Earlier in the month, Anthony Davis asked the New Orleans Pelicans for a trade, and it did not take long for the Los Angeles Lakers to pounce.
The Lakers aggressively pursued Davis before the Feb. 7 trade deadline, reportedly making a godfather offer that was said to include Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Ivica Zubac, Josh Hart, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and multiple first-round draft picks.
However, they were rebuffed.
The trade talks were very publicized, which former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin is not a fan of:
“I think the teams that are most successful, sort of come in at the 11th hour under the cover of night and make a deal,” said Griffin, according to Michael Shapiro of Sports Illustrated. “I look at what [former Jazz general manager] Kevin O’Connor did when he traded Deron Williams to the Nets, by way of example. Nobody heard that coming and he made a very positive deal for his franchise and set up the future of his franchise. I think that’s how you should do things, but at the same time with LeBron, it’s very, very difficult to do that. We never kept things as quiet as I would have liked in Cleveland, but that’s because there’s so much media around the LeBron James machine. So I wouldn’t judge them or their process, but my personal preference is definitely to keep things in-house.”
With social media the way it is today, it is very difficult to keep things in-house, especially when you are a glamorous organization like the Lakers. Still, Griffin has a point, as, from what we have heard, the Lakers did not exactly handle the whole process well, which seemed to lead to the Pelicans becoming agitated.
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