LeBron Pulled A Reverse Melo

[nickagneta]

OP brings up a good point. Melo could have just waited a year, then went to NY with a great supporting cast. Same thing with AD, he could have just waited and the Lakers would be loaded right now.

But like others have said, who knows if they would’ve gotten the title? So you take the title 10 out of 10 times. The title provided James with complete vindication.

Since we all agree that there's no guarantee that the Lakers or the Knicks win the title, why would you, as a player, take a smaller contract?

I’m pretty sure the Lakers would’ve been in position to sign Davis for the max, as the majority of their players at the time were still on rookie contracts

Sure, but a max contract is a fluid thing - like Johnny Green said, trading for Davis allows the Lakers to sign him to a five year deal instead of a four year deal because they hold his Bird rights if they trade for him. In other words, if Davis waits for free agency that's an extra year of guaranteed cash ($43m+, according to Spotrac) that he's effectively leaving on the table. For a guy that cracked 70+ games just twice in a season before then, that's gotta be a difficult decision.

  OKLAHOMA CITY, RUSSELL WESTBROOK. 

This is impossible to read except in the voice of Stephen A Smith 

Increases year to year the first three years are 3% less as well. So add another $3.4 million in lost wages for Davis to that $43+ million.

If you're Davis, stuck in New Orleans(BTW a horrible city), do you wait patiently for free agency and a potential $46.7 million loss of future earnings or do you push for that trade? Easy decision.

[celticsclay]

I think the OP is seriously overvaluing the players the Lakers chose as draft picks. Ingram is the only good one and I'm not sure he will ever be a top 15 player in the NBA.

AD and a title or that group of drafted players? I'ld take Davis and the titles every single dang time. The Lakers had the opportunity to have Tatum and Brown. Now had they drafted those two and traded them for Davis for the one title, well, completely different story, though Lebron is a smart enough guy that if he got to play a year with the Jays, he probably wouldn't have pushed for the Davis trade.

How can we evaluate the trade when the lakers are still sending to lottery picks the pelicans way? If the pelicans get the number 1 pick this year to go on top of everything they have already sent and another pick on the way does it not become a pretty bad trade long term?

[JSD]

Yup, that’s a good point. That extra year with the birds rights was definitely an important part of Davis’ pushing for a trade. And I think even then the sign and trade eliminated that fifth year, I think that loophole was closed up by then. So the argument to do a sign in the trade in the off-season to retain BRs isn’t even a good one.

The only other angle one could take, would be to suggest that no matter what, Anthony Davis was going to get maxed out with Laker Bird Rights. They maxed out twilight Kobe, granted he’s a Laker legend. Hmm… KD had no problem getting a big deal after suffering a major injury in his early 30s, even having to sit a year. So there’s that.

I think ADs preference was the trade, clearly, but ultimately it all would have worked out for him anyway, but I understand him wanting the long-term security and sure thing.

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Agreed that LA is a dumpster fire and made short sighted moves, in hindsight. 

However, bubble or not, they still got that championship.  So, the future might be bleak for them (which I'm fine with) but they still got a ring there.

Time will tell what we remember about the bubble championship. As a biased Celtics fan, I don’t think it’s a “full ring”. Maybe a 1/2 ring?

OP is right. AD effed them then and still now (with his play).

[Kernewek]

Yup, that’s a good point. That extra year with the birds rights was definitely an important part of Davis’ pushing for a trade. And I think even then the sign and trade eliminated that fifth year, I think that loophole was closed up by then. So the argument to do a sign in the trade in the off-season to retain BRs isn’t even a good one.

The only other angle one could take, would be to suggest that no matter what, Anthony Davis was going to get maxed out with Laker Bird Rights. They maxed out twilight Kobe, granted he’s a Laker legend. Hmm… KD had no problem getting a big deal after suffering a major injury in his early 30s, even having to sit a year. So there’s that.

I think ADs preference was the trade, clearly, but ultimately it all would have worked out for him anyway, but I understand him wanting the long-term security and sure thing.

Correct - the NBA got rid of the Sign & Trade for max deals with "the Carmelo Rule", which was one of their goals prior to the 2011 lockout:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/7037865/start-nba-season-jeopardy-owners-players-set-meet

and, of course, the NBA has quietly been floating some ideas on how to change the extension rules in the current CBA:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryantoporek/2021/11/29/the-nba-needs-to-tweak-its-extension-rules-in-the-next-cba/?sh=6d2fa7f312aa

But if Davis waits until he's a free agent, the only team that gets his bird rights is New Orleans: you have to play three seasons for a team to get BR, but if that team trades you, your new team inherits them:
http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q32

So, for anyone following along at home: basically, New Orleans couldn't sign Davis to a five year deal and then trade him to Los Angeles. But NO could send him to Los Angeles rather than risk losing him for nothing - and as we've said, for AD, a trade is better because he can sign a bigger deal on his next contract [with the team that trades for him, clarity edit].

One thing I forgot before I was looking into the history of this trade -- Davis had already turned down a three year supermax extension, at least publicly. So there's crazy pressure on New Orleans to do something because that team is pretty bad if you run it back without your star power forward. Better to get something from the team he wants to go to - and tbh I think the trade overall has been a win-win so far.