UPDATED June 13, 4:21 p.m. ET:The Athletic's Shams Charania reports Anthony Davis has narrowed his options of long-term destinations to two teams: the Lakers and the Knicks. The previous shortlist shared in February was the Lakers, Knicks, Clippers, and Bucks.
Additionally, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports the Lakers are the "leader in the clubhouse" to land Davis because AD has shown interest in signing with them in 2020 free agency. On top of that, Woj says the Pelicans would "hypothetically" love to have a deal in place by the weekend.
According to the New York Times' Marc Stein, the Lakers do not want to include Kuzma in any of their trade deals.
See below for original story from 6/10/2019.
The Pelicans got a No. 1 draft pick and a trade-demanding Anthony Davis to deal with in the coming weeks. A multiteam scenario could come into play when dealing the elite forward.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that New Orleans' newly hired executive vice president of basketball operations, David Griffin, doesn't believe one team has enough assets to entice the team into trading away Davis. As a result, Griffin is now considering a multiteam deal that would give the organization a profitable return.
"For example, those sorts of scenarios could include the Lakers helping to find a team that hypothetically values Los Angeles' young players more than New Orleans does," Wojnarowski wrote. "Or New York could flip its two first future first-round picks via Dallas into players the Pelicans prefer. New Orleans seems determined to be creative in constructing a deal to maximize the return on Davis, one of the NBA's elite talents."
The success Kawhi Leonard had in Toronto might have hurt Davis' leverage in this deal. The Raptors were not one of Leonard's preferred destinations, but the Spurs traded him to Toronto and was forced to play out the last year of his deal with the Raptors. The move turned out well enough for them to be on the cusp of winning a championship. Like Kawhi, Davis would have one year left on his contract before he was a free agent.
