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The New Orleans Pelicans have no interest in trading five-time All-Star center Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers at the moment, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who said as much on NBA Countdown Wednesday (h/t The Render and SLAM).
The 25-year-old Davis, who is averaging 29.3 points, 13.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocks this season, has formally requested a trade. He’s been connected with the Lakers, to the point where Dave McMenamin of ESPN wrote that a source told him the “speculation is ‘weighing heavily’ on several of [the Lakers’ young players].”
Wojnarowski previously reported that the Pels “won’t make a deal before [the February 7] NBA trade deadline unless they’re offered an overwhelming package.” These latest comments seem to partially confirm that notion, especially with the Lakers standing as one of the most obvious trading partners for the Pels.
Los Angeles has a ton of young talent to work with, including a couple of top-two overall draft picks in Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball as well as second-leading scorer Kyle Kuzma. Josh Hart has been a Swiss army knife capable of filling the stat sheet, and center Ivica Zubac has shined in spurts.
Per McMenamin, “any Lakers trade package presented to the Pelicans would include some combination of Ingram, Hart, Kuzma, Ball and Ivica Zubac, as well as a future first-round pick or picks.” L.A. may be amenable to doing that so Davis can land in southern California, but a source told McMenamin that Pels general manager Dell Demps “is not picking up his phone.”
New Orleans released a statement on Monday and noted that “relative to specific talks of a trade, we will do this on our terms and our timeline.”
At this juncture, all the signs point to a potential Lakers-Pelicans deal occurring in the summer, if at all.
from News fore today http://bit.ly/2HGAOgZ
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