News of Anthony Davis’ trade request has fanned NBA front offices by more than 24 hours and while the New Orleans Pelicans expressed they have no intention to rush the process of finding a new home for their talisman player, his agent Rich Paul, is expected to step in again by putting the Los Angeles Lakers at the forefront.

Davis told the Pelicans of his intentions not to sign with the team on Friday, but it wasn’t until Monday that Paul made the trade request public, giving the Lakers, the employer of his longtime friend and business partner LeBron James, a head start in the bidding.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who broke the trade request, multiple people familiar with the situation expect player and agent to say he prefers to go to the Lakers.

“After agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports told ESPN on Monday that he had informed the Pelicans that Davis wouldn’t sign an extension this summer and wanted a trade, multiple league sources expect the agent and star to soon deliver word throughout the league that Davis’ preferred destination is the Lakers and he’ll become a rental player until 2020 with a trade anywhere else.”

This is the same deadlock move that Paul George and his camp tried during his last days with the Indiana Pacers, hoping to force a move to the Lakers, but it backfired.

The Oklahoma City Thunder sniped George and swept the rug off from underneath the Lakers, later signing him to a four-year, $137 million extension.

A similar issue happened with Kawhi Leonard, who ambiguously expressed Los Angeles was his preferred destination, only to get scooped up by Toronto over the summer.

Paul going public with the trade news at the expense of villainizing his client is only a strategy to give the Lakers a leg up in competition, given that the Boston Celtics are unable to make a play on Davis until July 1 as part as the “Rose Rule.”

Locking teams into the rental conundrum, won’t do much to keep teams from taking a gamble, as many have done before in hopes to pry away highly-valuable talent from their competitors.