It’s been five years since the Lakers revolutionized the NBA landscape and gave a loot to the Pelicans in exchange for Anthony Davis. That trade paid immediate dividends for the Lakers. They went from a 37-win team to NBA champions in Davis’ first year.
Obviously, Los Angeles felt very good about that trade initially. But as New Orleans began to cash in on more and more of those assets, the deal tilted more in its favor.
Who does the winner look like today? Here’s what all those pieces became and what the blockbuster deal will look like in 2024 for both teams.
What did the Lakers trade for Anthony Davis?
The Lakers get:
- Anthony Davis
Pelicans get:
- Brandon Ingram
- Lonzo Ball
- jose hart
- Three first round picks
- Exchange of a choice
What the Pelicans did with the Lakers assets
Let’s start with the draft capital the Pelicans received.
New Orleans still has an unprotected future first-round pick from Los Angeles in 2024 or 2025. That will end up being in the middle of the second round in 2024, so the Pelicans will almost certainly defer that pick to a 2025 draft much stronger. .
All other Laker picks have been broadcast. In 2019, the Lakers gave up the fourth pick in the draft. In 2022, they gave up the eighth pick. The pick swap due in 2023 ended up not being used.
Here’s a list of the players the Pelicans drafted or traded with those Lakers picks:
- Jason Hayes
- Nickeil Alexander-Walker
- Didi Louzada
- grass jones
- Dyson Daniels
Original Qualities in the Anthony Davis Trade
At that time, our Jordan Green gave the Lakers an A- and the Pelicans an A.
Greer wrote of Los Angeles that “there’s a reason this trade isn’t A+++. The Lakers gave up a ton of assets and the Pelicans will essentially control their drafts for the next half-decade.”
That warning ended up coming true, as the Lakers gave up two top-10 picks to the Pelicans. The number could reach three, depending on what happens in 2024 and 2025.
As for the Pelicans, Greer called Ball, Ingram and Hart “intriguing prospects.” Greer added that the franchise behaved like bandits considering the lack of competitive offers that were reported.
New note from the Lakers on the transfer of Anthony Davis
For many in Laker Nation, this trade will always be a success given the team won a championship with Davis in 2020. That certainly wouldn’t have happened without him. He was outstanding in the bubble.
That championship performance aside, Davis hasn’t lived up to expectations.
At the time of the trade, he was 26 years old and an MVP candidate. He certainly has been a good player, falling into the top 15 most years, but health has been a major issue: he has averaged fewer than 49 games per season since he joined the purple and gold. His offense has also been up and down, fading at crucial moments. And his jump shot has completely fallen off a cliff.
Davis remains a high-impact player because of his defense. He was named First Team All-Defense in 2020 and has been in consideration for the last few years. He’s a game-changer on that end of the floor, ranking No. 3 on defense league-wide in our top 100 defenseman project.
Davis’ up-and-down play reflects the Lakers’ results as a team during that period. They won that championship in 2020 and reached the Western Conference Finals in 2023. They also lost in the first round of the 2021 playoffs and missed them entirely in 2022.
Since acquiring Davis, they have put together a very solid record of 217-172, including 130-85 in games in which he has played. Those are good results, but they’re still not the multiple championships Lakers fans may have imagined.
Still, the Lakers got pretty good results from this trade. Davis is having a breakout season in year five of this trade and they can live with losing the pieces they sent.
New Lakers grade: A-
Pelicans’ new grade on Anthony Davis trade
The Pelicans should be pretty pleased with the return of the trade. They were a team that was going nowhere with Davis as their best player, and that probably would have remained true if they had kept him. They now have a much brighter future.
New Orleans didn’t bottom out as expected, but it still got lucky in the lottery and selected Zion Williamson. Three other pieces of the starting lineup (Ingram, who has become an All-Star, CJ McCollum and All-Defensive candidate Herb Jones) can be traced directly to players or picks acquired in the deal.
It’s still too early to tell how good Daniels can be, but he’s already one of the best perimeter defenders in the league and a solid passer. His shaky 3-point shot will be his greatest swing skill.
The Pelicans can still take a shot at a player in the loaded 2025 draft class, and they have a second-round pick coming from the Bulls as part of a Lonzo Ball sign-and-trade.
The overall performance the Pelicans got was close to the best they could have hoped for. If they could go back in time and close the deal again, there’s no doubt they would do it in a heartbeat.
New Pelicans grade: A
