Lakers News: L.A. Facing Nightmare Scenario With Anthony Davis Potentially Out Much, Much Longer Than Anticipated
When news first dropped Saturday that All-NBA Los Angeles Lakers center Anthony Davis's right foot injury was going to be a bit more serious than fans may have initially hoped, it seemed that Davis would miss a month or so, though the exact medical nature of the injury had yet to be at least publicly revealed, as the club continued to conduct tests on the foot throughout the weekend.
Now, sources inform Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson of Bally Sports that the initially-floated one month recovery timeline may have been pretty darn optimistic. Per Robinson, Davis could miss two-to-three months.
Were he to return three months from his last healthy (ish) game, December 16th against the Nuggets, AD would miss out on 41 straight contests. Of course, if it's just two months, he'd still be out for 30 games, and due for a return after the All-Star game.
That is more than enough time for this 13-17 L.A. team, which sports a still-middling 11-14 record in Davis's 25 healthy contests, to absolutely fall apart. The Lakers' best player has yet to be healthy for more than half of his team's regular season games since winning the title in 2020. And this is not the deep, talented Los Angeles club that weathered the storm of his extended absences pretty well, all things considered, in 2020-21, en route to a decent 42-30 record (equivalent to 48-34 in an 82-game season) and the league's best defense.
Point being, there's a decent chance that your Los Angeles Lakers are going to be terrible while Anthony Davis sits, even with (37-year-old) LeBron James and (34-year-old) Russell Westbrook. While James is past his prime, he remains an All-Star-level player. Though he also misses a decent clip of games these days and only plays occasional defense in the regular season, the man can still score, pass and rebound with the best of them. Westbrook is now a role player, but the fact that he has bought in to that new reality seems to have enabled him to really make the most of his available minutes. Beyond them, only Lonnie Walker IV and Austin Reaves have been consistently solid contributors.
Thomas Bryant has emerged as a solid backup center, though he's about to be a starter for a good long while. Would players like Dennis Schröder, Patrick Beverley, Troy Brown Jr. or Wenyen Gabriel have much of a role on, say, one of the West's better teams, like the Memphis Grizzlies or New Orleans Pelicans? Probably not, though there's a chance at least Brown and Gabriel get a look for their defense.
L.A. could look to make a trade to make the best of the situation. Though it only has a few, very appetizing, future first-round draft picks, the club may now look to make smaller deals as it awaits a Davis return.
Remember, if the season ended today, even with a mostly-healthy AD, the Lakers would be out of the play-in tournament looking in, as their 13-17 records is just the 12th-best in the Western Conference. Do you really think the Lakers can continue to hover around a .500 record should this injury linger for at least the next 30 games? Things could get ugly, fast.
You might say, "Oh, well that's not a huge deal, the Lakers could just let the tank happen. Then, we'd have a chance to add young talent from one of the most exciting NBA drafts in a generation, maybe even Victor Wembanyama or Scoot Henderson."
Unfortunately, you'd be wrong.
Because the Lakers gave 2023 pick swap rights to the New Orleans Pelicans as part of their blockbuster Anthony Davis trade in 2019, the Pellies will draft their first-round pick with the better of the two teams' selections. The Pelicans currently occupy the No. 4 seed in the West with an 18-12 record, but thanks to relative parity at the top of the conference, they sit just 1.5 games behind the current top seed, the Memphis Grizzlies.
It seems quite possible that the Lakers will return to the NBA lottery in 2023, but be forced to draft in, say, the mid-20s with the playoff-bound Pelicans' first-rounder instead of their own. What if they were able to select Wembanyama or Henderson to add to their deep, young core?
