The Unsuspecting Brilliance of Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis enters the playoffs for the first time in his career this season

There have been very few truly transcendent superstars in the NBA that will make you grudgingly, hatefully respect them and their game. If you do a quick head count, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James are the names you are most likely to come up with, in no particular order. Lucky for Anthony Davis, he is still in the raw awe-inducing phase, where people worry just about the possibilities instead of the means to achieve them. But one thing is for certain, Davis may well turn out to be the one to steal the best player in the league baton from LeBron James and Kevin Durant in a few years’ time.

Then you will rethink, and add Tim Duncan to the aforementioned list. It has been a testimony to Duncan’s career and the culture at San Antonio that Duncan always gets left out during the first iteration of most of these conversations. Kevin Durant might become one of the greatest, but that is already known. The time has come for him to prove that he actually belongs to the pantheon. In spite of the fact that he is still just 26 years old, the amount of achievements he has logged automatically translates to talks of championships and legacies.

Davis is surprisingly fast for his built

Coming back to Davis, he was drafted first overall in the draft of 2012 after being projected to go No. 1 almost since the start. Though that draft featured other really good players such as Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, Andre Drummond and Michael Kidd Gilchrist to name a few, only Drummond, Lillard and Davis can be considered when it comes to franchise superstar discussions. A lanky 6’ 11” teenager with a 7’ 5” wingspan, Anthony Davis is a freak of nature. Remarkably supple on his feet and able to cover ground like smaller 2-guards, Davis has morphed into perhaps one of the most unguardable players in the league.

Davis started off as a shooting guard in his freshman year at a height of 6 feet. But, by the end of his sophomore year he had grown 4 inches. He ended up at 6’ 11” and owing to his position as a shooting guard, had a shooting form that could put almost anyone to shame. In today’s day and age of the NBA, where you can find floor stretching power forwards on almost all teams with championship aspirations, Davis stands out as a rare combination of speed and shooting that can cause opposition coaches to worry.

It is uncharacteristic for anyone with Davis’ height to be as fast as he is when putting the ball on the floor. Bulkier power forwards have trouble keeping pace with him and smaller power forwards just get annihilated by his mid-range game. He is turning into an emphatic shot blocker as well. Instead of flat out swatting the ball out of the court, he routinely redirects it to teammates, which lead to easy looks in transition.

Davis has also proved he is a great crunch-time player. His double clutch buzzer beater against the Thunder is what proved to be the difference-maker between the Thunder and the Pelicans, though it is a relief to not see Westbrook getting shredded by the Warriors in the Playoffs. Knowing Westbrook he might have ended up punching someone on the court or breaking something in the locker room or maybe both.

Davis almost got a Quadruple double against the Nuggets. That, more than anything, should say something about his impact on a ball game. He is still learning the ropes of NBA level defence though, as he often gets late on rotations sometimes leaving his man wide open for a three. Most recently against Golden State, he completely botched a rotation which led to Klay Thompson standing all alone beyond the arc, and everyone with rudimentary hoops knowledge knows not to leave one of the “Splash Brothers” open. All these things are trifles, however. It takes time to understand NBA team defense and at 22 years of age, Davis has all the time in the world.

Davis dunking on DeAndre Jordan on a fast break

It takes about two quarters into a Pelicans game before you realize that Anthony Davis has about 15 points and a dozen boards. His contributions are so masked by his lack of possessions that it makes his stats almost seem effortless. Surprisingly, Davis’ usage rate was 25.9 among all active players, which makes his PER (Player Efficiency Rating) of 30.89 a historic figure. For perspective, a player like Dwyane Wade used 32.6% of his teams’ possessions and his PER was 21.44 which ranks 24th.

We are not including Russell Westbrook in this conversation because what Westbrook managed to achieve with a patchwork roster riddled with countless injuries should not be measured with something as petty as numbers. Although in all honesty numbers are the only way to judge the magnitude of his contributions.

Davis plays with a backcourt of Tyreke Evans, Ben Gordon and Jrue Holiday. Gordon and Evans do not necessarily qualify as ball hogs, but they do need the ball for an insubordinate amount of time in their hands to manufacture a look at the basket. As recently as the Pelicans Game 2 loss at Oracle Arena, many of the pick and rolls featuring Davis and Ben Gordon or Tyreke Evans ended with a half-hearted attempt at the rim which was more often than not swatted away by either Andrew Bogut or Marreesse Speights. This occurred when Davis was rolling to a clean look at the rim against a smaller defender or spotting up for a mid-range jumper.

Davis is on his way to greatness

The current Pelicans roster as constructed is not a championship caliber team. Coach Monty Williams needs to find ways to maximize the use and potential of his superstar other than high pick and rolls, and high post isolations. He needs to find ways to unclutter the lanes to better use Davis’s speed and agility.

The Pelicans are getting their first taste of the Playoffs this season. There is still time to figure out whether the franchise is on the right path or a change is required. The changes can come in any form, whether it is a change in coaching or a change in the roster makeup. Pretty soon the questions which hound each and every upcoming team will be imposed on the Pelicans as well. That is the nature of the game. There is only a small window in which you can impress the basketball world with your potential rather than your results. Then the weight of the expectations your potential created catches up to you. This is the same thing that happened to the Thunder, and we have yet to see how they live up to it.

Davis is well on his way to become one of the best power forwards to play the game. Whether he achieves his greatness with the Pelicans or any other franchise is a question only time can answer. But whatever is the case, whichever team he chooses to pursue his extremely raw legacy with, we can be sure that we will have plenty more things to be awestruck about in the coming seasons.

Barring the unfortunate bane that are injuries, we can be sure to see Davis soaring way above the rim for a lob and dunking it in, making a mid-range jumper over some hapless opponent or simply swatting away a shot attempt, all the time making it seem as effortless as lacing up his sneakers, because that in essence is the brilliance of Anthony Davis.