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

All that money and still can’t afford tweezers

 

Odds are good he has most of those freaky injuries out of the way. Other than a few minor bumps and bruises he should be relatively healthy for a few years.

 

Good read from Buha


But wanted to really focus on this excerpt since it focuses on a concern here -- the $

 

Lakers don't want to rebuild when Bron is gone .

We'll see if the presence of AD will attract another superstar when this extension kick in ..

 

i don't think his injuries are freaky, tbh, nor are they behind him. his body is kind of oddly shaped, and he moves fast and leaves the floor a lot. it's just a recipe for injuries. he's going to land on people's feet, etc. two of his worst injuries came from trying to catch lobs, for example. if he stops doing that, he becomes less valuable. so i've always looked at his missing 20 games as part of the deal. missing 40 is where it starts to suck. that's going to happen on the back end of this deal; i'm just hoping to get 65 games + playoffs of high impact for the next couple of years.

i continue to disagree on the effort stuff. you don't play defense like he does without consistent effort. but we've been over that, and no hearts nor minds have been won on either side.

 

yeah, had he waited--even if he got injured again--we'd have to pony up a max to retain him anyway. he got insurance against a career-ending injury (makes sense given his foot/achilles stuff), and we got him a little cheaper than we probably would have otherwise.

 

My biggest concern with AD is his legs and what you're are talking about.

All the work under the basket and opposing players feet stepping on you or tripping you

 

or......the beginning of the breakdown of his body has already started happening as an athlete

I'm leaning more towards that over freak injuries since the guy falls down so much

 

His injuries are mostly freakish. People falling into his legs, awkward landings, various things that don't seem to happen to a lot of players or if they do, the results are not so severe. Differing definitions of freakish isn't important but I am not sure how you can know with such certainty that these kinds of injuries are not behind him. I don't know what his off-season training consists of but what I see about AD screams to me of him not doing injury prevention work. I don't really know if it he has an odd-shaped body so much as he needs to do better weight training, so he is more in balance. His core might be weak, or his abs could be strong over-powering a weak lower back. Might have weak legs or just need to work on coordination so he isn't falling so often. Who knows. If he is getting hurt catching lobs, then they are either freakish injuries or ones that he could work to prevent. There have been so many advancements on injury prevention. If you consistently have issues season after season, try and do something about it. Maybe he does but I'm not seeing it. Tua is a good example. That guy works like crazy on injury prevention. So far results seem to be limited but it isn't from lack of effort.

Not that my opinion matters to AD but as a fan I am not letting him off the hook for what appears to me to be a lack of off-season training or at least not the right type of training any more than I will let him slide for his too often lack of focus for games. I think AD is better served by these things being pointed out to him than pretending it doesn't happen. I expect AD to have a monster season and I am glad we resigned but with all that money comes even higher expectations from fans. Hopefully he is using this off-season effectively. Weight training for body balance would be a good start.

 

so my speculation that his body type is unusual (look at his legs; i think it's related to his huge late growth spurt) is baseless, but your speculation that his biomechanics are off due to laziness or poor training is fair?

i mean, the only statement i've heard so far from his agent was that the lakers agree that your theory is unsupported by data.

the reason why his awkward landings end up in major injuries is because he's huge and other huge guys simply...don't land...because they rarely leave the floor. this is why jokic is never injured (also why harden was rarely injured until he started with the soft tissue stuff due to being overweight and out of shape).

someone rolling up on your legs is a freak injury and not about preparation, but landing strangely in traffic because you've soared across the lane to catch a lob or block a shot is definitely a product of size X style of play. most guys who can move like AD are much smaller and/or lighter. is what it is. your greatest strengths often spawn your greatest weaknesses, and with AD, his freakish size and body movement lead to injuries, much like other guys (shaq, zion).

 

AD is one of the best two way players in the NBA.
He does get injured a lot, but he’s not the only top tier star who does.
He deserves every penny of this contract- based on his talent and ability to be one of the two “stars” every Franchise needs to have a chance at winning it all.

 

I've stated many times I don't have any data on AD and how he trains other than what is made public and that isn't much. Most everything I post is my opinion based on my experiences. I have never made any insider claims and my opinions are no more valid than anyone else's. I post my opinions because that is really all I have. I don't see much value in posting someone else's. AD could have all kinds of things going on from growth spurts or being huge for all I know. I'm just saying if AD isn't doing special training for injury prevention he should be. One of the reasons I posted I thought he might put some of his injuries behind him is that it looks like he might be doing injury prevention this offseason. His boxing training could go a long way toward that goal. I don't know how extensive his training is, but boxing is a great sport for building core strength and body balance. I don't think he is so huge that his landings should be so awkward (again, this is only my opinion). As far as Zion and Shaq are concerned, they are probably not good examples. Shaq made no attempt to hide his lack of off-season training and Zion has been working hard on injury prevention from what little I have read of him which shows his trainer takes injury prevention seriously. (Again, I'm not saying AD doesn't). He could be training many hours a day for that particular purpose, and I wouldn't know. Kudos to Zion and his trainer for the effort.

I am one of AD's biggest supporters and again I just want to say that people can make suggestions about how he can improve his game and stay healthy without attacking him. Blindly following a player and refusing to acknowledge any negatives about them doesn't make someone a better fan and on the flip side it doesn't make them any worse. It is just two different methods we use to be involved with your team.

 

Yeah but one can understand both sides of the equation but not want to concentrate on the potential negatives. We all know that AD has been injury prone and will likely be injured again in the future. Probably more than once or twice. That is just the way it has been and until he proves otherwise, the only way we can expect things to go from here on out. He is still a great player and someone who I hope can find a way to be impactful during the playoffs. If he misses 30 regular season games every year, then c'est la vie. If he misses the playoffs, it will hurt. But, for now, I am not going to get down on him or be hypersensitive about his contract. I simply want us, and him, to succeed. I understand the negatives and the worries but don't see what good spewing that all over the internet is going to do for anyone?? Best it can do is perhaps convince some great player to NOT want to play with him.

 

I am all for anyone being a fan any way that they want. As I have already said so many times the keys are wearing out, one is no better than the other. It is not likely AD will never be injured again but hopefully the major injuries will be fewer. The more work he puts in toward that goal the more likely it is to be a reality. That is all I'm saying, do what you can for prevention and then it is what it is. He may even be able to overcome the fact that he is huge. We all know there is no absolute in sports as far as injuries go. Hopefully that is not breaking news to anyone. (Sports Center music here) I support AD because he is a Laker, and it looks like he is staying that way, plus he is really good. I'm just not one to sit around lamenting about him getting hurt before it actually happens. Anyone that wants to can fire the "I told you so" comments at that time can have at it. I don't believe worrying about the worst makes it any less likely to happen.

 

He is a game changing defensive anchor who can score. I do not think there are many people better than him. There are better scorers, there are guys who get injured less but none of them have the combination of high level skills on both sides of the ball that AD does. For people who bag on him, who are we going to get that will be better? Then, would you really want us to go down that road? I trust our FO to make the right calls and I think AD will give it his best shot. Worst case scenario is we win a lot of games and sell a lot of tickets and merchandise but come up short on the rings, best case scenario, we win another ring or two.

It is way more difficult to win year in and year out, like some teams did in the past. The NBA has tried very hard to even out the playing field and keep teams from being able to create long term dynasties. Not that it will never happen again but it is what it is and the NBA will change the rules again, if another dynasty is created. They want parity across the league. Good or bad.

I think with AD, we will always have a chance at a ring.