The 2019-20 NBA season will mark a new era of Los Angeles Lakers basketball as they underwent a complete overhaul.
The biggest addition, of course, was trading for Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans to pair him with LeBron James to form one of the best duos in NBA history.
Davis made it known before the 2018-19 NBA trade deadline that he would like to be traded and preferred to be dealt to the Lakers, paving the way for a deal to happen this summer that including Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and a number of drafts picks going to the Pelicans.
Since being traded to the Lakers, Davis has seemingly done everything right to win over his new fanbase, including waiving his $4 million trade kicker so the team can fill out the rest of the roster with solid role players.
As a bit of a reward for that, James decided to gift Davis his No. 23 jersey as he announced that he will be switching back to the No. 6 that he wore while with the Miami Heat.
James took to Instagram to post a photo of him and Davis with the new No. 23 jersey for the first time:
In James’ first season with the Lakers last year when he wore No. 23, he led the league in jersey sales. Switching to No. 6 should ensure that both he and Davis are both in the mix for the top spot again this season.
The Lakers had hopes of adding a third All-Star player in Kawhi Leonard to pair with James and Davis this summer, but he wound up signing with the Los Angeles Clippers — who also traded for Paul George — so the Western Conference should be a blood bath this upcoming season.
Instead of using their cap space to sign Leonard, the Lakers split it up to add depth to their roster by signing Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, DeMarcus Cousins, JaVale McGee, Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso, Quinn Cook, Avery Bradley, Jared Dudley, and Troy Daniels.
The Lakers now not only have two legit superstars but an extremely deep roster which puts them in the mix for a championship for the 2019-20 season along with a handful of other teams.