Lakers vs. Clippers: Who Will Rule LA

It finally happened. Kawhi Leonard has declared that he is going to play for the Los Angeles Clippers and he’s bringing Paul George with him. With Lebron James and Anthony Davis with the Lakers and Kawhi and PG with the Clippers, the NBA is finally going to see the LA rivalry it has wanted. But which team will come out on top? Who will rule LA basketball.

With the addition of 2 new all-stars the Clippers are the new favorites to win the NBA Championship this upcoming season. With Players like Lou Williams, Patrick Beverly, and Montrezl Harrell backing up Leonard and George, the Clippers will have a formidable starting 5.

Last year Kawhi Leonard lead a Toronto Raptors team, with arguably less talent than the Clippers, to their first championship in franchise history. There’s nothing to suggest that with the help of PG he couldn’t do it again. However, the Clipper will be fairly small with their tallest player in the potential starting five being 6’9. That’s where the Lakers may have the advantage.

Having recently signed DeMarcus Cousins, traded for AD, and already having LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma, the Lakers are a very big team. Four out if their starting five are over 6’8. Three of their starting 5 are former all-stars and Kuzma has a lot of potential.

with 4 outstanding players in their staring 5, the Lakers have the edge on the number of talented players. However, With Kawhi having just lead a team to a championship and Paul George being in the MVP conversation before his shoulder injury, the Clippers may have more and younger talent. And with a better supporting players the Clippers have a very good shot at being the next NBA champions.

At this point, it’s really a toss up as to who will take LA. Both the Lakers and Clippers have significantly improved this off season and will take the NBA By storm next year. Both have great talent and good coaches. However, since the Clippers have a significantly better front office, the edge is with the Clippers.

The New Orleans Pelicans Have Traded Anthony Davis

It finally happened. The New Orleans Pelicans have traded Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers for Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart and 3 first round picks, including the number 4 pick in the 2019 NBA draft. With this trade comes a question: Who won the trade? The answer is both the Lakers and the Pelicans.

In the short run, the Lakers clearly won this trade. They’ve paired LeBron James and Anthony Davis, 2 of the best players in the NBA, together with a solid player in Kyle Kuzma, who still has a lot of potential. The Lakers will almost definitely make the playoffs next season and while I don’t believe the Lakers will win a title next year, it is all but guaranteed that the Lakers will win an NBA championship within the next 4 years.

However, in the long run , the Pelicans won this trade by a long shot. The Pelicans received a bevy of young talent and 3 first round draft picks in this coming NBA draft. Not only does New Orleans have the number 1 pick, which will likely be Zion Williamson, but they also have the number 4 pick in this draft and 2 more first round picks in the future. The Pelicans are about to become a very young and good team.

Bandon Ingram is a good scorer. He’s very skinny but is able to use his length to score often. He finished last season averaging 18.3 points a game on 47.9% shooting. Lonzo Ball is a great passer and if he can either fix his jump shot or become a pass first point guard he could be a good point guard for the Pelicans. While he works on that, the Pelicans still have Jrue Holliday, who has proven himself to be a solid point guard in the league. Josh Hart can also provide valuable minutes off the bench. However, the most interesting part of this trade is the 3 first round picks.

The pelicans will have the number 1 and 4 picks in the 2019 NBA draft. The perfect situation would see Memphis and New York passing on RJ Barrett and the Pelicans taking him at number 4 to reunite the two former Duke team mates. However, New York is likely to take Barrett with the third pick in the draft. Most likely, the Pelicans will take a solid prospect in De’Andre Hunter. Hunter, coming off a national championship with Virginia, shot 43.3% from 3-point range and can guard multiple positions. He’s 6’7 and has the potential to be a very good NBA player.

However, another option for the Pelicans is to pick De’Andre Hunter and then put a package together to get a solid veteran to help Zion Williamson as he enters the league. This package would likely include Hunter, Hart, and Ball and get New Orleans a player from a team in a rebuild like Bradley Beal from the Wizards or Kevin Love from Cleveland.

Anyway you look at it, this was not a bad trade for either side. Both the Lakers and the Pelicans have very bright futures ahead of them. The Lakers have anther star to pair with LeBron as they make a championship run and the Pelicans have a young, talented core and lots of options to play with.

What Is The Pelicans Best Option In The AD Trade Situation?

The biggest story this off-season is where Anthony Davis will end up. Everyone is talking about where Davis should go. However, everyone seems to be forgetting that Anthony Davis will not be a free agent until after the 2019-2020 NBA season. It is really up to the Pelicans where Anthony Davis goes; or if he goes anywhere. New Orleans has four trade options that could benefit them the most.

The worst option for the Pelicans is trading Anthony Davis to the Knicks. If the rumors are to be believed, New York is one of the likely destinations for Kevin Durant. It is also rumored that Kyrie Irving may leave Boston and possibly go to New York. If that happens then New York would be a desirable destination for AD. However, trading Anthony Davis to the Knicks would be the worst option for New Orleans.

The Knicks can’t offer anything anywhere close to the packages that other teams can. The best offer the Knicks would be able to produce would be Kevin Knox, Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Jordan, and the number 3 pick in the 2019 NBA draft. Knox and Smith Jr. are good players but the Pelicans already have Jrue Holiday and E’Twaun Moore to fill those spots. DeAndre Jordan is an interesting asset. He would give the Pelicans a solid Center to replace Anthony Davis. Jordan is no where near as good as Davis but he can help the pelicans fill that gap. The number 3 pick in the draft is a great asset and could help New Orleans get Zion Williamson and his duke teammate, RJ Barrett, on the same team. But they could get a much better package from another team that would include more young talent.

A better option for the Pelicans would be trading Anthony Davis to the Boston Celtics. Danny Ainge has been known as an extremely aggressive GM and has made a lot of trades in the past few years and adding AD could give the Celtics the boost they need to win a championship. However, by making this trade they will also give up their future. In order for the Pelicans to even consider giving up Davis, Ainge will have to give up the house. A good trade package for the Celtics to put together would be Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Aaron Baynes, and possibly the number 14 pick in the 2019 NBA draft. This would give New Orleans a formidable starting five in Jrue Holiday, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Julius Randle, and Aaron Baynes with E’Twaun Moore as a solid scorer coming of the bench. The biggest issue with this trade is on the Celtics side. If Kyrie Irving doesn’t stay in Boston then the Celtics may not want to trade away their future stars. It all depends on if Kyrie stays or not.

Another option, and in my opinion the best option, for New Orleans is to trade Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers need AD, which means they are desperate. They have a limited amount of time with LeBron and they believe that a LeBron and AD pair is the key to championship success. Anything the Pelicans want they are sure to get. This trade will be much like the Boston trade in terms of the Pelicans receiving a lot of good, young talent. The Pelicans would most likely receive Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, and Lonzo Ball. They may also try to get one of the Lakers big men, like JaVale McGee, to fill the hole that loosing Anthony Davis will leave in the starting line up. But what makes this trade so much more enticing than the Boston trade is the Lakers number 4 pick in the 2019 NBA draft.

While they may not get RJ Barrett with that pick they could get Darius Garland, a guard from Vanderbilt who is a solid scorer and could be a good back up for Jrue Holiday while Garland learns the NBA game. However, nothing is set in stone and RJ Barrett may not be taken in the top 3. With this trade the Pelicans will get several young players with a lot of potential and a good prospect.

New Orleans’s last option is to keep Anthony Davis. This will be difficult because AD has made it clear that he doesn’t want to be in New Orleans and most people doubt he wants to share the spot light with a young rookie. If he did stay then a Zion AD pair could be a big threat to the rest of the league. However, with Davis seemingly intent on leaving New Orleans the Pelicans best option would be to trade AD and get something in return now, rather than keep him for a year and then lose him for nothing in free agency.

The New Orleans Pelicans hold all the cards. They can get just about anything and anyone they want. All they have to do is decide what they want and they have some very good options.