Anthony Davis has had a rough season for the Los Angeles Lakers. He is currently out with a sprained MCL, and he has been dealing with nagging injuries for a large portion of the season. He is currently only averaging 23.3 PPG, 9.9 RPG, and 2.9 APG on the season, and those numbers are definitely lower than what he has produced in prior seasons.
Bill Simmons has recently argued that Anthony Davis is declining, and stated that his “career has gone in the wrong direction”. Simmons pointed to the different categories where Anthony Davis has been worse this season and added that Anthony Davis should be “peaking” at this age.
Anthony Davis is a member of the #NBA75 which puts him amongst the elite @BillSimmons tells @TermineRadio & @Jumpshot8 Davis should be peaking right now in his late 20s. #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/WLyEBQ00TS
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) December 24, 2021
What’s weird is Davis’ career has gone in the wrong direction… If your free-throw attempts are going down, your rebounds are going down, your field-goal percentage is going down, your points are going down, and you’re in your late 20s, that doesn’t make sense. You should be peaking in your late 20s. … I just think he has too much weight. I think he should have like a Garnett/Duncan kind of a body versus it seems like he’s trying to become a center, and I don’t know if he can carry the weight.
A lot of people such as Magic Johnson have previously suggested that Davis’ optimal position is center. However, Bill Simmons seems to think the opposite. Anthony Davis notably bulked up over the summer, and it is well-known that there are times where putting on muscle can affect one’s shooting. Anthony Davis is only shooting 17.9% from the 3PT range, which is the lowest mark he’s shot from there in the last 5 years.
Anthony Davis is a great talent, and hopefully, he is able to turn things around. While he has certainly had a rough two years after the 2020 championship win, Anthony Davis is still one of the best big men in the league when healthy. Perhaps we’ll see Anthony Davis go back to the dominant version of himself after he comes back from his current injury.
