Rich Paul on Player Recruiting After Anthony Davis Fine: 'This Is Nothing New'

Over the weekend, Anthony Davis told the New Orleans Pelicans he wants a trade.

While there has been some backlash, agent Rich Paul says stars wanting to play together is something that has always gone on in the NBA. 

"This is nothing new," Paul told Sam Amick of The Athletic. "Players have always communicated with each other. Players have always played pick-up in the summer. The difference is [that] more players today are controlling and doing what they want to do vs. being told what to do, and that's the difference.

"Players didn't know, or weren't willing to do different things [like that], back in the day. They weren't willing to say, 'You know what? I want to go over here,' whether it's [because of] rules or know-how, they weren't willing. They didn't do those things, and now they are. That's the difference."

The interview came last month amid widespread outcry that LeBron James, Paul's client and friend, had broken the NBA's tampering rules by saying he wants to play with Davis. LeBron scoffed at the notion, later rattling off a list of top players around the league he'd like as teammates.

Davis and Paul are expected to inform the Pelicans that the All-Star big man prefers to play with the Lakers, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. It would seemingly be a calculated move to cool the market and make the Lakers' offer the best, forcing New Orleans' hand into sending him to L.A.

The appeal here is obvious. LeBron was never going to sign with the Lakers without some sort of guarantee another star was coming along at some point. There was hope last summer it would be Paul George before he re-signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Davis is a game-changing talent who has never had a teammate like LeBron, and the pair could add another co-star to the mix this summer in free agency.

The NBA fined Davis $50,000 on Tuesday for publicly demanding a trade, breaching the collective bargaining agreement. It's a pittance that Davis would ultimately be glad to pay if the public request ultimately leads to him being a Laker.