Anthony Davis was concerned about what the state of the Los Angeles Lakers’ roster would be like when LeBron James decided to retire, sources tell ESPN. Davis thought the Lakers would have a roster built largely to suit James with few options remaining to change it. It wasn’t certain Davis would want to extend with the Lakers this offseason knowing the team’s future beyond James was unclear.
Davis had been lobbying for the Lakers to acquire a center and the front office had planned to pursue one. While Davis is likely best suited to play full time center at this point in his career, he did have his best success with the Lakers in 2020 when the team also had Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee.
The Lakers moved forward, however, with a trade of Davis to the Dallas Mavericks for Luka Doncic once Rob Pelinka was approached by Nico Harrison.
Davis now gets to play alongside Kyrie Irving, who is on a similar timeline as him, while also playing primarily at power forward as the Mavericks also have Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively.