At the age of 19, Anthony Davis spent the 2012 and 2013 season with the New Orleans Hornets. At the age of 20, he then joined the New Orleans Pelicans in 2013. He remained with the team for many seasons until the age of 25 in 2019 when he joined the LA Lakers.
Previously, he played alongside Bryant on the gold medal-winning Olympics team back in 2012, and their relationship was close, describing him as a ‘big brother.’ He did start with the Lakers reasonably well, averaging 26.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game while shooting 60.5% throughout the whole series. His performance was particularly impressive during game 6. He achieved a further 19 points, 15 rebounds, and 2 blocks when Miami Heat was basically steamrollered by the opposition 106-93 and giving the Lakers the 17th NBA title and a 4-2 series win. If Davis can carry this form into next season, the Lakers will be heavily backed by those betting online, as he could play a huge role in helping the Lakers to retain the championship.
Just how much of an impact did he have?
The NBA stats don’t lie, here’s what we have worked out so far.
Compared to his previous 2018 and 2019 season with the New Orleans Pelicans, Davis has played six more games and racked up around five hours more gameplay. So far, so good, we would say.
He has made 21 more field goals, and 70 more field goal attempts, in addition to 34 more 3-point field goals and 73 more 3-point field goal attempts. Stats for his 2-point field goals are less impressive, scoring 3 less 2-point field goals than his previous season and 3 fewer 2 point field goal attempts. This means that he scores a 4% less effective field goal percentage than last season.
Davis has some impressive stats for free throws compared to last season. In fact, he has gained 100 more of them this time around and 92 more free throw attempts. This sets his free throw percentage at .52% higher than last season.
Offensive rebounds are generally lower than last season, with 32 fewer offensive rebounds and 63 fewer defensive rebounds in total. There are also 95 fewer total rebounds.
Compared to the previous season, Davis has improved his steals by 3 and his number of blocks by 8, also scoring 166 more points, which is impressive. On the downside, he has 18 fewer assists and 42 fewer turnovers. But most worryingly, his number of personal fouls has increased by 24. Although this could simply be down to him settling in still.
The final set of stats for Davis look at shooting. While there was a .13% increase in his actual shooting percentage, his player efficiency rating fell by 7.9%, and the adjusted shooting rating fell by .14%.
We would say that Anthony Davis has performed pretty well despite only being new to the Lakers and suffering past injuries. At least, this is what the stats tell us.
There are clearly areas where he is putting the effort in. Like the length and number of games being played, the number of field goals and free throws made, the number of steals and blocks made, and the overall number of points earned.
There are a handful of areas he could definitely improve upon going forward. He could work on more field goals and field goal attempts and try to achieve more rebounds. He could also improve with more assists and turnovers. However, he is earning more points than previously.
