Anthony Davis Discussion: Thanks For The Ring AD!!!

again, prior to the year NO sat him because they were mad, he missed 18, 15, 14, 21, 7, and 7 games, respectively. and he's basically been a 35mpg player every year. his lows in minutes played are comparable to the highs for other star bigs.

as for injuries hurting his performance, maybe last year? but his offensive productivity is slightly down mostly because he takes fewer shots now.

i still think it's strange that everyone makes AD the butt of injury jokes while being bullish about embiid or klay thompson's futures.

how does "build around" get translated into offense? you build a team, on both sides of the ball, that plays to AD's strengths. of course you want luka--the guy's going to be an mvp candidate for like, 7 years or something. but you shouldn't need that to be a competitive team.

a guard/forward who's an elite scorer (tatum and mitchell of course work here, but so would booker or lavine or another slightly lesser player--a young derozan, even), a pg who can distribute, and at least three very good defenders + AD should win a lot of games.

we should be able to field teams like that, post-lebron. provided we don't purge all assets in the interim.

that's unfortunate because despite the big numbers, i feel like lebron's game has really dropped off this year. again, all the focus is on AD's dropoff, but his has been smaller. i'm just not sure i can sell myself on going all out for a guy who's operating at half his former capacity and is 37. i'd rather gamble on trying to re-establish our much younger star and setting the franchise up for long-term competitiveness.

i was of the mind that we could get it together for the playoffs about 20 games ago. but we've just shown no progress, and you don't flip a switch from 9th place 50 games in to the title.

 

Great game by AD. Shot a very efficient 56%. Came up big in the 4th with 11 & 7 in the quarter. He really asserted himself on the glass. Nice to see with how often we've gotten killed with key rebounds throughout the season.

Hopefully he has enough left in the tank tonight against the Clipps.

Last year, I don't think he looked right and wasn't healthy from the bubble injuries he played through.

Klay doesn't get the attention because that was never going to be and never will be his team. I've seen some talk about Embiid in the regard this year. A lot of media realization that they're wasting one of the best years a big has had in a long time and he only has a few more cracks at this because his body isn't going to hold up. I don't think nearly enough hate is being put on Morey for being stubborn and dumb and not moving Simmons because he waiting for the Beard this summer.

Build around gets translated to offensive production because that's who gets the TNT graphic on the head to head matchup. They're showcased and viewed as the face of the team. In the past 2 1/2 decades here's the list of DPOY bigs who had an offensive game -- Zo, KG, Dwight (although that's debatable), and Antetokounmpo. Whereas the other DPOY bigs in that span-- Deke, Camby, Big Ben, Marc, Chandler, Noah and Gobert were all vital to their teams but it's not their team and the team isn't built around them. Bubble season, AD was in the conversation with Antetokounmpo, whereas now it's been closer to the Gobert conversation. If we're lucky enough to pair him with any of this guys both of us listed as potential additions, I think they get top billing.

It's always easier for everything to orbit around a perimeter guy for the same reason a WR is rarely the best player on the football team. Their success is largely hinging on someone getting them the ball. Sure AD can bring it up and create for himself because he's a guard who got big late in his youth, but that would kill his energy even quicker.

Also, I think AD needs a guy to push him and motivate him. #1's are the ones doing the pushing. Again, he's turning 29. That's not who he is and that's perfectly OK. Kam bros compared it to Kobe having to push Pau.

We're extremely lucky to have AD and I hope he retires a Laker. He's a great player and when he's rolling, he's one of the best handful of players in the game. I've just yet to see him be able to do that for an entire year as a Laker for a variety of reasons, including health. That makes me want to maximize the next few years because players rarely get healthier as they age (maybe except for VC).

I think the next guy will have to come in free agency because of us trying to win now. But with no long term deals in this team, we will be able to do that.

 

gobert's a good comp because everyone agrees he's great and foundational and worth a max, but a) his offense makes AD look like kyrie irving and b) he can be played off the floor for DEFENSIVE reasons. and you listed a bunch of guys that were key cogs in winning teams there, too. and AD's better than all of them. even the current version.

as for maximizing, that's my point: we need to maximize the AD years, not the lebron years. we got our title there and need to be thinking about how not to waste our other star's remaining prime, imo.

 

It's depressing but this version of AD with what we've seen with Lebron when healthy this team could still make a playoff run because they are so freakin good. Right now though it feels like we're purposely making things more difficult with the roster and coaching decisions like a golfer giving himself a handicap

 

AD is still a top 3 big alongside Jokic and Embiid (top 4 if you count Giannis). And I’d only really take Jokic over him who I believe has ascended to ATG #1 option levels.

 

You mean that sloppy fat guy Markieff cheap shotted and then cried the blues after he got it right back? I still laugh at that. He turned his back and walked away all smug and pleased with himself, thought he was D. Fish or something dropping Scola. For all of like 3 seconds.

 

jokic is a beast. he's become a credible defensive anchor on size and iq alone. he's sort of the platonic ideal of peak marc gasol or something.

he's become better than i thought possible even two years ago. i'd trade AD for him. or luka. or giannis. and that's it.

 

I think we're in the same boat. Outside of those 3, I just don't see the cost benefit being in our favour trading for anyone else. At his peak AD is a top defensive anchor and a 25-30 pt offensive player. He can have the same impact prime Howard did, but in the modern game with some shooting to add space and being able to defend 1-5 on switches.

That just doesn't grow on trees.

But Jokic, my lord. He is averaging 30/14/10 over the last 9 games on 60/45/90 while being a defensive anchor. How is that even possible? The guy looks like a dalmatian farmer who raises donkeys and drinks a glass of rakija in the morning to start his day. Meanwhile he is the runaway MVP in back to back seasons. And he doesn't look like he is going to slow down for the next 5 years.

 

Another big one for AD.


Had nearly zero help for 3 quarters

This was the missed game winner

 

easily a top 10 player in the league when he's healthy and he's shown it the last few games

too bad everyone else around him sucks

 

Really wanted that last one to go down for him!

 

Will never happen but I'd like him to explain why he accepted to waste part of his prime with this roster .

I guess one title was enough for him

 

He’s still nowhere near bubble AD. He is not really that threatening from the perimeter or face up one-on-one game.

But he’s a damn monster just feasting on easy buckets cutting to the paint.

That’s what’s so frustrating about all of this. I still can’t help but feeling that Lebron + AD should be a cheat code to dominance. But somehow we’re squandering it.

 

I agree but they can't dominate ( regardless of the poor roster around them) if they don't play together

 

He's looking much more spry out there

They also brought up a good point on the LFR podcast yesterday, since he's been back he hasn't been falling down nearly as often.



Sadly he's going to have to do this every night with Bron out for us to stay competitive in these games.

 

Meh. He sucks.

 

It's a vicious circle for Bron and AD as one of them is always out , the healthy one has to do more for the Lakers to stay competitive then gets injured in the process of doing so ...

 

i'm glad he dropped the weight he added. that was a mistake for several reasons, imo.

anyway, despite claims here, he's the best thing the franchise has going for them right now, so we need to do whatever it takes to maximize him.