NBA: Deadline Passes With No Anthony Davis Trade

After all of that, Anthony Davis is still a member of the New Orleans Pelicans.

Ten days after Davis publicly announced that he would not sign an extension with New Orleans and was requesting a trade, the trade deadline passed Thursday without Davis having been traded.

In a trade pursuit that may have led to the highest amount of published rumors of any in history, the Los Angeles Lakers reportedly exchanged a series of offers with the Pelicans, with the Lakers at one point offering several young players as well as draft picks. But the Pelicans rejected every offer, and the two teams were reportedly not speaking by Thursday as the talks went “dormant,” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said on Twitter.

This even led to a theory by ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst, per a YouTube post, that the Pelicans had purposely leaked trade rumors in order to undermine the Lakers and turn their players against each other, possibly in retaliation for what they saw as tampering on the Lakers’ part. The Lakers have played poorly in recent weeks, including a 40-point loss.

Davis, who has been out injured for the last few weeks with a finger fracture, will play for the rest of the season in New Orleans, per a tweet from ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

So now, attention on Davis will shift to the offseason, which Davis will enter with one year remaining until he is a free agent. Davis will be able to sign a “supermax” extension with any team that trades for him this summer. An Inquisitr report earlier this week stated that Davis has the Lakers and New York Knicks on “equal footing” as potential long-term destinations. They are among the teams that Davis has said he would sign an extension with, along with the Los Angeles Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks.

Pelicans Not Trading Anthony Davis Today https://t.co/h1kY67P1cU pic.twitter.com/WoRLJdvFjH

— Hoops Rumors (@HoopsRumors) February 7, 2019

Davis is said to not favor the Boston Celtics, although Boston can probably put together the strongest trade package for Davis, especially if, as reported by the Athletic last week, the Celtics are willing to include Jayson Tatum in such a deal. So the Celtics could spend time in the summer trying to trade for a player who they would need to convince to remain in Boston long term.

If Davis does not sign an extension next summer, he will be eligible for free agency in the summer of 2020 when he’ll be able to sign with any team that has the cap space and makes him an offer.