New Orleans Pelicans: How Anthony Davis Scores
By Owen Sanborn
The end game for Anthony Davis is to become the first player the NBA has ever seen of his kind. He wants to become some ungodly hybrid of Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan. I’ll give you a moment to digest that last sentence.
(waiting)
(still waiting)
You good?
The rise of Davis’ game has been written about numerous times throughout the season thus far. The outlines of a lethal offensive game are already there and if he gets any better (He will, he’s only 21!) it will be an impossible task to stop him. Anybody that pays close attention to the NBA game believes that he could possibly be running the league two or three years from now.
When you watch Davis, it is easy to see the resemblance to Nowitzki’s offensive game with his array of midrange jumpers while posting on the elbow or in pick and pop opportunities. Luckily for Davis, he has a quicker first step than Dirk ever had, allowing him to slither by lumbering defenders and into the restricted area.
This allows him to be a complete offensive threat and a real pain in the ass to guard.
Take this play from last night for example:
Davis catches poor Ed Davis leaning one way and blurs his way past him en route to a nifty running hook shot. Even though he traveled, this post move shows the amount of growth Davis’ post game has undergone since he entered the league. There is no way he is executing a move like that two years ago, his body would have gotten in the way. Hope to see more of that going forward.
According to NBA.com’s SportVU tracking data, 85.5 percent of Davis’ shots come after he takes one of fewer dribbles; a pretty astounding number for a player that is the focal point of the offense. The strange thing about that number is that Davis does not have a terrible handle (he used to be a point guard in high school before undergoing a life-changing growth spurt).
He just doesn’t understand how to use his dribbles efficiently yet.
Davis still has too many possessions such as the one above where he gets himself caught in between moves and throws up an off-balance shot. Due to his uncanny touch around the rim, he is actually able to convert these contorting floaters more times than one would think, but only when is driving towards the middle.
Davis tends to get himself into trouble when he dribbles towards the baseline against players with long wingspans. Because he is off-balanced, he will take away his length advantage over the defender and shrink himself. As time goes on, he will learn to correct this problem and use his lengthy frame to his advantage, similarly to Duncan.
The difference between year one and year two Davis and YEAR THREE Davis is his growth as an elite midrange shooter. So far this season, he is shooting 27 percent of his shot attempts 16 feet away or further away from the basket, a 7 percent increase from last season. On these types of shots, he is shooting a remarkable 48 percent, an 11 percent increase from last season!
To put Davis’ high percentage into proper perspective, Nowitzki — certified rainbow jumper extraordinaire — is shooting 52 percent on shots from the same area. With the current pace that Davis is on, he should soon ascend to that kind of level.
The sky is the limit for Davis as an offensive talent, and it will be interesting to watch his mind catch up to his body as he gains experience.
Displaying this kind of footwork while isolating his defender (again, poor Ed Davis) on an island can’t help but make me excited for what is to come in the future.