Anthony Davis will remain a member of the Pelicans for the rest of the season as New Orleans did not trade the superstar big man before Thursday's trade deadline.
The six-time All-Star wanted to get sent to the Lakers, but Pelicans ownership/management refused to make it happen.
On Wednesday, ESPN's Rachel Nichols asked Brian Windhorst the following question on The Jump:
Nichols: "Do you think that the Pelicans set the Lakers up? Do you think that they were upset enough with what they felt like was tampering -- do you think that they never intended to really engage with the Lakers that much, but kept putting out publicly all these trade offers so that it would ruin their (the Lakers) team chemistry -- at least temporarily -- disrupt all their young guys, make things miserable for this team. Is that possible?"
Windhorst's response:
"It's not just possible. It's what happened. The Pelicans have a method to their madness in the way this went ... there's an information war going on right now. And by the way, it's not just the Pelicans and Lakers playing. There are other teams playing as well. I've never in 16 years covering the NBA -- I've never seen anything like this. It's fascinating and it's not even about the trade. It's about everything that's going on around the trade."
So I asked @WindhorstESPN if the Pels ever intended to seriously engage with LA on Anthony Davis, or if all the talks & leaks were instead designed to sabotage the young Lakers as revenge for what N.O. sees as tampering, & he said "it's not just possible, it's what happened." 👀 pic.twitter.com/wki2hDPaEs— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) February 7, 2019
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In the coming days and weeks and months, we will undoubtedly learn a lot more about what actually transpired because things are murky.
But the one thing that is certain at this point is Davis won't be teaming up with LeBron James this year. The Warriors do not have to think about what a LeBron-Davis pairing would look like.
Even if The Brow ended up in purple and gold, the Lakers wouldn't have been an actual threat to beat Golden State this season. But it would have made a potential playoff series a lot more intriguing.
As of now, Los Angeles is 2.5 games back of the No. 8 seed in the West, so it appears a Warriors-Lakers first-round playoff matchup is in the realm of possibility. But obviously, a lot can change in the standings over the final two months of the season.
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At this point, I'm more curious about what the Pelicans will do with Davis. Is he going to be benched the rest of the way? Will New Orleans fans boo him relentlessly? Is the NBA going to get involved? It's not good for the league to have one of its premiere players effectively banished from taking the floor for the final 27 games.
There are still so many more questions to be answered. For now, just take a deep breath.
Drew Shiller is the co-host of Warriors Outsiders. Follow him on Twitter @DrewShiller
