Los Angeles Lakers: Anthony Davis is worth four first-round picks

The New Orleans Pelicans are reportedly asking for an insane return to trade Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers that actually is not that insane.

Trade talks seemed to be intensifying between the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans on Monday. With LaVar Ball commenting that Lonzo Ball would prefer to play in Phoenix and Solomon Hill sitting out for the Pelicans, it seemed like a trade was imminent.

However, nothing has yet happened at the time of writing this article and I am sure that nothing has yet happened when you are reading this.

And that is because of the massive price tag that the New Orleans Pelicans have put on Davis, seemingly because the team is in no rush to trade him and likely doesn’t want to trade him to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times reported that Magic Johnson offered the Pelicans Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Lance Stephenson, Michael Beasley, Rajon Rondo and two picks for Davis and Hill.

The addition of Hill is practically another asset that the Lakers are sending the Pelicans as it would give the Pelicans cap relief.

That seemingly was not enough for Dell Demps and the Pelicans. New Orleans reportedly wants four first-round draft picks and two second-round draft picks from the Los Angeles Lakers in return for Davis.

It would definitely be worth sending four picks if the Lakers could hold onto one of Ball, Ingram or Kuzma. However, that is likely not the case, with the picks likely coming on top of the already offered package for Davis.

The price tag is so high that the Lakers have reportedly pulled out of dicussions for Davis.

The Los Angeles Lakers pulling out of discussions might be smart for leverage sake if the team revisits a deal in the offseason. However, it is not like those draft picks are more valuable than Davis.

While it is a massive price tag, it would be worth it for Anthony Davis. It would deplete the roster and keep the Lakers from adding in the draft but it would be worth it to contend for a title.

So long as Rajon Rondo does not get traded.

When you really think about it those picks are not going to mean much for the Lakers, especially considering the team does not have the best track record when it comes to developing players.

A team consisting of Anthony Davis and LeBron James is undoubtedly going to be in the bottom three of every draft outside of this year. That means the Lakers are essentially giving away a pick from 28-30 for four years for an All-NBA, MVP-caliber player.

In order, starting from the 28th overall pick in 2015 and working our way up, here are picks 28-30 over the last four years.

R.J. Hunter, Chris McCollough, Kevon Looney, Skal Labissiere, Dejounte Murray, Damian Jones, Tony Bradley, Derrick White, Josh Hart, Jacob Evans, Dzanan Musa and Omari Spellman.

Is there a chance that you could land a sleeper? Absolutely. Although the track record isn’t the greatest to support that claim.

Four of those players have played more than 100 games: Looney, Labissiere, Murray and Hart.

The combined Win Shares on Basketball-Reference of all of those players over the last four seasons is 26.0. Davis alone has accounted for 40.4 Win Shares the last four seasons. Looney is the best of the bunch with 8.7 Win Shares.

In fact, you have to go all the way back to 2011 to find an all-star in those selections in Jimmy Butler, who was drafted 30th overall.

To hang onto the draft picks for the one percent chance hopes of landing someone like Butler is absolutely silly. It becomes even more silly when you consider that the Los Angeles Lakers are trying to win titles now, not develop players to be better later.

That is what the last five years have been for.