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

Now we know why the Lakers were desperate to find a third star.... LeBron simply does not have faith in AD being able to take the franchise over. There's nothing left to say about AD's game. Top 10 when he shows up but whether he shows up is the bigger question. In a game where he could completely silence the doubts, establish that he's the #1 on the team, and battle it out with Jokic, he froze in the second half.

0-6, whatever, you miss shots. No big deal. But his entire demeanor was soft, lackadaisical, and borderline uninterested.

With AD, at this point, what you see is what you get. Someone who may or may not show up but when he does, your team is tough to beat. He is not somehow going to magically develop into a first option player. The Lakers will need to figure out how to get a guy who can be that individual once LeBron can no longer do it.

 

AD should have an advantage on getting up and down the court and in face up iso situation against Jokic but if the guards miss him or hes not willing to push the pace and run it's better to put him as a PF on defense

 

Same old AD ..

 

to be fair, no one can stop jokic

 

I get it, its rough having to guard Jokic but man… so much talk over the summer for nothing if you’re gonna disappear game 1.

 

still can't make teams pay with the pass. it's really his only weakness as a player, but in a star role, you need to be able to do that. if you can just double him on the catch and not worry about him hitting the guy cross court or dive cutting like jokic kills us with every time, it's a lot easier on the defense.

kawhi, tatum, and brown all have similar issues that aren't as obvious because they're perimeter players on offense, but they cost their teams similarly, imo. turns your secondary players into jumpshooters and allows the other team to strategically leave the worst ones.

 

Yeah collectively, the team is gonna have to deal with him being doubled better. Run more actions/get more cutters. The double team took him out of the game offensively.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...says-lebron-james-29-minutes-line-lakers-plan

 

it's nitpicky but these are the issues where a guy like AD who should be in the MVP discussion but just not quite there.
He should be able to beat jokic down the floor for easy buckets and to set up defense but it's Jokic who beats him down the court consistently.

As much as everyone hates the Lebron at C lineups (which I agree with), when it was him and Rui they seemed to tire him out. Lebron would get the rebound and do the Magic routine of push the ball or outlet and it messed up Denver's very good 1/2 court offense and defense up.

Honestly, he really should be paired with another big against Jokic. You need someone who can tag Jokic similar to how a defender is assigned to Steph no matter where he is on the court and to allow the Lakers some breathing room when AD is not in position and to allow him to roam.

 

Looking at the vid, it would be nice for Rui to slow down a bit. He got a tough offensive board and had a mismatch but instead of taking his time and getting his feet set against the smaller defender he put a rushed shot.

This should improve as the season progresses hopefully

 

AD's comments were accurate, imo. they won't please fans or media, but his read is right. if he or others knock down a couple more looks, the game's entirely different. that doesn't invalidate my comments above or others' on maybe having a different center guard jokic, but simple shot making solves a lot of issues, and we didn't do that.

 

Both Gabe and Ham called out AD in a very polite constructive way without throwing him under the bus. When asked about the zero points after half time and what the team can do to get AD better looks or more involved etc, they both said: “we need him to be more aggressive”. It’s not just xs&os or defensive schemes, those closest to him acknowledge it’s at least partly between the ears.

He’s a tremendous talent and I’m thrilled we have him, but he’s Odom’s brain in kg’s body.

 

he won't shoot himself into a 6-25 night. i'm not sure that's a bad thing overall, but it does make it hard to recover once he starts missing.

 

This. 100%.

I remember watching last year's WCF in game 1 and seeing Jokic RUN EVERY TIME DOWN THE COURT like a madman and get the ball deep and score. I was thinking to myself "there's no way he's going to do that for an entire game let alone entire SERIES, he's going to get tired!"

It never happened...and after a full summer of talking and a newly signed extension...what does AD do? He plays exactly the same way he did in last year's WCF and he let Jokic beat him down the floor, AGAIN.

Pathetic man

 

AD got fouled on that play. Jokic pushes him low.

But yeah, when AD is on the floor, Jokic races down and takes advantage.

 

Jokic has lost apparently most all of whatever excess weight he used to carry and is in terrific shape .... the whole team probably .... from practicing and playing their home games at one freaking mile high altitude. Vs sissy So Cal Lakers at sea level.

 

Your boy failed the team again LT

 

81 games to go!

 

i'll pay more attention to this in the future, but i can't say i noticed it to the extent the bloggers did (i.e., if you watched every trip, every game, would you come to this conclusion, or is this sort of a confirmatory search situation?).

i think denver once again played their best against us, and we once again did not play our best against them.

 

Find us a new, better (did you say "boy" ahh now I see )