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

He is too skinny for his height! Don’t miss legs days AD .

 

We should trade him for Buddy Hield and Myles Turner. That would make a lot of folks happy around these parts.

 

Extremely vociferous detractors? This site is loaded with them. With the dumb revelation a couple days ago that he hasn’t touched a basketball in 2 months after a bad 2 year slump in shooting … due to some inflexible routine he has …. hasn’t helped.

 

saw story that said AD hasnt done anything bball related since season ended

 

Yep. Like 2-3 day old news we’ve all been bleeping about since then.

 

lol, tell me you have read none of this thread without telling me you've read none of this thread.

 

you mean like fans on this board . I thought the media is giving him a hard time .

I have not read the AD hate posts on here yet .. and have not watched anyone on ESPN bashing him yet .. I’ll catch up been busy over at the FINALS page .

I do however find it fascinating how we stick up for LeBron but trash AD ! Lol

I mean nobody said a word when LeBron was nursing an injury while flashing cash with Rich Paul.

 

there are a few lebron haters on this site, but there's only a few AD supporters on this forum. which, yes, is...odd.

 

few AD supporters as in after the video ?or they just didn’t want AD in Lakers jersey to begin with ?

 

only a few in the latter. most of those guys sort of disappeared after we won the ring. mostly just folks mad he gets hurt and see everything through that lens alone.

i agree with all this, though i think the "lack of drive" has been overstated. he definitely started the season off taking it easy, but pretty much the whole team, to a man, did that. that hasn't been his MO his whole career or anything. so i don't get why he gets all the "doesn't care" stuff. i mean, lebron just started chasing points and conserving energy with about 20-25 games left in the season, and we got a bunch of "he's still an mvp" talk.

anyway, not to rehash, but AD is really the least of the team's problems. like maybe the very bottom of the list. you wouldn't think that if you just read this forum.

 

You have some catching up to do. There are several of us here who never stick up for LeGM. It’s hard to stick up for someone who lacks integrity.
As for AD, I love it when he loves the game as much as I do and is actually able to play.
I don’t hate the man, I just hate the fact that his body is not durable and at the beginning of last season, his effort was questionable. This is called Frustration.

 

I miss Kobe. if that is your standard to compare players to, nobody will measure up. It's our blessing and our curse as Laker fans.

He wasn't perfect as an athlete, but you couldn't ask for more as a competitor, and I respect the hell out of that. In that regard, he was blameless.

 

"Well, he's no Kobe"



How many athletes want to step into that spotlight or comparison? Not really fair. If I give Lebron credit for anything, it was having the balls to be "the guy after Kobe". Nobody else now has to bear that burden. It gets easier from here, but it probably played a role in guys like Kawhi and PG13 not wanting to face that standard.

 

absolutely. it was important for the franchise to have someone step into that void and try to take it up. others were scared and painted it as smart business decisions or whatever. pffftt.

lebron took the challenge and gained my respect. actually, he gained it when he went to cleveland (yes, i know it was a decent situation, but not a sure thing like kd to gs) and cemented it here. it's why i give him leeway on his performance.

but i think AD has earned some, too.

 

AD is usually pretty phenomenal when healthy. When he's not, it's easy to interpret his play as soft or not engaged, etc.

After having Kobe, we just expect more. Did he rehab 24 hours a day? Did he operate on 2 hours of sleep doing around the clock treatment to make sure he could be on the floor? Just typical fan unrealistic expectations I refuse to apologize for haha.

I hope he sensed the backlash, heard the fair criticism, and got his butt back in gear. It's quite fair to challenge "his normal offseason routine" if this is the results it's netting.

But also to be fair, the fast turnaround after their bubble season was unreasonable.
The 2nd season he came in bulked up a bit, and clearly his frame doesn't handle the additional weight.
Hope he gets back to what made him an annual DPOY candidate.

 

Can you name someone who agrees with that? Or can someone say seriously that want this?

I don't think that's true. Lakerjones made a good case about it. I explain more below

I think he is indeed a big problem. In a sense that we sucked the previous 2 years a large part because he didn't play. That's a concern because if he doesn't play we are not winning consistently.
Then I agree he's the least of our problems when he plays. But still a problem. Because he is yet to convince me and some people that he is a top5 player in this league. Because he has the skill to be the best in the world, so if he's not, he's not achieving his ceiling and we need that, moving forward post-Lebron.
He's a guy that for us to be a contender needs to play like Luka, Giannis, Jokic, after LeBron is gone, which I don't think we believe is realistic at this point, hence some trade discussion, which I think it's fair.

So it's up to him to show that he can play 70+ games and then that he can lead this team night in, night out. Because if he can't do the latter, we need to get a dog next and accept he's a second wheel and that we shouldn't build around him. And if he can't do the first, then we need to ship him quickly

 

boston didn't have luka/giannis/jokic. miami didn't.

point is he's the closest we'll get to those guys, and he's not that far off. again, lebron's missed a ton of time since he's been a laker, and people are just like, well, he's old. same effect. AD's been largely just unlucky.