Back in 2019, there was a point when the Los Angeles Clippers seemed heavily involved in the pursuit of Anthony Davis. After 7 seasons with the Pelicans, the star big man wanted out and many teams lined up for the chance to add him to their roster.
For a while, the Clippers were seriously considering sending a monster offer to New Orleans before their conclusions about who Davis was as a player led them down a different path instead.
On his podcast, sports analyst/insider Colin Cowherd revealed the shocking details.
(h/t Jonathan Sherman of Lakers Daily)
“I had a good source inside the Clippers that told me when A.D. was on the market, they didn’t think he was (a) a leader or (b) tough,” Cowherd said. “They thought he was gifted. And they didn’t think he would play through injuries. They didn’t think he worked out enough. … The idea was everybody loved A.D., and the Clippers have a very deep roster, very shrewd front office. They didn’t love him. And their takeaway was he has to be led. He can’t lead.”
Davis, 29, is one of the best players in basketball when healthy. In three seasons with the Lakers, he’s averaging 24.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game on 50% shooting.
Unfortunately, Davis faces some major questions about his ability to lead a team at this stage of his career. In New Orleans, he rarely got far in the playoffs. In Los Angeles, he has only played more than 40 games in a season once and was led by LeBron James during the 2020 title run.
Now, even the Lakers are considering his future.
Who knows, maybe things would have been different had the Clippers gone out and made that deal. Perhaps he would have been the guy many fans expected him to be.
We will never find out for sure. That same summer, the Clippers went out and acquired some stars of their own in Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. They have had minimal success together, but fans are feeling confident in what they can do in the future.
When it comes to AD, you just never know what you’re going to get, or how long he’ll be able to stay on the floor before suffering another injury.
