Anthony Davis has been one of the best players in basketball since his 2012-13 rookie season. His tenure with the New Orleans Pelicans was defined by the personal accolades he achieved, coupled with a lack of a team success. But that changed when he got to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019. He won the NBA championship in his first year with the team, cementing himself as a true all-time great.
But injuries had derailed him over the three seasons following the title year. He played in 36, 40 and 56 games, respectively, failing to even secure All-Star selections in the latter two years. So entering 2023-24, he had to stay healthy to re-establish himself atop the league ranks.
Davis did so in a massive way, averaging 24.7 points and 12.6 rebounds per game on 55.6% from the field. He played in 76 games and averaged 35.5 minutes per night in those contests. But where Davis really shined is on defense. He averaged 1.2 steals and 2.3 blocks per game, dazzling in virtually every defensive advanced stat along the way.
That work earned him not only an All-Star selection, his first since 2020-21, but also an inclusion on the All-NBA Defense First Team — first since 2019-20 — the All-NBA Second team and fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting, which many felt was a slight.
He capped off the year by helping the United States secure gold at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. And after all of it, it’s safe to say that Davis’ status as one of the best two-way players in the league is more than secure as he enters a pivotal 2024-25 season.
2023-24 highlight
Perhaps one of the most complete games that Anthony Davis or anyone else in the NBA has played in recent history came in the later stages of the regular season. The Lakers faced a top-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves without their two star centers in Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert. This put the pressure on Davis to dominate.
And dominate barely scratches the surface of what he did that game. Davis finished with 27 points, but added an absurd 25 rebounds, seven steals, three blocks and five assists. His fingerprints were all over the 11-point win at a point of the season where L.A. needed to collect victories.
2024-25 outlook
As is usually the case with Davis, if he stays healthy he will be phenomenal for himself and for the Lakers. But coming off of a 76-game season and the Olympics, health is going to be a major question mark. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him take more load management games in an effort to keep him healthy for an eventual postseason run.