New Orleans won the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday night, giving the city’s basketball community their first reason to celebrate in a long time, and head coach Alvin Gentry told reporters that the Anthony Davis saga “will take care of itself.”
That doesn’t mean it will be simple, however, to determine AD’s future in NOLA.
The Pelicans will, of course, select Zion Williamson with the first overall pick later this summer, which “jump-starts the process” for the front-office, according to general manager David Griffin.
Per ESPN:
“They started calling out the numbers. We obviously got this seed sheet, and I am trying to look through it and find out our numbers,” Gentry said afterward. “I find the first number, then the second number and then the third, and I’m like, ‘Oh s—.’
“The fourth one comes up, I try to look at all our combinations and then they said, ‘The winner is the New Orleans Pelicans.’ And I said, ‘F— yeah!’ And then I said, ‘Excuse me, I’m sorry.'”
Williamson, who averaged 21.8 points and 8.8 rebounds as a true freshman for Duke last season, sat in the front row when the draft lottery took place in Chicago.
“Guys, the one thing you got to understand is, [Davis] is still on our roster,” Gentry said. “He is on our roster. All of that will take care of itself. I’m not worried about it. I know Griff has some plans to talk to him, and it will be fine.”
Asked on a conference call with local reporters if he would require a “king’s ransom” in order to trade Davis, Griffin replied, “From my perspective, I want Anthony Davis to want what we’re doing. I want Anthony Davis to want to be part of this. And I’m not focused on much of anything other than, ‘Let’s get better tomorrow.’ If Anthony wants to buy into that, that’s fantastic. And if he doesn’t, then we’ll deal with it when it’s appropriate.”
