The Anthony Davis Saga with the New Orleans Pelicans has been one of the oddest, most missed managed trade request in recent NBA history. And that’s including whatever happened with Kawhi Leonard last season with the San Antonio Spurs.
Davis made himself one of the focal points of NBA All-Star Weekend in Charlotte after leaving at halftime of the final Pelicans game before the break. Davis has issued several statements since then, including a bit of a meltdown at Saturday practice availability in North Carolina.
Of course it’s just a matter of time before Davis plays for another team, but we will have to wait until summer for that to happen. In the meantime, both sides are at sort of an impasse with Davis clearly not wanting to play in New Orleans anymore. The Pelicans, naturally, don’t want their asset to become injured and therefore reduced in value.
But Davis is going to play, and according to the team and interim general manager Danny Ferry, both Davis and Jrue Holiday’s minutes will be reduced from here on out.
Via Twitter:
Danny Ferry said the Pels focusing on the future means, “You will see a reduction in Anthony’s minutes. You’ll probably see Jrue’s minutes come down b/c his minutes have been so high all year. But it probably won’t be quite as dramatic.”
— Scott Kushner (@ScottDKushner) February 22, 2019
Hostage video!!! @PelicansNBA Thursday media availability.
— Fletcher Mackel (@FletcherWDSU) February 21, 2019
A good man, in a bad bad spot...head coach Alvin Gentry.
It's insane Anthony Davis is still playing for NOLA!@wdsu @NBA pic.twitter.com/rylQKm9Bg4
This makes sense sort of no matter what. New Orleans is no longer a playoff bubble team, and so a reduction in minutes for their top stars this season makes sense anyway.
Hopefully we don’t have to hear much about this moving forward. If we can get through the rest of the year without dealing with more weird Anthony Davis talk, I think we will be better for it.
Meanwhile, let the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks try to gather up their best offers to snake him away from the Los Angeles Lakers. No doubt something crazy will happen this summer with Davis just given how it’s already gone so far.