How Anthony Davis Can Lift the Lakers Again

It’s Year 4 for Davis in Los Angeles and it’s pretty safe to say this one is the biggest.

LOS ANGELES – Back tightness, read the Lakers injury report.

If you listened you could hear the collective groan from Anaheim.

Anthony Davis was fine, turns out. He started the Lakers preseason opener against Sacramento on Monday. He collected an assist on a Kendrick Nunn three on L.A.’s second possession. “The Chicago connection,” Davis said. He picked up a steal a few plays later. His first bucket was a fadeaway jumper from the elbow. He finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds in 16 minutes.

“That first half,” said Darvin Ham, “was really, really good.”

It’s Year 4 for Davis in Los Angeles and it’s pretty safe to say this one is the biggest. Year 1 ended with a championship, Year 2 a first round exit and Year 3 was a total disaster. Not since Davis’s final years in New Orleans has he seen such a slide.

The Lakers don’t just rise and fall with Davis’s play, but with his presence. Davis played all 21 postseason games for the Lakers in the Orlando bubble. He averaged 27.7 points and the team left central Florida with a new trophy. In 2021, L.A. led Phoenix 2-1 when Davis left Game 4 with a groin injury. Three games later, the Lakers were headed home. Davis missed more than half of last season with foot and knee injuries. Los Angeles missed the playoffs.

Davis doesn’t consider himself injury prone. “I mean, a guy fell into my knee and landed on [my] foot,” Davis said. “The good thing for me is that the doctors, after they looked at it, say it could have been like ten times worse if I haven’t done what I've done in the summer.” Still, the numbers tell a story. Davis played 62 games during the pandemic shortened ’19-20 season. The year before, he played 56. In the two years after he suited up for 76—combined.

In June, Davis made headlines when he revealed he had not shot a basketball in months. Davis insists his body, including a sore right wrist, which Davis believes contributed to his shooting percentages cratering, simply needed time to heal. “I never lost confidence in my shot,” Davis said. The extended offseason, Davis says, has him feeling better than he has in years. “I’m 100% healthy,” said Davis. “I feel great.”

Nationally, expectations for the Lakers are modest. They are not considered a title contender. Many projections have them fighting for a spot in the playoffs. ESPN’s statistical model pegs the Lakers at 36.8 wins—around the same as the Kings and Trail Blazers. Russell Westbrook is on the roster, it seems, just until L.A. caves and forks over the draft capital needed to offload him.

A healthy Davis, though, could change that. “He’s the biggest piece to our success,” said Ham. The Lakers were 11-10 when Davis, Westbrook and LeBron James played together last season. “We didn't know how good we can be,” Davis said, “because we didn't have many reps with each other.” Davis has bonded quickly with Ham, engaging the Lakers new coach in detailed conversations about the team’s defense. “None of this works,” said Ham, “if he’s not hitting on all cylinders.” L.A. owned a top-three defense in each of Davis’s first two seasons. Last season, with Davis in and out of the lineup, the Lakers fell to 21st.

“Me being a defensive minded guy, he's asking me questions,” Davis said. “Because I'm used to doing a thing a certain way. Or he asked me, ‘What do you think about this? How did you guys do this? What are you comfortable with?’ So that's kind of been the basis of our conversations, and it's been great.”

Said Ham, “We should be one of the elite defensive teams.”

For Davis, a full season might not just lift the Lakers. It would restore his place among the NBA’s elite. League-wide, opinions of Davis remain high. “He’s talented as hell,” said a rival team exec. Conversations, though, often pivot to budding concerns about conditioning and health.

“Two things I saw last season,” said a Western Conference assistant coach. “He was out of shape and he couldn’t make a shot. If he is in shape, he is right back to the player we saw two years ago. He was as dominant as any player in the league during that bubble season. Giannis [Antetokounmpo] won Defensive Player of the Year that season but there was no better defender than AD. I absolutely believe he can get back to that.”

Added the exec, “He has to play through the minor stuff. He should do it just to prove a point. I understand why the focus is on the injuries. But he puts together a 70-game season and that injury prone stuff is gone.”

For his part, Davis has embraced the skepticism. He calls the Lakers “underdogs” this season. He told ESPN the team will play with a chip on its shoulders. He says his goal is to play all 82 games, or at least be physically available for them. Davis believes the Lakers will exceed expectations. If he does, they can.