Los Angeles Lakers: The two ways to trade for Anthony Davis

1. The midseason, straight up, trade

The first possibility and the soonest in which the Los Angeles Lakers would be able to acquire Anthony Davis would be to trade for him at this season’s trade deadline.

While this would be the soonest of the two scenarios, it is pretty unlikely. The Pelicans likely would have a stubbornness of trading Davis midseason and instead would want to try and work things out for the superstar. As for the Lakers, trading for Davis is harder without Luol Deng on the books as Deng’s salary would have allowed the deal to be possible.

Still, the Lakers do have some contracts to match up with Davis’ to make this deal possible. The trade:

Anyone expecting the Los Angeles Lakers to get Anthony Davis for a discounted rate is going to be shocked. Davis, who is arguably the third or fourth most-talented player in the league, is going to warrant a big return from the Los Angeles Lakers.

This is going to be focused around Brandon Ingram, who by midseason, may already be in all-star form with a ceiling that could be one of the highest in the league. Joining Ingram is rookies Moritz Wagner and Isaac Bonga. These two make this deal happen financially as well as give the Pelicans more youth to hang onto.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope helps even out the contracts and a 2020 first-round pick adds yet another incentive for the Pelicans.

I could see the Pelicans pushing for another lottery protected pick from the Los Angeles Lakers, potentially in 2019. However, the only reason I did not include the 2019 pick as the Lakers could use it to add depth next season; something the team will need after trading away four players.

This would leave the Lakers’ roster pretty thin but would give the team a chance to contend as early as next season. The one caveat is that Klay Thompson would then be out of the picture, as the Lakers would only have enough cap to add depth pieces.