Anthony Davis: Pelicans' Lakers decision an 'excuse' after trade saga – NBA expert

That’s the suggestion of NBA insider Jared Greenberg, who explained on The Starters that Davis will not be in charge of how many minutes he plays from now until the end of the season.

The New Orleans Pelicans superstar handed in a trade request before the trade deadline in early February.

And since then, his minutes have been limited. The Pelicans decided against shutting him down until the summer but he sustained an injury recently.

Davis will now only play one game in any back-to-back series.

He will also be subject to less minutes on court as the season winds down.

He did not play against the Lakers due to his involvement in Friday’s game against the Indiana Pacers.

But Greenberg revealed that was just a convenient excuse, and hinted that the Pelicans didn’t want to play him against Los Angeles after the two franchises failed to agree a trade deal in February.

“I spoke to Alvin Gentry today at length about it,” he explained.

“His biggest thing that he stressed was that there was full transparency between the organisation and Anthony Davis.

“They’re going to let Anthony Davis know what the game plan is at all times.

“But ultimately they are going to make the decision on when he will play.

“Alvin Gentry said the most difficult thing is back-to-backs which is what they experienced on Saturday.

“Let’s call a spade a spade, it was a convenient excuse when they were playing the Lakers.

“Typically when players are not allowed to play on back to backs, they’ll play the home leg rather than the away leg.

“You’ll recall on Friday night in Indiana the Pelicans played the Pacers, and then Saturday he did not play the Lakers.

“I think that was a really good move by the organisation given what happened in the last two months or so.”

source: express.co.uk