Lakers Not Making Kyle Kuzma Available in Trade Talks for Anthony Davis is a Huge Mistake
By Ryan Flores
On Wednesday, reports surfaced stating the Los Angeles Lakers are in active talks with the New Orleans Pelicans for All-NBA superstar Anthony Davis. However, the Lakers are taking a much different approach in their second attempt to acquire the forward.
The Lakers have made Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and the No. 4 pick in the June 20 draft available in trade talks with the Pelicans, league sources say. New Orleans has made it known it hope to assemble a three-teams-or-more deal before surrendering Anthony Davis
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 12, 2019
The Lakers are still making Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and their fourth-overall draft pick available in a trade, but are now shying away from including Kyle Kuzma in talks at all. It's understandable they don't want to give up too much, but the Boston Celtics are likely willing to give up far more than the Lakers are packaging right now for Davis.
The Celtics have a plethora of assets, including budding stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, as well as controllable assets like their first-round picks in this year's NBA Draft, as well as Robert Williams.
Potential AD/Lakers trade could “hinge on” Kyle Kuzma.
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 12, 2019
Lakers don’t want to trade Kuz but Pelicans want him in the deal, per @taniaganguli and @BA_Turner pic.twitter.com/XqI5Tft9HY
Celtics GM Danny Ainge's attempts to trade with the Pelicans for Davis are well documented, and he's not about to shy away now that he's been made available unlike previous years.
The current offer the Lakers have made for Davis is very valuable, and could be even better for the Pelicans if they can find a trade partner to take on the fourth-overall pick in the draft. However, if Pels' GM David Griffin believes that he is receiving a better deal from the Celtics or elsewhere, then Lakers GM Rob Pelinka should absolutely throw Kuzma in the deal to make it more enticing.
Lakers have a chance to get arguably the best player in the world Anthony Davis to play with Lebron James (Top 3 Player of all time) and they are refusing to trade for him because of Kyle Kuzma ?! pic.twitter.com/m47lCeToax
— ?? Chris (@NotKingOGx) June 12, 2019
As of this moment, Davis and his agent Rich Paul are firm in saying they won't commit to anyone but the Lakers. However, things could quickly change, as the Lakers believed they would get Paul George in free agency, and wound up losing him to Oklahoma City, where he was traded to in 2017.
Should the Lakers overpay? Absolutely not. However, they shouldn't take Kuzma completely off the table. The last thing they would want to do is lose out on Davis entirely. Perhaps the Lakers can find a way to include Kuzma and take out a piece so they don't lose too many assets in the deal. We'll have to wait and see what happens.