It’s Showtime: Anthony Davis Must Take Over the Lakers
After this season’s disappointment, it’s clear that Anthony Davis needs to fulfill his MVP potential for the Lakers to win their 18th championship
AFTER HIS FIRST season with the Lakers, Anthony Davis proved his worth around the NBA, as he was the second most dominant player in the entire league from start to finish. There were many skeptics who questioned if a team built around Davis and LeBron James would be a truly elite team. James proved his doubters wrong by being an MVP candidate at 35 and winning the Finals MVP; Davis proved his critics wrong by outperforming other superstar players in the Orlando Bubble.
The Lakers may have mortgaged most of their draft capital and nearly all of their young talent to get Davis, but framing their trade through those lens ignores one critical detail: Davis is still young enough to improve his game.
Out of the top ten players in the NBA, nobody, besides Giannis Antetokounmpo, has more room to grow. AD has the potential to become an elite shooter, a better playmaker, and a go-to post scorer, while still being inarguably one of the best two-way players in the game.
While still in his final seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans, it seemed certain that Davis would be a future league MVP: he had the talent and production to compete with the best superstars in the NBA.
Of course, playing with LeBron James actively hindered Davis’ personal chances at winning league MVP in 2019–2020, but that reality will change soon.
James has already deferred to Davis for long stretches, and AD has been his top target as a passer ever. As time passes, LeBron, both to elongate his career and to amplify Davis’ production, will likely focus on setting up Davis even more.
LeBron, for as great as he was when healthy this past season, showed his age in the postseason. Whether or not his recent injuries will be a recurring theme going forward (the unlikely nature of his ankle injury suggests that they were flukes), the reality is that James has been injured for 2 of his 3 seasons as a Laker.
Davis has had his struggles with injury too, but entering his age-28 season, he is in his physical prime, and the stage is set for him to take control of the Lakers. L.A. will be in win-now mode for as long as James is under contract; only Davis can decide how many titles the Lakers win in this modern era of “Showtime.”
IN THE 2020 Playoffs, LeBron James and Anthony Davis were, by far, the two most dominant players. While other players underperformed, grew mentally exhausted by the demands of the NBA Bubble, or simply didn’t play at a championship level, James and Davis played consistent, elite basketball through all four rounds.
For reference, here is a series-by-series breakdown of their postseason play:
- Round 1 vs. the Trail Blazers: Davis was a terrific defender against Portland’s elite pick-and-roll attack; both James and Davis were terrific at punishing a weak Blazers defense as scorers and playmakers.
- Round 2 vs. the Rockets: Davis effectively stopped Russell Westbrook on defense after Game 1, and James played strong perimeter defense against James Harden, Eric Gordon, and the rest of Houston’s perimeter players. Both James and Davis capitalized on the Rockets’ porous interior defense.
- Round 3 vs. the Nuggets: Davis was a consistently great scorer and played good-to-great defense on Nikola Jokic at times. He also hit the game winner in Game 2. James’ offense was somewhat erratic at times, but he continued his dominance as a playmaker and two-way player; his 38–16–10 performance in Game 5 to bring L.A. to the Finals was historically great.
- Round 4 vs. the Heat: James essentially averaged a 30 point triple-double on elite efficiency while either guarding Jimmy Butler or acting as the team’s defensive coordinator as a help defender. Davis averaged 25/11 on elite efficiency, maintained the Lakers’ huge advantage in rebounding over the Heat, and hit the crucial three-pointer in Game 4 to give L.A. a 3–1 lead.
The biggest revelation in the 2020 Playoffs had to be Davis’ shooting, which markedly improved from the regular season.
Per CBS Sports, Davis went from shooting 37% on mid-range jumpers to a sizzling 49%; his volume of mid-range shot attempts increased by 25% (because defenses packed the paint in the postseason) while his shots at the rim decreased by 15%. His efficiency and volume was almost unparalleled, and it led to comparisons to Kevin Durant and Chris Paul, two recent superstars who have shot around 50% from mid-range on a high-volume of attempts.
Davis also improved as a three-point shooter on relatively high volume (his average of 2.9 attempts per game is skewed by the fact that he only shot 5 threes total against Houston). At 38.3%, teams could no longer openly concede threes to AD, and in lineups with LeBron James and 3 three-point shooters (some combination of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Danny Green, Kyle Kuzma, Rajon Rondo and Alex Caruso), L.A. essentially had a “five-out” lineup with shooters spacing the floor for their two superstars.
Much has been made about Davis’ success correlating with him playing center in the NBA Bubble, and for good reason. In the playoffs, defensive versatility, speed, and floor spacing tend to be more valuable than rim protection, rebounding, and size; Davis at center eliminated many old-school lineups with JaVale McGee or Dwight Howard at center.
Davis was nearly perfect for L..A. in the Bubble — as mentioned earlier, he was definitively the 2nd best player in the league during the postseason for his two-way impact, but his play in elimination games showed his room for growth.
The mark of a truly generational talent, including LeBron, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and more greats throughout NBA history, is their ability to “seize the moment” — that is, to play at peak performance in elimination games. James, in the 2020 Playoffs, was amazing during elimination games, while Davis, at least offensively, was good but not great.
As LeBron cedes more responsibility to AD, this should change: Davis has to at an all-world level in close-out games and when facing elimination.
WHAT CHANGED THIS season for AD?
The first place to start has to be the shortened, 71-day offseason, which seriously affected Davis. Remember, he had never been past the second round in his career, and after a 2020 season that took a huge emotional and physical toll on every player, but especially players on the Lakers and Heat, he needed a longer offseason.
By the end of the NBA Finals, Davis was playing through injury, having sustained a heel contusion in Game 5 and an ankle injury in the Conference Finals.
In a normal season, Davis takes a month off to recover physically and mentally; this season, a month off meant he had only one month left before he had to report to training camp. Unsurprisingly, he looked like a player who needed more time off when beginning this season.
His free-throw shooting, one of his greatest assets as a big man, declined tremendously, both in terms of his volume of attempts and his shooting percentage. At one point, in January, the only month where he played over 10 games, he shot 69.6% from the line; by comparison, one year earlier, in January of 2020, he shot 89.9% from the line.
Furthermore, Davis didn’t show the growth that some had expected after his transcendent play in the NBA Bubble. His shooting percentages from mid-range stayed mostly constant from the 2020 regular season— this was an issue because, prior to the NBA Bubble, Davis was one of the less efficient shooters in the league on jump-shots. Lastly, his three-point shooting, which was so promising at times during the NBA Playoffs, declined dramatically to a putrid 26.0%.
Davis had two notable injury scares this season: he suffered on February 14th a calf injury and Achilles tendinosis against the Denver Nuggets, and he strained his groin and hyperextended his knee in the playoffs. While the shortened offseason didn’t necessarily cause Davis’ injuries, a lack of recovery time probably contributed, in some way, to Davis’ calf injury.
Likewise, Davis was playing on a hyperextended knee in Games 4 and 6 of the postseason, and it is reasonable to posit that Davis’ knee injury partially contributed to his strained groin, as athletes are known to “favor” certain body parts when another is injured (in this instance, Davis would “favor” his healthy knee over his injured, hyperextended knee).
In terms of roster construction, L.A. didn’t do their star big man many favors.
Davis played power forward for over 90% of his minutes this season, up from 75% in the 2020 regular season and, most notably, only 40% during the NBA Bubble.
His shifting positions directly correlated with a decline in shots at the rim (defined as 0–3 feet on Basketball Reference), from 34.3% of his field-goal attempts to just 24.3%, and an increase in mid-range jumpers, which, as noted earlier, he was not terribly efficient at making. Perhaps, L.A.’s decision to play him as a forward was influenced by Davis’ shooting in the NBA Bubble, but AD’s proficiency as a shooter never recovered this season.
Ultimately, this season was a statistical anomaly, an outlier that deviated heavily from expectations for Davis, but there were some valuable lessons to be learned.
In terms of roster construction, L.A. over-allocated their resources, including the valuable mid-level exception and their one open roster spot for a player on the buyout market, on signing players who didn’t fit with Anthony Davis (Montrezl Harrell and Andre Drummond, respectively).
As for Davis as an individual, he should learn from his teammate, friend, and mentor LeBron James. LeBron, unlike AD, took only a few games this season to begin playing at MVP-level form; this aligns heavily with the fact that James’ regimented conditioning program never allows him to be “out of shape.” Davis’ regiment, in stark contrast, begins with a month off, with no intensive basketball training, conditioning, or strength training.
In all likelihood, the roster will be better constructed next season, and Davis will play more minutes at center. Whether or not he will come into this season in peak condition, however, remains to be seen.
The Lakers certainly need Davis to play at peak condition, with an older LeBron James and multiple role players whose effectiveness wanes with a larger role. Jared Dudley, one of the most candid players in the league and a vocal leader for the Lakers, said as much in his exit interview when he claimed, “he [Anthony Davis] will take the torch next year.”
We salute [LeBron]. People say he’s slowing down, and it’s natural to slow down a little bit. That’s why you have Anthony Davis. That’s where he has to take the torch, and that’s where he will take the torch next year.”
— Lakers forward Jared Dudley
AT JUST 28, Anthony Davis has a lifetime of achievements. He’s won championships at the collegiate and professional level, been named to All-NBA and All-Star teams, and is a consensus top-ten player in the league.
Yet, it has always seemed that there is another level of performance that he can reach.
Out of every player in the NBA, he, along with Kawhi Leonard, is the most talented and accomplished player to not win an MVP award. He also, despite being an all-world rim protector, a great post defender, and a good perimeter defender, has never won the Defensive Player of the Year.
In his first season in L.A., he flaunted all of these skills: he was the runner-up to Giannis Antetokounmpo for the DPOY, he spent time guarding elite wings like Kawhi Leonard, and he was arguably the second best player in the NBA Bubble.
How many superstars could make a drifting, fadeaway three-pointer at the buzzer to win a playoff game? How many centers could defend Nikola Jokic in one series, and then guard Jimmy Butler in the next series? How many players could average a 25-point, 11-rebound triple-double in the NBA Finals on 57.1/42.1/93.8 shooting splits?
Davis’ teammates and coaches know how special he can be. Markieff Morris, since joining the Lakers, has consistently praised Davis as being the 2nd best player in the NBA, and other players, like Dennis Schroder, have echoed that sentiment.
“AD is special, man. What he can do at seven feet? Dribble, pass, shoot, post up, handle … Nah, man, he’s special. I don’t even think AD realizes how special he is. I think the great part about him is that he’s such a good dude, he’s got a great family. But I think AD has an opportunity to [win an MVP] … he’s an NBA MVP-caliber player. I’m talking about the way he can really dominate the game on both ends. Like he cleans up a lot of stuff, man. He’s just a special talent, man. They call him the unicorn.”
— Phil Handy, Lakers assistant coach and player development trainer
L.A.’s title window, for better or for worse, is centered on LeBron James’ timeline. If they want to extend their title window past the next two years, it is imperative that Davis, as Jared Dudley intimated, takes the reins of the Lakers franchise.
The late great Kobe Bryant never openly recruited other star players to L.A., even as he aged, but he stated that Davis, with his skill, athleticism, and other-worldly talent, was the type of player that every team should want to build around. Now, Davis has the chance to fulfill that legacy, while continuing LeBron and the Lakers’ championship glory.
