Anthony Davis Is Quietly Having A Historic Season
The New Orleans Pelicans may not be winning many games, but Anthony Davis is winning the race for the NBA’s best big man.
When Anthony Davis dropped 50 points and 15 rebounds on opening night for the New Orleans Pelicans against the Denver Nuggets, I knew I was going to be in for a treat this season. There were so many other storylines coming into this season such as Cavaliers-Warriors Part 3, the young Timberwolves, the Russell Westbrook/Kevin Durant breakup and plenty of others that it was easy to forget about Anthony Davis and his incredibly unique skillset.
I was quickly reminded of Davis’ greatness but it seems to teeter in-and-out as the season goes on and a large part of that has to due to the fact that he plays for a small market team that simply isn’t very good – and hasn’t been for two seasons now.
Anthony Davis is quietly having one of the greatest seasons any big man has ever had in the NBA and it’s about time people begin to recognize his greatness.
So far this season, Davis is averaging 28.1 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per game while shooting 50 percent from the field. Davis’ next best competition for the best big man so far this year has been DeMarcus Cousins, who is averaging nearly the same points per game (28.0) but 1.6 fewer rebounds and 1.0 fewer blocks while shooting only 44.9 percent from the field.
Cousins’ numbers alone are insane, but due to the brilliance of Anthony Davis, Boogie couldn’t manage a spot on the Western Conference starting lineup. Boogie has been a better three-point shooter than Davis this season as he’s shooting 37.4 percent from beyond the arc compared to Davis’ 29.6 percent. Other than that though, the stats favor Davis in almost every category by the slimmest of margins.
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What makes Davis’ season so incredible is when you look at who he has to pass to on a nightly basis. Besides Jrue Holiday, whose statline is quite impressive (14.5 PPG, 7.1 APG, 3.5 RPG), the Pelicans don’t have another player on their roster that would hardly even sniff a starting role on a playoff team.
No offense to guys such as Solomon Hill, Terrence Jones and Tim Frazier (here’s a trivia answer for you, he is one of the 15 players who have recorded a triple-double this season), but their efficiency and consistency is something that cannot currently be relied on to constantly help win games.
The Pelicans are currently 18-28, which sounds like an underachievement (and it really is), but in reality the Pelicans are only 2.5 games out of the eighth seed in the West trailing only the Denver Nuggets.
The chances of the Pelicans managing to win their way into that last spot seems far-fetched considering the Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers them have more talent, but there is still hope nonetheless, and it’s all been thanks to Anthony Davis.
If it weren’t for Russell Westbrook and James Harden also having incredibly historic seasons (and the fact that the Pels have a losing record), Davis’ season would be earning much more praise and even more MVP talk. That isn’t to downplay the season he’s having, rather it’s more of a testament to how rare this NBA season has been.
Davis ranks third in the NBA this season in PPG, BPG, and Player Efficiency Rating (27.9) while also ranking in the top-10 in the NBA in RPG (seventh), Usage percentage (sixth), Defensive Rating (seventh), and Defensive Win Shares (fifth). Not only that, but he also ranks 14th in Total Win Shares (6.3) and 19th in Value Over Replacement Player (2.4). Davis is also eighth in the NBA in total double-doubles with 27.
When Davis is on the court, he drastically improves this Pelicans team. Instead of being possibly the worst team in the NBA, Davis’ presence alone makes the opponents primarily focus on him – allowing his teammates more opportunity to create, make plays, and hit shots.
When Davis is on the court the season, his plus/minus is -0.6, but that actually ranks second highest on his team behind Jrue Holiday, whose plus/minus is not much better (but it is positive) at +0.7. What really solidifies the Pelicans’ undeniable need for Davis is that when he is on the court, their Offensive Rating goes up from 103.0 to 105.3 (+2.3) and their Defensive Rating goes down from 110.3 to 105.5 (-4.8), which puts Davis’ Net Rating at +7.1.
It’s obvious that Davis is the Pelicans’ best player and he’s having one of the best seasons among all NBA players, but what makes Davis’ season so historic is when you compare it to other great ones.
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Davis’ statline of 28.1 PPG, 11.8 RPG and 2.4 BPG on 50 percent shooting has only been accomplished by three other players: Shaquille O’Neal (three times), Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, and Bob McAdoo. Add in the fact that Davis can step out and hit the three and that’s when you notice Davis is having a season that has statistically never happened before.
Shaq, Kareem, and McAdoo were never three-point shooters and in the season where they put up those numbers, they shot a combined total of five three-pointers, making none of them, while Davis has made 21 threes only halfway through the season.
In the 41 games Davis has played this season, he has scored 30 or more points in 18 of those games. To put that in perspective, James Harden is fourth in the league in scoring and has 20 games of 30 points or more, although he’s played in seven more games than Davis. Isaiah Thomas is second in the league in scoring and has scored 30 or more points in “only” 14 of his 39 games played.
Davis carries a ton of the load for this team, which would explain his career high Usage percentage of 33.2, and he’s only missed four games this season. Davis has yet to go a full NBA season without missing at least 10 games and besides a few very minor injuries this season, he’s been able to remain healthy enough to put his team on his back.
Only Davis and Russell Westbrook have a Usage percentage higher than 33 and a PER higher than 27.8 this season. If they can both finish the season with the same or even better numbers, they’ll be the only players to do so in the NBA this season, but what is once again so amazing about this season is that those numbers have only been obtained on 14 other occasions in the history of the NBA.
Davis would join a list that already includes Westbrook (who did it two seasons ago), Michael Jordan (five times), LeBron James (four times), Dwayne Wade (twice), Kevin Durant, and Tracy McGrady.
Davis is also the only big man on that list.
The Brow is locked in with the Pelicans through at least the 2019-20 season and with the way the new CBA works, the possibility of the Pelicans signing another superstar have shrunk even more than before.
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Davis is only 23, so he has a few more years before he’s even considered to be entering his prime years (which is insane to think about). For the sake of the Brow, I hope the Pelicans figure it out and get him some legitimate NBA starters, but it may take some time before we get to see Anthony Davis in all of his glory. It should be well worth the wait.
(Statistics via Basketball-Reference and NBA.com)