Anthony Davis Requests Trade From Pelicans

Anthony Davis has requested a trade from the Pelicans and the club are looking at their options to replace the NBA star.

After months of speculation, Pelicans All-NBA forward Anthony Davis officially wants out of New Orleans, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Agent Rich Paul has notified the team that Davis, who is eligible to sign a $240 supermax offer over the summer with New Orleans, has no intention of signing a contract extension and that he has requested a trade.

The Pelicans confirmed the report on Monday afternoon, saying in a statement to ESPN that, “Anthony Davis’ representatives informed us that Anthony does not wish to sign a contract extension with our team and subsequently has requested a trade.”

“Although we are disappointed in this decision, our organization’s top priority is to bring an NBA championship to our city […] Relative to the specific talks of a trade, we will do this on our timeline. One that makes sense for our team and it will not be dictated by those outside of our organization.”

“Anthony wants to be traded to a team that allows him the chance to win consistently and compete for a championship,” Paul told Wojnarowski.

Although the Lakers are 26-24, ninth in the Western Conference, they’re the team generating the most talk around a Davis trade. They have been rumoured to look to trade the likes of Kuzma to acquire a superstar. Although the Western Conference is as loaded as ever — making this far from the path of least resistance — ever since Davis signed with Paul (James’ agent), the Lakers have been cited as a potential destination.

If the Pelicans want to bid their time, they can wait until the offseason when the Celtics can trade for Davis. The Celtics have young players like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, although Brown has been inconsistent this season. The Celtics, however, can’t trade for Davis until July 1, as they traded for Irving as a designated player. NBA teams can only have one designated player on their roster who they traded for at a time.

Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry reportably met with Davis on Monday morning and said Davis told him he’d play the rest of the season once he recovers from his finger injury. He was diagnosed with a sprained left finger late last week that was expected to sideline him up to two weeks. 

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“He plans on playing out the season,” Gentry said on Monday afternoon, writes Andrew Lopez of The Times-Picayune. “That’s my role as to try and win as many games as we possibly can. I think AD is a professional guy. He’s going to play as hard as he can once he gets well and we’re going to the best we can to try and put our team in a position to win games.”

“I spoke to the team this morning and I think everybody understands it’s part of the business,” Gentry said, per The Times-Picayune. “I thought we had a good practice. It was a spirited one. That’s all we can do. We have to come out and prepare the team. He’s still under contract. When he gets healthy, he’ll play.”

One response that had NBA fans talking came from Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes, who wrote a piece calling on the 76ers to pursue a Davis for Ben Simmons trade.

“Anthony Davis is a polished, motivated, complete stretch-four, a high-character, low-maintenance player destined for the Hall of Fame,” Hayes wrote.

“If the Sixers can trade Ben Simmons for Anthony Davis before the February 7 deadline, then they should. Slam dunk. Mic drop. It might rock The Process. So what. Processes change.”

Davis himself is averaging 29.3 points, 13.3 rebounds and his PER is 31 this year — all above his career averages. Davis has been with the Pelicans since he was drafted No. 1 overall in 2012. Since then, the team’s best finish came last year when they lost in five games to the Warriors in the second series of the postseason.