She can say what she wants now, but the fact is..it was reported in the media. They should have come out and said they were not trading for Davis, when Davis said he wanted to be traded. That would have been better for all. Magic fucked up. Everyone knew they were not going to trade Davis to the Lakers period. I would have came out early and said we like our young players. Then Magic made it worse by telling the players so what if you were going to be traded. Just an extremely bad rookie mistake by Magic. Other then James and gettng Kuzma, he is failing IMO.
Wasn't Magic. It was Rich Paul and Klutch. He thought he could just bully the Pels into a trade. He completely overplayed his hand and underestimated the Pels resolve.
The problem with Magic and Pelinka is that they are inexperienced and when the situation started to spiral out of control, they didn't know how to stop it.
I think that's why they were so quiet. Out of all of the quotes, speculation, and reports of offers...I don't remember hearing anything coming directly from the Lakers. Everything was from Klutch or the Pels.
I'd be willing to bet that if Rich Paul didn't go public and it was just a matter of Magic and Dell Demps getting together...AD would be a Lakers right now and at less cost than the reported final offer of like half the roster and a boatload of future picks.