Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has always been one of the most outspoken people in the NBA, having no problem talking about any number of issues whether it involves basketball or not.
Throughout the second half of the 2018-19 NBA season and into the summer, the drama involving Anthony Davis, the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Los Angeles Lakers was arguably the biggest story going.
As is well known, Davis requested a trade from the Pelicans despite having another year remaining on his deal. The Pelicans didn’t move him at the 2018-19 NBA trade deadline and then proceeded to limit his minutes and outright sit him out of games the rest of the season.
Eventually, the Lakers and Pelicans agreed to a trade at the start of the offseason, but the saga itself is a sore spot for many. Kerr spoke about his issues with it on the Warriors Insider Podcast, according to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area:
“I’m talking more about the Anthony Davis situation,” Kerr said on The Warriors Insider Podcast. “Where a guy is perfectly healthy and has a couple years left on his deal and says, ‘I want to leave.’ That’s a real problem that the league has to address and that the players have to be careful with.”
Kerr would continue on:
“If you come to an agreement with the team that, hey, it’s probably best for us to part ways, that’s one thing. But the Davis stuff was really kind of groundbreaking — and hopefully not a trend, because it’s bad for the league.”
This is a very touchy subject throughout the league with legitimate points on both sides. Kerr believes that players just forcing their way off a team with multiple years remaining on their deal is bad for the league as they sign these deals and should honor them.
The counter to that argument would be that the teams often don’t honor these deals as well. Players with multiple years remaining on their deal are traded all the time in the league so if players get flak for not honoring their deals, then the same should be the case for the teams.
There is surely some solution to prevent things like the Davis situation as that was bad on all sides. The Lakers season was hurt, the Pelicans hurt themselves by not playing their best player, and fans didn’t get the opportunity to see Davis play all year.
What exactly is that solution is unknown but some middle ground will likely need to be reached that can appease both sides.
