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Yahoo Sports insider Chris Haynes doesn't see the New Orleans Pelicans trading superstar big man Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers before the Feb. 7 trade deadline.
The NBA fined Anthony Davis $50,000 on Tuesday for violating a collectively-bargained rule prohibiting players or their representatives from making public trade demands. New Orleans released a statement on Monday saying they want the league to pay close to the Lakers and LeBron James for tampering with Davis following his trade request.
Davis and James share the same agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports.
“I don’t see that right now,” Haynes told Colin Cowherd on The Herd. “I mean, if you look at the statement, they’re still on the league about looking into tampering charges and so there’s bad blood. I was talking with somebody earlier and they brought up Gregg Popovich, how he was not going to trade Kawhi [Leonard] to the Lakers, and I said this is different. It’s a little bit deeper even than that.
“So from that mindset right now I do not see a way the Pelicans do a deal that will send AD over to the Lakers. I just don’t see that happening. And I don’t know if the league is going to let that happen right now.”
If the Lakers aren't able to acquire Anthony Davis before the trade deadline, the Boston Celtics would be the front runner to land AD in the summer. Boston can't trade for Davis until Kyrie Irving opts out of his 2019-20 player option.
Once Irving does that, the Celtics can trade Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and all the picks they have at their disposal to New Orleans for Davis, and the Pelicans would surely say yes to that deal.
