Los Angeles Lakers: The 5 best bets to be Anthony Davis stoppers
Anthony Davis is the latest unsolvable matchup. Coming as close to an answer as possible will be the only way to slow the Los Angeles Lakers moving forward.
The NBA is a league whose style of play is influenced by its champions. When the Golden State Warriors rattled off three titles in four years, challengers pursued as much shooting as possible to keep pace with the Splash Brothers. The 2016-17 Cleveland Cavaliers took an extra 4.3 nightly 3-pointers and brought in Kyle Korver via trade. The 2017-18 Houston Rockets launched over half their shots from beyond the arc.
3-point shooting remains a vital component to modern offenses, but the Los Angeles Lakers have added a new dimension. As reigning champions, opponents must find ways to beat them at their preferred style. That will require more traditional lineups than most are accustomed to in 2020. More importantly, it means figuring out how to slow Anthony Davis.
No single lineup adjustment flummoxes defenses more than watching Anthony Davis slide down to the center position. Already a near-unstoppable force, his unique size and skill are accentuated alongside an added shooter.
There isn’t a defense to make AD look mortal, not after he’s broken through for his first ring. LeBron James played like a man freed from burdensome expectations following his first title in 2012. Expect Davis to dominate the same and reach even higher levels of greatness.
A strategy that will make Davis work for everything he has is the best any team is going to get. As the Miami Heat showed in the Finals, that requires a collective defensive effort that sends strategic double teams at every angle while zoning up the weak side. But there still needs to be a point-of-attack defender who takes on the individual challenge.
Few in the NBA can match Davis’ physical traits. As he only now enters his prime, those who can, like Kawhi Leonard and Andre Iguodala for LeBron, will be viewed with wide eyes as the key to beating the defending champions next year and the ones to follow.