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What NBA experts are saying about Anthony Davis to LA

With preseason upon us and the offseason business all but finished, it's finally time to focus on the games and forget the off the court stuff. Right? Well, as all Lakers fans know the off the court game is a year round affair in LA, and this month has proven no different.

It all started on September 8th with reports that New Orleans Pelicans big man Anthony Davis was planning on dumping his current representation in favor of Klutch Sports, the management company started by LeBron James and partner Rich Paul.

Before the body was even cold whispers of AD to the Lakers started creeping across NBA Twitter, including this pouty classic by noted Boston Celtic Fan and notorious Lakers envier, Bill Simmons that same morning.

"If AD is going to Klutch (and it seems like he is), the Lakers should just start selling AD jerseys right now."

While this instant, emotional reaction can be written off to frustration on the part of the ever-snarky Simmons, especially considering how many times people have pointed to Davis as a main target of Danny Ainge, it was definitely the first thing I thought of as well, along with this article by Adrian Wojnarowski.

Well, skipping ahead just two weeks the rumors became fact, and Davis did indeed leave his current representation to join forces with Klutch. The moment the news broke the first thing that came to mind was that Simmons tweet, and just how realistic the chances were of Davis coming to LA.

Fortunately I wasn't the only one, as some people who are actually paid to speculate about this sort of thing (and who aren't pouting about the Celtics still being Magic's snot-nosed little brother), also chimed in.

First was this exchange between guest host Jorge Sedano, Cavalier reporter Brian Windhorst and NBA reporter Ryen Russillo on ESPN's NBA: The Jump

Sedano: Anthony Davis has officially signed with his new agency, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports. So Brian, does this mean anything?

Windhorst: Well look, he was gonna be a challenge to keep long term for the Pelicans no matter who his agent was, but I'm gonna point something out. Rich Paul a year ago signed an extension with John Wall with the Wizards for 200 plus million. A year from now Anthony Davis can get $230 million with an extension. If the Pelicans have the year that they're expecting, and I communicated with Anthony Davis yesterday and he's expecting to have a big year, this won't be an issue.

When he finished you could almost feel Windhorst challenging someone to connect the 800 pound dots between Klutch and the Lakers. Luckily for Lakers fans Russillo and Sedano did just that.

Russillo: Wow. Um, I normally don't feel this way, but I feel like it's a matter of ‘when' and not ‘if', seriously.

Sedano: With the Lakers you mean?

Russillo: I really, I really do.

After some more questions by a visibly befuddled Windhorst, Russillo and Sedano ended with this.

Russillo: "Whatever road map there is to him ending up in LA, I think you have to agree that (signing with Klutch) makes it easier, even if you feel like at some point he was going to want to move on from the Pelicans if they couldn't win the next two years.

Sedano: Yeah, I also feel like, before we move on to LeBron and react to his press conference. He (James) doesn't leave like bread crumbs. Amin (El-Hassan) likes to say this ‘he leaves the bread loaf'. And I feel like this is part of that, to Ryan's point.

Of course this isn't the notoriously cautious Russillo reporting that Davis is going to LA, or even that he's heard those rumors, but simply his reading of the situation from a highly educated seat. As you might suspect the look on WIndhorst's face along with a resigned shrug seemed to betray the pain he is still probably feeling over LeBron's departure from Cleveland for the hated Lakers. Or he thought Russillo was high.

Next, only forty eight hours later, Jalen Rose dropped this hot take on his Jalen & Jacob show, also on ESPN:

"I hate to be this guy, and there are going to be a lot of media members that try to take credit for what I'm about to say, so I'm going to say it on wax first for the Jalen and Jacoby audience. New Orleans, open your ears. Get used to watching Anthony Davis play basketball in your uniform, cause this will be the last season he does so."

After an audible hoot by his co-host, Rose continued.

"I know everybody saw the news about him joining Klutch Sports over the past couple of days. I am predicting that Anthony Davis ends up in Los Angeles, with LeBron James, and they will be another dynamic duo trying to put together a squad to take down potentially the Golden State Warriors."

He finished the segment with an actual prediction of when and how this would happen as well.

"This time next year we are going to be talking about how the Lakers are trying to do a deal to acquire Anthony Davis, and put him with LeBron James in purple and gold."

Setting aside that this prediction actually makes Rose third behind Simmons and Russillo and not first, he also clearly states this as an opinion without reporting any source. Still, taken in concert with last year's speculation that LA signing Klutch client Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to a nice (albeit one year) contract gave them the inside track to LBJ, speculation that now seems particularly prescient, could this move by AD be the first steps in teaming the Brow and the King in Tinsel Town?

When reacting to the speculation by Rose, Steve Mason of ESPN's Mason and Ireland show had this to say.

"Jalen knows stuff. Jalen talks to people. Jalen's in that world. This isn't based on Jalen just makin' stuff up. This is based on Jalen knowing stuff. You know, he travels at a level in the league that is deeper than just media because he knows all these guys. He knows the Klutch guys."

Of course this is all just talk for now and anything happening before the trade dealing seems unlikely, but remember when the betting odds of LBJ joining LA started to swing that way? Well then you'll love this report from Adam Wells of Bleacher report, indicating the same thing is starting to happen with Davis.

Either way, figuring out exactly how they could pull it off, whether trading for him is a better plan than trying to sign Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson or Jimmy Butler without surrendering any assets, or if it is actually possible to do both and create a virtually unstoppable Big 3, becomes the next obvious question.

For a deeper look at how this can be done, check out my next post:

Anthony Davis to LA part 2: How it Could Happen