Pelicans’ David Griffin has a decision to make about Anthony Davis

The first order of business for David Griffin, the new chief of the New Orleans Pelicans, will be finding a home for Anthony Davis. It was AD’s midseason trade request via his agent Rich Paul that wrecked a pair of franchises and left a trail of collateral damage in its wake.

Griff was hired to trade AD and that means he’ll likely have to choose between a Lakers offer that was never taken seriously, and a Celtics offer that wasn’t allowed to be made. In other words, Griff will have to choose between LeBron James and Danny Ainge. It’s not as obvious as it might seem.

Most know Griffin as the general manager who supplied the players for LeBron to bring a championship to Cleveland. Through a series of deft maneuvers he built a team that was good enough to reach the NBA Finals in his first season on the job. He then remodeled that one on the fly by elevating an unproven coach in Tyronn Lue and surrounding James with an array of shooters that rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the 73-win Warriors.

That should have made him a made man in The Land, but when Griffin tried to leverage the championship into an even bigger role with the franchise, Dan Gilbert balked and Griff walked. That saved Griffin the bother of trying to salvage the team’s fractured relationship with Kyrie Irving, and it also made him an attractive candidate for the right opportunity.

He talked to the Knicks and he talked to the Sixers, but when they wouldn’t meet his demand for autonomy he sat back and waited. Somebody was going to give Griff what he wanted, and he used that time to build a successful broadcasting career on the side. He remains one of the few people to remove himself from LeBron’s orbit and come out the better for it.

Griffin may owe his career prospects to LeBron, but he got his start in Phoenix when he was working in the video room for a Suns team that was coached by Ainge. Years ago in a different context, Ainge told me that the best information he received came from the video room where Griff was toiling away, watching film.

That experience taught Ainge a valuable lesson. The best front offices aren’t dominated by old cronies and yes men, but by hard-working ambitious young staffers. Griffin took note of that, as well, filling out his staff in Cleveland with smart young people like Trent Redden and Koby Altman.

Ainge has prepared for the day when Davis would become available for years, stockpiling draft picks and hoarding young talent. Because of a quirk of the collective bargaining agreement, Ainge couldn’t make a move on AD at the deadline, but rest assured he’ll be ready when the opportunity presents itself.

LeBron’s Lakers had no such restrictions, but due to forces that took on a life of their own, the Pelicans had no intentions of trading Davis to Los Angeles. That was then, and it may have been a lifetime ago because everything is different now.

The Lakers have a gaping hole in their management structure since Magic Johnson abruptly walked off the job earlier this week. The Pelicans are now run by a man who has no animosity toward Paul, LeBron, or whoever else winds up running the franchise. The Lakers offer, if it still exists, can be viewed in an entirely fresh light.

The Celtics? Well, the Celtics are a black box. There’s no telling who might be in the offer for AD, or where their draft picks might land, or even whether Irving intends to stick around once he opts out of his contract. It was the mere promise of a pending Celtic offer that kept others at bay during the deadline.

There may yet be a mystery team who emerges to enter the bidding for one of the most valuable prospects to come on the trade market in years. Especially now that there appears to be a clear chain of command in the Pelicans’ basketball operations.

Trading a franchise player is a helluva decision to make for an incoming basketball executive, but Griff is smart and Griff will absolutely do what he feels is best for the team he now runs. Whatever assumptions one might have made about an AD blockbuster now must be viewed through his lens. Whichever way he chooses, the decision will have dramatic ramifications for years to come.