Anthony Davis to the Lakers
After an injury plagued 2018-19 season that left the Lakers on the outside looking in terms of the playoff picture, the Lakers now looks to reboot and find themselves again and they start that journey by adding another big fish to go with the one they landed last season but at what cost?
Now LeBron James is still debatably the best basketball player on the planet but going into year 17 you have to ask yourself how long can this aging Superstar keep it going at this high of a level?
Sure he still was same old LeBron James last year but your health doesn't casually go it typically goes out of nowhere and James finally had that first significant injury last season where he was out for a month and may have been the main driving catalyst that cost the Lakers a Playoff berth seeing as they dropped from the 4th seed all the way to the 9th seed by the time he got back.
What does this have to do with the signing of Davis you might ask? Well my question would be how many years are they going to get out of this dynamic duo and will it be as dynamic as it looks on paper? Right now Davis (26), LeBron (34) are the same age of a familiar duo the Lakers had formed that was for all intents and purposes looked like a home run on paper but turned out to be quite the opposite actually. That duo of course was Dwight Howard (26) and Kobe Bryant (34) now I don't believe it'll be the colossal failure that was but the point is things change in a heartbeat and big names don't always equal success.
Say this window closes faster than we think with LeBron and this duo closes to a Numero Uno faster than we would have thought.
Losing a Lonzo Ball who is one of the best passers and perimeter defenders in the league isn't going to be easy.
I know a lot of fans like to rag on him because of his scoring ability being very limited and because of his dad Lavar but there's something to be said for someone who can lock you up and pick you up full court in an era where defense is an afterthought, plus his facilitating ability and rebounding for a guard are nothing to scoff at.
Losing a Brandon Ingram who Lakers fans have had high hopes for to come into his own will be a tough pill to swallow as well because instead of flashes from the lanky, 6'11 Small Forward/Guard we started to finally get them consistently game in and game out closing the season. There truly were games were he looked like one of the best players in the league and he was getting buckets with the forgotten art of the Mid Range Jumper in today's league where everyone wants to shoot 3's so not only was his game good for the Lakers it was better on a bigger market like the Lakers than a Pelicans team that isn't as big of a market. Maybe if we had a star in L.A. getting his points in more diverse ways we'd see kids go back to doing so as well so we get a more diverse NBA for the future down the line.
The Three Draft picks are pretty steep as well, especially considering one of them was this year's 4th pick in the draft. There's so many studs in this year's draft (especially at the top) you very well might have ended up with a Davis type player anyways but I get it because Davis is more of the sure thing but also in saying that it seems like the teams who take the most risks are the teams that get rewarded the most.
Now in a perfect world LeBron and Davis can become the new King's of LA and can be the second coming of a Shaq and Kobe that'll change basketball forever but I couldn't help but challenge myself with some questions. I'm not saying I'm putting it past them to succeed especially when you're dealing with one of the all time greats to ever play the game and one of the 5 best players ever but what if I told you that there is an argument to be made that maybe the Pelicans won this trade???
Well we can throw all our two cents at the wall but the truth is nothing will stick. The only way to know for sure is to let time run its course and hope it works out for both teams perfectly cause very rarely that also happens.
I was just the writer in the corner wanting to give a different perspective who thought it was a good chance to play devil's advocate.
What do you think will come of this trade and who won it???
Can the Lakers add more pieces to go with the new Lakers duo this Free Agency???
And although I know the Finals just came to a magical close with Toronto achieving it's first NBA Championship and it seems a way away now but trust me the Season will be here before you know it and maybe LeBron not taking his yearly trip to the Finals just further re-engaged/re-energized the beast.
So many questions to ask ourselves but you'll be sure to get plenty of updates the more this Off-season unfolds here at Dewback Sports.
WE'RE JUST GETTING STARTED!