Anthony Davis Discussion: Thanks For The Ring AD!!!

He does have the ego, that's what worries me. He wants the starlight and makes sure to tell everyone that. That's what worries me. I can see one of these 3 ending in LA: Luka, Booker or Tatum. I don't see AD allowing any of them to be #1, maybe Luka if he plays at MVP level.

Will be nice to follow, but I also see LeBron playing 4 more years which will also be challenging to manage.

Good problems to have either way

 

AD > booker or tatum.

discuss.

 

As a overall player yes. AD is a unicorn, there's no match to him. But mentally they are stronger. And they can create better. They can win a game by will. That's what you want in your #1. AD doesn't do that consistently. He even has the skills to go 30-10 and be MVP but he doesn't.

 

Maybe Tatum, even then I'm not so sure. He sometimes plays like Oubre and sometimes looks like a prime Kobe.

Booker is a donkey.

Luka is a bad man and a future MVP.

 

Sigh... are we back to arguing if AD is a #2 again?

 

Last year we played with and without AD the same amount of games: 36

23-13 with him and 19-17 without


LeBron is:
30-15 with and 12-15 without


To add to this:
LeBron 11-7 without AD
AD 4-5 without LeBron


Disclaimer: It's silly season, there's not much to talk about this is not an issue, just interesting to talk about

 

i mean, he doesn't because the team doesn't need him to do that. he basically did these things in NO.

of course we are. he got injured and became poor man's pau, don't you know?

the real issue seems to be that AD is a big. that's people's problem with him. no, he cannot isolate from midcourt and rise up for three at the end of the game. what he can do is shut down the opposition's entire freaking offensive theory (tatum: no, booker: hell no) while putting up 25 and 10 and hitting game-winning threes off of other action.

we were bad without lebron because we had no other credible guy to run the offense and no shooters anyone would respect.

oh, and AD played injured all season long.

 

Let me put it this way. If we had a healthy AD and Russ instead of LeBron last year, we are probably in the finals.

 

Blasphemy

 

AD has that dog in him. We've seen it and we've seen it in the biggest games. The issue is the dog goes missing sometimes.

 

I don't know what your measurement is, but there is absolutely no scenario at which I trade AD for Booker, even when he is at 80%.

 

No one would. You don't even trade AD for Luka, that's no question.
He's built to be the best player in the world, but he isn't and never was much close.
I think he is a perfect #2 and if he bought a in to that he can have more rings than he can achieve if he's #1.

 

Oh. I'm trading him for Luka. I'm packing his bags too, and I love AD.

Luka is the best player in the world. By a wide margin, IMO.

 

That's the thing. When didn't he played injured? We can't just say that forever about AD. It's like Kawhi, you can be wonderful when you play but if you miss time every season, that's your standard.

I agree with you in that a center should not be #1. We can see the case of Embiid, that is a beast all game but coming crunch time, defense closes and it gets tough. Yet, Embiid is more dominant than AD. And he doesn't have more skill, just more hunger to beat other guys and lead the team to the win.

It's nothing related with skill. Is just the mental approach to the game, you can't teach that unless you're with Mr.Miyagi or something. Glad he is with us and hope he continues to grow.

 

As a GM you wouldn't have the guts. As a supporter? Sure

 

but booker basically never shows up on defense. and he can absolutely be stopped by good defenses. i'm just not as impressed with booker as most, i guess.

yeah, i think you can make a case luka is the best player in the league already (i'm not as sold on the wide margin part). you can argue that lebron or kd is better for a game or a series, but nobody is doing more right now, imo.

um, lots of times? i've already used numbers to debunk the idea that he plays less than other guys. maybe less than lebron or harden, but that's kind of their calling card.

speaking of guys who are never healthy...and also not as dominant. it's quite clear that the AD detractors really don't care about defense. can embiid go switch on a sg and block his shot in crunch time? AD has blocked low post centers like jokic in isolation in crunch time and done the same to guards. this is just...incredibly valuable.

i think people who think AD won't go off on offense must have slept during his time at NO. seriously. didn't even watch our games against him? he murdered us offensively. then he sat and his team gave up the lead immediately. because they were terrible. every year but the one holiday was healthy.

the rebuttal to this point will be "why doesn't he do it all the time then?" the answer is because nobody does. to find two games in which davis put up 35/10, you'd have to all the way back to...the last two full games he played in the playoffs just a couple months ago! or you could go two weeks before that, against portland and phx while we were still trying to avoid getting knocked out of the playoffs.

anyway, not even the guys people call "dogs" really show up in the way people say every night. kobe was unique. and booker ain't kobe.

 

Damn right. Book is nowhere near Kobe on D night in and night out. Until then, he’s just another really good player. Mamba mentality is still a goal he’s striving for. Whether he gets there, no one knows.