If it were up to Kobe Bryant the Lakers would've parted with a good deal of their young core to get Anthony Davis in return. Unfortunately for him though, this type of much-talked-about hypothetical trade generated a significant amount of buzz, but has since lost its immediate relevance (much like the Lakers) since February's trade deadline.
The Staples Center legend stated as much in an interview with AS.com when he said that Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, and Lonzo Ball were expendable to pair The Brow with LeBron. Bryant had participated in the sit-down as part of his ambassador role for the FIBA World Cup. However, that interview is in Spanish, so the following translation of Kobe's answer came from Reddit user hoodiefern:
"Kuzma, Lonzo, Ingram… are the three of them better than Anthony Davis? No! Ciao! Bye! Anthony Davis is one of the best players in the world. Not currently, in history. What are we talking about? If you can trade for Anthony Davis, you do it. If not, alright. We have three players who are very young and work hard. They're smart and they have to develop. But if you can trade for Anthony Davis… yes!"
In March, The Athletic's Shams Charania wrote that L.A. offered up that trio of early twentysomethings in addition to mid-twentysomething Josh Hart. But he also added a kind of important sentence that claimed New Orleans "had no intent to trade Davis before the offseason, however, especially not to the Lakers, league sources said."
The Athletic's Sam Amick supported the notion that the Pelicans just didn't want to do business with the Lakers, writing "From [Lakers president] Jeanie [Buss] on down, there is a growing belief that rival teams like New Orleans have gone to great lengths to do the kind of subversive damage that is nearly impossible to prove."
Hmm. Guess we'll have to wait and see if things change come summertime.
