Los Angeles Lakers: The two superstar plan this offseason is clear
By Jason Reed
Step one: The trade
The first step in this offseason plan is to pull off the move that the Los Angeles Lakers should have made during the NBA Trade Deadline and that is trading for Anthony Davis. Davis infamously requested a trade out of New Orleans and with Rich Paul as his agent the Lakers became the clear destination.
The two sides obviously could not get a deal done with the Pelicans continuously driving up the price. However, now that Dell Demps is out and the Boston Celtics potentially being in a worse offseason situation, the Lakers are in a prime position.
The key here for the Lakers is losing as many games as possible to end the season in order to get a higher draft pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. It is not inconceivable to see the Lakers making the jump to the seventh-worst record, which would be huge draft stock.
That would allow the Lakers to only send two of the young trio in order to fill out a more complete roster. Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and that first-round pick, especially if it is inside the top seven, might be more than enough to convince the Pelicans to trade one year of Davis.
At the end of the day, it is just one year, although the Lakers would likely extend him. It is harder to see the team getting much more than what the Lakers could offer.