Quote:"At the end of the day, I'm going to do what's best for my career, and that's just where it stands. That's just where it stands," Irving said on Friday morning ahead of the Celtics' game against the New York Knicks. "And my focus this season is winning a championship with the Boston Celtics. Obviously, we had goals coming into the season, and the primary goal is to win a championship. So that's where my focus is."
And, Woj rips the Lakers for trying to lowball the Pelicans on Davis:
Quote:As the Los Angeles Lakers pursue New Orleans Pelicans All-NBA center Anthony Davis ahead of Thursday's trade deadline, the initial offers have been underwhelming, including the Lakers' first offer of Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Rajon Rondo, Michael Beasley and a first-round pick, league sources told ESPN.
The Lakers have limited offers to two of the franchise's top young players in every proposal, and resisted including more than a single first-round pick in offers, league sources said.
Quote:Also, the Lakers haven't offered salary cap relief for the Pelicans, which would mean absorbing unappetizing Pelicans contracts as part of a larger trade, sources said. That's a typical staple of offers designed to acquire superstar players.
Lakers president Magic Johnson has been communicating with Pelicans GM Dell Demps, sources said. So far, New Orleans hasn't considered the offers worthy of response or countering, league sources said.
Deadline is next week; I wouldn’t expect the first offer to be overwhelming. Not that they’re gonna make a deal anyway but if Demps took the first offer he received he’d be even more of a chump than he’s already perceived to be.
Either the Lakers are getting serious about making viable offers for Davis, or they're just trying to make everyone think they're getting serious about it. But this looks to be close to a final offer.
(This post was last modified: 02-04-2019 03:57 PM by Wedge.)
Heard earlier today that another Pelican would be included in the next offer. I can only imagine we're heading down this road because Demps thinks he needs to take this seriously. Either Davis's threat to leave any other team (including Celtics) after next year is being taken seriously or Demps is bid shopping (i.e. he'll take what he perceives as LA's best offer to Ainge and ask him to beat it).
Leaves an interesting team if NO takes the deal: LBJ, Davis, Zubac, Hart, KCP would be their 5 best players. Not a guard in sight, although James likes to handle the ball so that's sort of addressed? I think Hart can play shooting guard. His defense is hit and miss. The next 2 best players would be McGee and Chandler - more centers. It'd be interesting to see Magic and Pelinka scrounge the scrap heaps for ball handler, shooters, and defenders.
(This post was last modified: 02-04-2019 04:26 PM by Brookes Owl.)
E'Twaun Moore would make sense as the 3rd Pelicans player in the deal, that's a contract they'd want to jettison, especially given how many guards they'd be getting from the Lakers.
Though, to make Moore's addition work in the rumor above, the Lakers would have to add another player, probably KCP, to the deal. Not ideal from the Lakers perspective but another benefit for NO because KCP is on a one year contract, whereas Moore and Hill are both under contract through 2019-20.
Rumors that Lakers are shopping KCP elsewhere - including a KCP for Jabari Parker deal. Lakers need shooters but Parker is a shooter... who can't shoot. And there's this...
Maybe that really is altering the market?
ETA: Can you imagine Davis and Antetokounmpo playing together? That'd be amazing.
(This post was last modified: 02-04-2019 07:27 PM by Brookes Owl.)
you know, i kinda like the kings. the voice of the kings is a turd but he certainly is very entertained. fun team. i really wanted them to move to seattle but sac has had a colorful history. it's just pretty impossible for them to ever compete
Woj Wrote:The Pelicans haven't countered the Lakers' offers but do have expectations that Johnson will overwhelm them with young players and a historic haul of draft picks. To New Orleans, that means four first-round and second-round picks as part of a trade package, league sources told ESPN. The Pelicans want to be compensated -- perhaps even overcompensated -- for bypassing the chance to open up the process in the offseason and delivering Davis to the Lakers now.
Scorched earth basketball deal. Two max salary players and no/few decent picks for 2+ years. Even if they could get LBJ, Davis et al to a championship or 2, it'd be hard to avoid another few seasons in the wilderness after James leaves/retires. Take on future famine for current feast?
(This post was last modified: 02-05-2019 12:41 PM by Brookes Owl.)
Woj Wrote:The Pelicans haven't countered the Lakers' offers but do have expectations that Johnson will overwhelm them with young players and a historic haul of draft picks. To New Orleans, that means four first-round and second-round picks as part of a trade package, league sources told ESPN. The Pelicans want to be compensated -- perhaps even overcompensated -- for bypassing the chance to open up the process in the offseason and delivering Davis to the Lakers now.
Scorched earth basketball deal. Two max salary players and no/few decent picks for 2+ years. Even if they could get LBJ, Davis et al to a championship or 2, it'd be hard to avoid another few seasons in the wilderness after James leaves/retires. Take on future famine for current feast?
Looks like the Pelicans just want to make the Lakers grovel, and put everything on the table, and then they'll say no anyway.
In other words, Demps is the French guard and Magic is poor King Arthur.
EDIT: Looks like Magic or someone else with the Lakers finally figured that out...
Yeah, I think Magic figured it out when Demps asked for his 1980 Finals MVP trophy and unlimited use of Magic's mother-in-law suite whenever he's in town.
Funny - that LA Times article says:
Broderick Turner Wrote:The Lakers have been adamant that they will not get into a bidding war this summer with the Boston Celtics, who are another team that is interested in Davis, one source said.
They won't bid against the Celtics cuz there's nothing left after submitting 4 bids against themselves!
(This post was last modified: 02-05-2019 05:30 PM by Brookes Owl.)
It might backfire on the Pelicans. Suppose that Ainge's best offer this summer is Jaylen Brown and a low first round pick. If the Lakers aren't bidding, Ainge might not have to go higher than that, and Rich Paul said that Davis would just be a one-year rental for almost every team other than the Lakers, so...
Although the Lakers let Demps make them look kind of foolish, it probably benefitted Lakers management to demonstrate to LeBron that they did everything within reason, and even a bit more, to try to get Davis.
Quote:To New Orleans, that means four first-round and second-round picks as part of a trade package...
Get the [Beep] outta here with that crap!
A lot of posturing for naught...
Quote:This act of surrender shouldn’t surprise anyone. The Lakers were never close in finding common ground with the Pelicans on a deal for Davis — despite all the loud positive noise emanating out of Los Angeles. Remember, New Orleans wasn’t even interested in picking up the phone to talk to Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka as the Laker offers were incredibly underwhelming throughout. The Pelicans are interested in receiving a centerpiece player who has the potential of making an All-NBA team someday, and it reportedly hurt matters that Lonzo Ball and his group made it known they did not want to come to New Orleans.
The biggest reason that a deal didn’t come together with the Lakers at this time: it didn’t need to.
With Anthony Davis still under contract for 18 months and a long list of suitors expected to be sitting on New Orleans’ doorstep at the conclusion of this season, the Pelicans have all the leverage to choose how much they want to ask for now and which direction they prefer to travel. Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Lonzo Ball and any other Laker assets you want to add to any package now may sound like a good offer, but with the Boston Celtics possessing better younger players and more enviable draft assets, the New York Knicks potentially winning the draft lottery and rights to Zion Williamson, and whatever else other teams may decide to throw at New Orleans in an attempt to whisk away Davis over the summer was always going to be close to impossible of a bar for the Lakers to meet — regardless of all the strong tactics employed by the Los Angeles organization and Anthony Davis’ representation, Rich Paul and Klutch Sports.
Quote:The Pelicans may be horrendous at building a contender around a generational talent, but for sheer dark-hearted vindictiveness, they are in a class all their own.
This is how many points better/worse the Lakers are per 100 possessions when a player is on the floor this season. (min. 500 minutes played)
LeBron = +7.4
Chandler = +5.6
Hart = +4.7
Zu = +3.0
Zo = +1.3
Kuz = +1.2
BI = +0.2
KCP = -4.1
Rondo = -4.5
McGee = -4.9
Lance = -6.2
6:43 AM - 24 Feb 2019
Quote:Laker Film Room
@LakerFilmRoom
The bottom four players on this list are all guys that the Lakers signed this summer to put around LeBron. Michael Beasley was another, and he'd be dead last (-6.3) if he played enough minutes to qualify.
(02-25-2019 02:40 PM)Wedge Wrote: Good analysis here about how poor the Lakers' free agent acquisitions have performed compared to the younger players that Magic and Pelinka inherited.
This is how many points better/worse the Lakers are per 100 possessions when a player is on the floor this season. (min. 500 minutes played)
LeBron = +7.4
Chandler = +5.6
Hart = +4.7
Zu = +3.0
Zo = +1.3
Kuz = +1.2
BI = +0.2
KCP = -4.1
Rondo = -4.5
McGee = -4.9
Lance = -6.2
6:43 AM - 24 Feb 2019
Quote:Laker Film Room
@LakerFilmRoom
The bottom four players on this list are all guys that the Lakers signed this summer to put around LeBron. Michael Beasley was another, and he'd be dead last (-6.3) if he played enough minutes to qualify.
6:45 AM - 24 Feb 2019
That sounds right - and I think it was the expectation from most when we first heard about the deals. There was a lot of head scratching going on here but the general conclusion was ...just some guys to get LBJ through this season, but NEXT year's gonna be different. I'm not so sure now.
so lol funny about the Lakers right now.... 6.5 games out with 18 to play....
And vs the Clippers and Spurs- they already have clinched not having the tiebreaker at the end of the season....
So it's worse. Right now if the Clippers/Spurs play .500 ball rest of the season (8-8) they would finish at 45-37. For the Lakers to beat them, they would have to finish 16-1.
Yeah, I think Magic figured it out when Demps asked for his 1980 Finals MVP trophy and unlimited use of Magic's mother-in-law suite whenever he's in town.
