The Los Angeles Lakers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

They can't tank because the Pelicans own their draft swap.

They can't trade soon-to-be 38-yr-old LeBron James this season because of the extension he signed in the offseason.

They can't get anything of value for Russell Westbrook without attaching their future 1st round draft picks, and even so, their options are not good.

That leaves 1 option left.

Trade Anthony Davis.

And, as one Twitter account puts it, "Anthony Davis looking like someone who doesn't want to be a Laker anymore"

https://twitter.com/_Talkin_NBA/status/1589853712671199232?s=20&t=fE_pkFYUgLOAf94EGiWlAg

There would be a lot of interested in AD if the Lakers were to make him available. And the Lakers should be able to get back some decent pieces.

4 teams that I think should be interested in most AD that have pieces that could intrigue the Lakers:

Bulls
Knicks
Nets
Blazers

Chicago Bulls

The Bulls are very interesting for a lot of reasons. First of all, Anthony Davis if from Chicago and grew up there. Also, the Bulls nearly traded Zach LaVine in the offseason. And they were also having discussion with the Utah Jazz about Rudy Gobert. Also they have former Lakers on their team that LeBron liked playing with and can stretch the floor (Alex Caruso & Lonzo Ball)

Some trades that would work finically to send Anthony Davis to Chicago:

Zach Lavine straight up for AD (LaVine cannot be traded until January 15th)
Nikola Vucevic + Lonzo Ball
Nikola Vucevic + Alex Caruso + Patrick Williams
Lonzo Ball + Alex Caruso + Patrick Williams

Personally, I would love to see AD playing for him hometown Chicago, and Alex Caruso back on the Lakers with LeBron James.

New York Knicks

The Knicks, once again, find themselves the middle of the pack in the NBA. Too good to get a high draft pick, but not good enough to actually compete for a championship. Adding Anthony Davis could be the piece that puts them into serious contention.

And the Knicks certainly have a lot of pieces they could put together and plenty of picks to choose from to put together pretty much whatever offer the Lakers would want.

Pretty much pick two of: Fournier, Rose, Robinson, Randle, Hartenstein

Plus any combination of: Grimes, Toppin, Quickley, Reddish

*Hartenstein cant be traded til Dec 15
*Robinson can't be traded til Jan 15

If it was something like Hartenstein + Fournier + Grimes + Reddish, the Lakers would all of a sudden get much younger, much deeper, and much better at shooting. And the Knicks will have added superstar Anthony Davis without even giving one of their core players (Brunson, Barrett, Randle, or Robinson). Plus they'd still have Rose, Toppin, and Quickley.

Brooklyn Nets

This one would be a blockbuster trade for sure. If the rumors are true that the Nets are done with Kyrie Irving and frustrated with Ben Simmons.

Anthony Davis + Russell Westbrook for Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons??

LeBron James has always liked both Kyrie and Simmons so I could see that working. The Nets get out of both Kyrie and Simmons with one trade and bring back Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook to pay with Kevin Durant.

It works financially, but at the same time, the Nets would be adding $12.6M extra in salary. So the Lakers could ask for another shooter in the deal like Seth Curry, Royce O'Neale, or Joe Harris into the deal as well to make the salary closer and perhaps make the deal more fair.