{"id":166797,"date":"2025-11-14T14:16:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=166797"},"modified":"2025-11-14T14:16:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:16:01","slug":"lakers-tried-to-trade-anthony-davis-to-celtics-cavaliers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/11\/14\/lakers-tried-to-trade-anthony-davis-to-celtics-cavaliers\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Tried To Trade Anthony Davis To Celtics, Cavaliers"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Lakers<\/a>\u00a0live comfortably in Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a> land ten months after the blockbuster that stunned the league. The Lakers trading Anthony Davis<\/a> always felt explosive, but Brett Siegel\u2019s new reporting reveals that the story ran deeper than anyone suspected. Nico Harrison, the architect of Dallas\u2019 push for Davis, lost his job<\/a> days ago, signaling the final echo of a deal that once appeared to close the book on years of tension. Instead, we now learn the Lakers had been working toward that ending long before February.<\/p>\n

Lakers Tried To Trade Anthony Davis To Celtics, Cavaliers Before Don\u010di\u0107 Trade<\/h2>\n
\"Dallas
Dec 12, 2023; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) and Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis (3) in action during the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of the league learned about the trade from Shams Charania\u2019s alert. Only Rob Pelinka, Jeanie Buss, Patrick Dumont, and Harrison knew the truth. Behind closed doors, the Lakers had quietly prepared for an Anthony Davis trade since the summer of 2024. Concerns over his conditioning, drive, and long-term reliability guided every internal discussion. The team believed that waiting any longer risked losing leverage.<\/p>\n

Years of Wear and a Growing Disconnect<\/h3>\n

The concerns weren\u2019t sudden. Soft-tissue injuries shadowed Davis after the 2020 championship. He played only 132 games over the three years because of calf, Achilles, knees, ankle, and foot issues. The cumulative effect fueled doubts about how he maintained his body.<\/p>\n

By 2024, the relationship frayed. Davis and his camp clashed with the franchise on recovery plans. He communicated inconsistently in the offseason. His conditioning entering camp became a recurring worry. One staff member told<\/a> Siegel, \u201cThere were moments in the preseason where we wondered if he had even worked out at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another recalled Davis\u2019 early years with frustration: \u201cHe was always one of the first in and last out. Over the years, that changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those words cut because they captured a shift the Lakers could no longer ignore.<\/p>\n

Rising Tensions Push the Lakers Toward Action<\/h3>\n

Even before the idea of pairing Don\u010di\u0107 with LeBron James<\/a> surfaced, tension rose between Davis\u2019 side and the Lakers\u2019 front office. Commitment questions, recovery disagreements, and conditioning concerns left Pelinka searching for alternatives. The franchise needed an \u201calpha\u201d for a future that might not include LeBron. That pressure accelerated internal conversations.<\/p>\n

By December 2024, the Lakers quietly contacted teams to gauge interest in Davis. Boston held multiple calls with Los Angeles and delivered a five-word message that kept the door open: \u201cWe\u2019ll keep it in mind.\u201d The Bucks<\/a> and Cavaliers<\/a> also showed early intrigue. At that point, the Lakers weren\u2019t ready to act, but they were ready to plan.<\/p>\n

Preparing for Life After LeBron<\/h3>\n

The franchise knew LeBron could opt out. If he walked, trading Davis would create the foundation for a soft rebuild around future stars. Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> sat (and still sits) high on the Lakers\u2019 dream board. So did other emerging franchise players. Don\u010di\u0107 stood right alongside them, even though the Lakers believed he would never leave Dallas.<\/p>\n

They underestimated the turmoil inside the Mavericks. Harrison wasn\u2019t committed to Don\u010di\u0107 long-term, and Pelinka sensed an opening. Once the Lakers recognized that Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s situation had cracked, every previous plan shifted. Momentum rushed forward. The Lakers no longer needed to wait for summer or revisit talks with Boston, Milwaukee, or Cleveland. The moment to strike was immediate.<\/p>\n

So they struck. The Davis era ended, the Don\u010di\u0107 era began, and the league watched a dynasty pivot in real time.<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Lakers\u00a0live comfortably in Luka Don\u010di\u0107 land ten months after the blockbuster that stunned the league. The Lakers trading Anthony Davis always felt explosive, but Brett Siegel\u2019s new reporting reveals that the story ran deeper than anyone suspected. Nico Harrison, the architect of Dallas\u2019 push for Davis, lost his job days ago, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5018,"featured_media":166799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,5,9,26,3],"tags":[240,1382],"class_list":["post-166797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-cavaliers","category-lakers","category-news","tag-anthony-davis","tag-nba-trade"],"modified_by":"Frederick Okocha","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166802,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166797\/revisions\/166802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}