Los Angeles Lakers are slowing down their pursuit for New Orleans Pelicans’ All-Star forward Anthony Davis. According to ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers are done with making offers to Pelicans for the 25-year-old, and won’t re-engage in trade talks until New Orleans makes a counter-offer.
Ever since Anthony Davis asked for a trade a week ago, Lakers have been in the talks with Pelicans about a possible deal. Los Angeles kept making offers, increasing the number of assets they are willing to give up, but New Orleans never came back with a counter-offer.
Sources report that this is the reason why Lakers’ front office, including president of basketball operations Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka, felt like they started bidding against themselves and decided to stop making propositions until Pelicans’ GM Dell Demps shows some level of engagement.
The last offer that LA Lakers sent reportedly included all of team’s young stars Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, and Ivica Zubac alongside two unprotected draft picks and salary cap relief. While this checked all the marks of the perfect trade scenario for NO Pelicans, the team is looking to get more draft capital.
Anthony Davis’ agent recently presented the Pelicans’ a list of teams that Anthony Davis would be willing to go to, which included New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks besides the Lakers. Interesting thing was that the list didn’t include Boston Celtics, who are the team that can make the best offer.
