That’s according to NBA analyst Richard Jefferson.
The Lakers sought to trade for Davis with the New Orleans Pelicans before the trade deadline but despite a huge offer consisting of six players, multiple first-round and second-round draft picks and salary-cap relief, could not agree to a deal.
It has since been suggested that New Orleans never had any intention of trading away their superstar even though Davis and his representation, Rich Paul and Klutch Sports, appeared keen to force a move to Los Angeles despite publicly stating otherwise.
The Lakers have missed out numerous major targets in recent years including Leonard, who they were keen on last summer when it was made clear he wanted to leave the San Antonio Spurs to return to his hometown of L.A.
Yet the Lakers didn’t want to give in to the Spurs’ demands for Leonard as they wanted to keep their young core together at Staples Center.
And instead, the two-way wing was traded to the Toronto Raptors – who he has given a real hope could make the NBA Finals for the first time ever despite some strong competition in the Eastern Conference.
Leonard’s long-term future with the Raptors is uncertain with the 27-year-old having been coy on what he wants next, but the LA Clippers appear a more likely destination than the Lakers when he becomes a free agent in the summer.
And Jefferson thinks there are similarities in the way the Lakers went for Leonard and Davis and criticised the franchise’s front office for their handling of trade business.
That’s after Lakers president Magic Johnson came out to criticise the Pelicans, accusing them of not negotiating in good faith over Davis with leaks having made it obvious they were willing to trade away the core of their roster for Davis, which then led to some unrest.
“The issue that the Lakers ran into is one, no-one wants to really work with the Lakers,” Jefferson – who spent 17 years in the league as a player – told First Take on ESPN while reflecting on their failure to deal for Davis.
“You saw that with the Kawhi ‘trade’ last year. It was like, ‘Lakers go get him!’
“There was no way on Earth that Pop [Gregg Popovich] was going to trade Kawhi Leonard to the Lakers.
“He was going to trade him as far as possible away from the Lakers as he could, even if he ended up there [a year later].
“They weren’t going to feed into it. New Orleans didn’t want to feed into it either.
“The real issue is that Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka’s inexperience showed in this matter.
“They’re so naive to think, ‘Hey, Rich Paul and Klutch figured out that Davis doesn’t want to re-sign there.’ They just wanted to get ahead of it, that’s what they tried to make it seem.
“’My player’s not going to re-sign, so you have this time to get it done’ but ultimately what they were trying to do was orchestrate a trade to the Lakers.
“Look I love LeBron, that is my guy, but at the end of the day that is a Klutch thing. There’s no separation between LeBron and Klutch.”
The Lakers could go back in for Davis in the offseason, but are likely to face competition from the Boston Celtics.
L.A. have the cap space to try to sign one max contract free agent, however, with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson among those on the market even though Leonard is unlikely to be headed to the Lakers.
Be the first to comment