New Orleans Pelicans are now the petty kings of the NBA.

All week, the New Orleans Pelicans have theoretically been involved in trade negotiations with the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. There were leaks upon leaks as the two sides tried to come to a deal, with it breaking that the Lakers had offered basically their entire team for Davis, a deal that New Orleans rejected.

It now appears that the Pelicans never had any intention to send Davis to the Lakers, and instead have used this entire trade deadline as a way to enact revenge upon the Lakers for their perceived tampering with Davis. They’ve made outrageous demands and leaked Lakers offers, not as any sort of negotiation tactic, but rather to sow seeds of discontent within the Lakers organization.

This discontent perhaps led to the Lakers losing a game by 42 points this week to the Indiana Pacers, and almost certainly has made things awkward in the organization as it has been leaked that just about every single player minus LeBron James was completely disposable.

The news comes from a report from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who went on Rachel Nichols’ The Jump on Wednesday night and was asked if it was possible that the Pelicans had never meant to engage in trade talks in good faith and were instead just screwing with the Lakers.

“It’s not just possible,” said Windhorst. “It’s what happened.”

He continued:

“I know that the Pelicans, you know—the Pelicans had a method to their madness, in the way this went. Did they know it was gonna lead to a 40-point loss, because everybody’s upset? Not necessarily.”

So I asked @WindhorstESPN if the Pels ever intended to seriously engage with LA on Anthony Davis, or if all the talks & leaks were instead designed to sabotage the young Lakers as revenge for what N.O. sees as tampering, & he said "it's not just possible, it's what happened." 👀 pic.twitter.com/wki2hDPaEs — Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) February 7, 2019

Is this a smart long term play for the Pelicans? I doubt it. Yes, they’ve showed to other teams that they won’t be messed with, and they will not be strong-armed in the future. And maybe their intent all along has been to deal Davis to the Celtics for whatever Danny Ainge can put together.

But for other players in the league, and agents, and other teams, they’re seeing what the Pelicans are doing. I’m not sure if the general reaction will be a gruff acknowledgement that they really pulled one over on the Lakers this time, and a tip of the cap … or a mental note that that’s not an organization you want to deal with in the future.

In the meantime, we can enjoy the drama that comes from the NBA Trade Deadline, which is reaching John le Carré-esque levels of espionage, double crossing and intrigue. Keep your head on a swivel out there, NBA GMs. Your trade partner might be your enemy after all.