With Anthony Davis asking the New Orleans Pelicans for a trade this week, it's only natural to assume that the rest of the Pelicans players will view the demand as a distraction, even though Davis is currently sidelined with a finger injury.

However, Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry insists that the team will be just fine because everything is “out in the open,” according to Scott Kushner of The Advocate.

It's tough to see how Davis' wants being “out in the open” makes them any less distracting, but, of course, Gentry could just be using classic coach speak here.

Not that it even really matters.

Let's face it: the Pelicans aren't going anywhere. They currently own a record of 22-28 and are completely out of the Western Conference playoff picture, just one year after making it to the second round of the playoffs.

So, it's not like Davis requesting a trade is going to make New Orleans that much worse.

In fact, the Pelicans would be wise to not try to win games in the second half of the season in order to secure as good of a draft pick as possible.

Times have been tough for Davis in New Orleans ever since he was drafted in 2012.

Since then, the Pelicans have made the playoffs just twice, losing to the Golden State Warriors in the first round in 2015 and falling to the Warriors again—this time in the second round—last season.

New Orleans has not won 50 games in any one of Davis' seven seasons with the team.