[RealGM Wiretap]

Anthony Davis has a 15 percent trade bonus in his contract, which the New Orleans Pelicans would be responsible to pay if he's dealt in July.

This would mean an extra $4.1 million payment to Davis. The trade bonus would be negligible if he's dealt during the season.

"There's no way they're paying that trade kicker," a Western Conference executive said. "None."

There's a belief that Davis and Rich Paul could say they will only waive the trade bonus if he's dealt to the Lakers.

Davis could benefit from his next contract being shorter if he's dealt by the Pelicans. Davis would be eligible for the top-tier max salary in 2022.

Via Eric Pincus/Bleacher Report

[gordoncatrell]

Give em credit. They lean into it...no more backfoot countermoves...

[ecuhus1981]

New Orleans can blame the NBA's predatory environment against small-market teams. But the reality is, they never put a team around AD that would compel him to stay. Jrue is very good, but in the West he's below Curry, Lillard, Westbrook, Conley and now Fox at his position. A healthy CP3 (if that ever returns) is even more of a difference-maker. Mirotic and Randle have been value additions, but both may hit the UFA market next summer. And you can't play all 3 of them at once, so there is only so much productivity you can juice out of the 2 bigman positions.

I agree that they shouldn't kowtow to LA's strong-arm tactics. Someone can put together a better package than Ball/Ingram for an MVP candidate, even as a rental.

[bqmuzik]

The media is really trying to create this AD to Lakers narrative. Gotta give the Flakeshow credit, they can possibly pull it off but Boston sitill offers more

[alienpick]

This is a non story, he can waive the trade kicker if he wants to go.

[NBAFan93]

The media is really trying to create this AD to Lakers narrative. Gotta give the Flakeshow credit, they can possibly pull it off but Boston sitill offers more

Like always with this stuff, another team we don’t expect will probably swoop in and get it done.

And is his trade kicker “negligible” if he’s dealt this season only cause he might waive it? Or is it negligible for all teams even if he doesn’t waive it?

And I think the acquiring team can agree to pay it. There’s also some max amount a salary plus trade kicker cannot exceed. That may come into play. It was a thing w/ the Blake trade.

[likashing]

Is Rich Paul helping LeBron or Davis? For Davis, he gets to make less and be thrown under the bus if LeBron doesn't win with him. See the credit Kyrie gets even for being making all the game winning shots in the only ring the Cavs got? This will be the situation Davis gets.

Getting Davis to help LeBron is obviously a big win for LeBron Inc aka the 4 horsemen i.e. Rich Paul.

I am not saying Davis should even stay in NO, but it just doesn't look like Rich Paul has Davis' best interest in mind.

[HotelVitale]

This is a non story, he can waive the trade kicker if he wants to go.

Even more than that, the Pelicans would obviously happily pay $4m to get, say, 2 high firsts and a good player instead of a Ball/Ingram package. The price of a mid-2nd rounder is a couple million so they'd obviously pony up way more than that to secure a high 1st.

[arasu]

This is a non story, he can waive the trade kicker if he wants to go.

Even more than that, the Pelicans would obviously happily pay $4m to get, say, 2 high firsts and a good player instead of a Ball/Ingram package. The price of a mid-2nd rounder is a couple million so they'd obviously pony up way more than that to secure a high 1st.

People talk a lot about high firsts, but draft position doesn't happen in December or January. As of right now, no team is likely to have more than one high first, and the teams with a likely high first aren't teams AD would like to be traded to, for one, and secondly, and team he is traded to might start winning more, lowering the upcoming draft pick. If AD wants to go to a winner, using waiving the trade kicker as incentive could help him go to his team of choice. The Celtics have the most draft capital, but no guaranteed "high picks". The Lakers have the next best package. If the Lakers give up distant future picks (when LeBron is way past his prime) those picks have a pretty good chance of being higher picks than what the Celtics can offer. At this point, the only other team that could put together a decent trade package before the deadline and still provide an instant winner going forward would be the Sixers.

I think the Pelicans best option to consider an AD trade would be to wait for the draft, where they will know which 2019 picks are high and which ones are not. And just maybe, their best option is to keep Davis.

[HotelVitale]

People talk a lot about high firsts, but draft position doesn't happen in December or January. As of right now, no team is likely to have more than one high first, and the teams with a likely high first aren't teams AD would like to be traded to

A high 1st was a hypothetical. Point being that people spend more than $4m on pretty small assets in the NBA (that's about one year's worth of Troy Daniels or Jamal Crawford or Udonis Haslem), so it doesn't make sense that this trade kicker drastically changes the market for AD.