The New Orleans Pelicans have chosen to avoid a potentially awkward situation enveloping themselves, Anthony Davis, Klutch Sports and the NBA as a whole.
Hours after the NBA trade deadline passed on Thursday afternoon, the Pelicans announced that they will be playing Anthony Davis for the rest of the season. It was rumored, ever since Davis requested a trade a little less than two weeks ago, that the Pelicans would consider holding Davis out to tank for a better draft pick.
However, the real world logistics and economics of the NBA prevented such a thing to come to pass. If this were a pre-Process era, before the NBA engaged in a hostile takeover of the Philadelphia 76ers under Sam Hinkie, the Pelicans might be able to get through the rest of the season without playing Davis. But the NBA is hyper sensitive to the perception of tanking in 2019 much more than they were in 2014.
The Pelicans and Lakers will both be trying to get things back to normal. But after the events of the past two weeks, it’s hard to imagine anything going back to how it was.
