洛杉矶湖人队在2019年NBA休赛期的第一次大动作是他们成功地完成了安东尼戴维斯与新奥尔良鹈鹕队的交易。
尽管他们的三巨头计划最终落空，但戴维斯的交易仍然使他们在休赛期的表现总体上是积极的。
由于戴维斯最初在2019年NBA交易截止日期前向鹈鹕提出交易要求，而湖人是他的首选目的地，因此这笔交易进行了很长一段时间。双方讨论了一项贸易，但没有结果，双方都有一些难受的感觉。
在2018-19赛季NBA结束后，这并没有阻止一笔交易的达成，戴维斯的经纪人里奇·保罗在让他达到自己想要的目标方面发挥了重要作用。在回顾与ESPN的戴夫·麦克梅南的交易时，鹈鹕篮球运营执行副总裁大卫·格里芬谈到了保罗是如何做到这一点的，以便湖人能够提供最好的报价：
“里奇为湖人做了一件非常有效的工作，把所有的竞争对手都排除在外，让我们感到最好的交易很可能来自他们。如果我们能得到x-y-z，我们就必须执行交易，”格里芬回忆道。
通过告诉球队戴维斯在本赛季结束后不会与他们重新签约，这使得其他任何球队都降低了他们愿意为戴维斯提供的报价。湖人愿意放弃这么多年轻的天才，因为人们相信他会重新签下一个长期的球员，所以他们真的呈现了最好的情况。
保罗还指出，2019年NBA选秀彩票也在塑造事物方面发挥了重要作用：
“戴维斯想去两个地方：纽约或洛杉矶，”保罗反思道。“选秀（抽签）之后，我能看到一切都在哪里。事实上（鹈鹕队）将获得第一名，这让我明白，这减轻了失去安东尼戴维斯的打击，因为该组织仍有一些势头。
“现在，他要去的地方取决于谁会站出来，给出最好的报价。”
除了鹈鹕拿到了第一名外，湖人也上升到了第四名，这给了他们另一个资产，在交易中提供鹈鹕。
原标题：
Lakers News: Rich Paul, David Griffin Reflect On Anthony Davis Trade
原文：
The Los Angeles Lakers made the first big move of the 2019 NBA offseason when they pulled off the Anthony Davis trade with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Even though their designs on making it a Big 3 ultimately fell through, the Davis trade still makes the offseason an overall positive for them.
This trade had been a long time coming as Davis initially requested a trade from the Pelicans before the 2019 NBA trade deadline with the Lakers being his preferred destination. The two sides discussed a trade, but nothing came to fruition and there were some hard feelings coming out of it on both ends.
That didn’t stop a deal from getting done once the 2018-19 NBA season ended and Davis’ agent Rich Paul played a large role in getting him to where he wanted to be. In reflecting on the deal with Dave McMenamin of ESPN, Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin spoke on how Paul essentially made it so that the Lakers would present the best offer:
“Rich had done such an effective job of smoking out all of the competition for the Lakers that we were left with the sense that the best deal is going to very likely come from them. And if we can get X-Y-Z, we have to execute the deal,” Griffin recalls.
By telling teams that Davis wouldn’t re-sign with them following this season, it caused any other teams to lessen what they were willing to offer for Davis. The Lakers were willing to give up so much young talent because it is believed he will re-sign long-term so they truly presented the best case scenario.
Paul also noted the 2019 NBA Draft lottery played a big role in shaping things as well:
“[Davis] wanted to go to two places: New York or L.A,” Paul reflects. “After the draft [lottery], I was able to see where everything lies. The fact that [the Pelicans] were going to get the first pick caused me to understand that it softened the blow of losing Anthony Davis because the organization could still have some momentum.
“Now, where he would go was up to who was going to step up and give the best offer.”
In addition to the Pelicans landing the No. 1 pick, the Lakers also moved up to the No. 4 pick, giving them another asset to offer the Pelicans in the deal.
