Lakers Acquire Anthony Davis (Finally)

The King and The 'Brow

I'm officially bipolar with the Lakers right now. It was teased before the trade deadline, but both sides couldn't come to a deal. But now, it is official (well until July) and as expected, it was making waves in the headlines since it was announced. The Lakers and the New Orleans Pelicans have agreed to a trade to get Anthony Davis in the Purple and Gold in exchange for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and 3 first round picks.

LeBron got what he wanted. He wanted Anthony Davis to come over here to LA and contend for a title and he got it. Like I said, the Lakers are just begging me to become bipolar with their moves. I gotta give credit to Rob Pelinka and David Griffin for pulling off this deal with no strings attached. Compared to the midseason, then-Pelicans president Dell Demps tried everything to sabotage the Lakers by getting them to give up the entire team for AD. But, it turns out he was bluffing and it lead to his firing. With David Griffin, whether or not the Cavalier ties with LeBron helped or not, they were able to pull off this deal. We also gotta give credit to another outside source: Rich Paul. He represents both LBJ and AD via Klutch Sports. He failed in pulling the strings during the midseason, but it worked this time around.

I get the excitement because AD is one of the best big men in the game today. He can play inside and outside and is the ideal rim protector and shot blocker that the Lakers were missing since 2013. Now on the flip side, many may argue that the Lakers gave up too much. Which is true. The risk in getting a player on 1-year rental for that much is that player might leave when things go sour on their short tenure with the team. We've seen this first hand with the Dwight Howard experiment from 2012-13. Now granted, AD has verbally expressed to sign the Lakers in the long term, but that may change depending on how the season goes playing alongside LeBron. Not to mention, the Pelicans might've secured their future for the next 5-7 years. I'm not gonna lie, they're going to be an exciting young team with Lonzo, B.I., and possibly Zion Williamson coming to town. They still have Jrue Holiday to provide that veteran presence and they have the Lakers' #4 pick this year. They'll be a team on the come up. The silver lining here is that the Lakers held on to Kyle Kuzma. At least they keep one of the key young players and it's none other than the Lakers' 2017 draft steal that showed major strides with his ability to score. With AD and 'Bron, Kuz is the ideal 3rd option. He could be the fourth option if they make a run at Kemba Walker or get Kyrie Irving to reunite playing alongside LeBron.

Now that the trade is over with, the Lakers now have some major holes to fill. Their back court is literally void of talent. Small forward is also a need now. A scoring point guard like Kemba or Kyrie could shoulder the load off of whoever fills that shooting guard spot. If they manage to land either one, great. They must use up the remaining cap to sign quality role players who can shoot and play defense. If not, they're still solid mid-tier options available like re-signing Rajon Rondo. This might actually entice Rondo to stay considering he had success with AD in New Orleans. Either way, now that the Lakers have their act together (for the moment) and with the West wide open with Golden State in shambles due to KD and Klay's injuries, they must strike while the iron is hot in the offseason in order to get back to the top.