Anthony Davis is as Delicate as a Popsicle Stick
The oft-injured Los Angeles Lakers big man is $40M problem for the purp and gold.
NOTE: Written before the Feb trade deadline and some players mentioned here are no longer on the Lakers roster. ðŸ˜
The problem is Anthony Davis. It pains me greatly to say it, but there’s no other way around it — Anthony Davis lives in street clothes. Let’s explore the problem analytically. Well at least as analytically as we can given our severe analytical limitations. The Lakers roster is comprised of a group of extremely talented role players who are constantly scapegoated for the Anthony Davis problem. Look around the league, it’s not just this year. The NBA is filled with incredible players who were once Los Angeles Lakers. Some of them are role players, like starting center Ivica Zubax (sic) of the Los Angeles Clippers, shooting guard Jordan Poole of the Utah Jazz, and small forward Kyle Kuzma of the Washington Wizards. Oh, and before I forget, Alex Caruso of the dysfunctional Chicago Bulls, and of course Kantavious Caldwell Pope (sic), and Dangelo Russell (sic), and your mom. Those are just some of the names that come to my head immediately. There’s also several bonafide stars, including Brandon Ingram of the Pelicans and Julius Randle of the Knicks, as well as half-stars, like Lonzo Boll of the dysfunctional Chicago Bulls. All of these players have been on the Lakers in some form during the last five (?) years, and no longer there because they were apparently not good enough to help them win a championship. There’s also the players that are on the team RIGHT NOW. Austin Reaves, Patrick Beverly, Lonnie Walker, even Russell Westbrook, who can arguably be called the best (and worst) role player in the entire NBA. All these players who I just named are winning players (Westbrook may be the one exception), just ask the teams who currently employ them. But at the end of the day they’re role players. They’re not superstars meant to carry the load of a championship team, just the players meant to sink the game-winning three pointer in a Game 6 after Anthony Davis is triple-teamed in the paint. But it’s impossible to know if Anthony Davis will ever be healthy enough to get triple-teamed in the paint during the playoffs. Can his body survive a season before the playoffs start? In order to do that it would mean that he would have to play from October-April, and so far, minus the one ‘bubble year,’ there has been no evidence to suggest that Anthony Davis’ body can survive that late into the season. That’s a problem.
Anthony Davis, no shade on you, you are a remarkable player whose skill set is more dynamic and effective than almost every player in the league, there is a legit argument to be made that in a one game situation for-all-of-the-marbles, you are the best player in the league. But the problem is that the NBA is not a pick-up game. It’s a league where players, for better or worse, are rewarded for longevity, and your longevity, dude, sucks. Longevity = Anthony Davis = absolutely abysmal. It’s not an accident that he, switching back to third person now, played his ass of in ‘the bubble’ and won the Lakers a championship with his unstoppable pick-and-roll with Lebron back in 2020. But it’s also true that ‘the NBA bubble’ season was drastically shortened due to a global pandemic. Instead of 83 games, it was 72, with a large gap between stop and start. It’s so true and it so sucks, but lots of true things, like the fact that I was traumatized as a kid, suck. Unfortunately it doesn’t make them any less true. So here’s what I propose, analytically speaking. First off, no more scapegoating the Los Angeles Lakers role players. It’s not their fault that Anthony Davis can’t stay healthy, and that they get blamed for not being able to pick up the slack is the equivalent of a house cat being blamed for not being able to protect her litter from a pack of wild hyenas. Btw, once I was up close to a hyena in Singapore and it scared me to my core.
Their job as role players is to support you, Anthony. Not the other way around.
The Lakers should probably be exploring what they can get in trade value for Anthony Davis. It’s true they probably won’t get a player of his talent in return, but me personally, I would rather have a Tyrese Halliburton and Damontis Sabonis (sic?) to pair with LeBron James, and the role players, than an oft-injured Anthony Davis.
Bottom line, Anthony Davis, as good as he is, is not worth the trouble if he can’t stay on the court. His 40 MILLION dollar salary could potentially be spent on players, plural, more than one, who can actually don a jersey. Our role players deserve better. The Los Angeles Lakers deserve better. The city of Los Angeles deserves better, and most of all I do.
Let me know what you think YALL. Agree, disagree, shoot my face/whateva
AL