnt surprise me if they made the playoffs next year. Once davis asked out, there was a cloud over the franchise. Now the fans have busted out of that cloud and have every reason to be positive. Its not like they were competing for titles WITH anthony davis, so how much worse it could be?

cons: good players are a lot easier to come by then franchise caliber guys and if 5 years from now we dont see a major building block on the pelicans roster from this move then it wont be remembered fondly. And its not just about whether or not these pieces become really good players, its also about keeping them. Keep in mind brandon ingram is in the final year of his deal and will be an restricted free agent next summer and the pels might have to match some hefty offers if he plays as well as they hope that he does. I mean the last time new orleans traded a 26 year old superstar entering his prime(chris paul) they got lots of good young pieces (eric gordon, chris kaman, the 8th pick from the previous year al farouq aminu, and the 10th pick in the upcoming draft austin rivers). But all those promising pieces didnt compare to what paul would bring to the clippers.