Anthony Davis Discussion: Only Player On Both All NBA + All Def

i think the corner three would be great for him. and i'm fine with catch and shoot threes at the angles or top of the key, too, but he should be practicing out of the pick and pop and not off the dribble.

i hope this is just part of the process, as someone suggested above.

he's a better shooter than he showed last year, and we've seen that even at just under league average, it adds to his game to be able to knock down a three here and there.

i think his post work is fine, tbh. teams don't try to play him with smaller guys very often because they're afraid of all the easy buckets he gets (he's VERY good at that).

 

What part of him looks too heavy?

 

Unless Ham is totally full of crap he is going to be stressing defense and AD won't be the only one. In no way saying Frank didn't stress defense it was just out of his hands last season. I'm confident AR will be starting. He plays sound defense and puts in good effort. Whoever starts at the five should be playing defense also. Even Lebron should be better on defense this season just playing a little team defense. Not expecting any lockdown defense from him. High intensity defense, fast breaks and ball movement all speak for a much more enjoyable season. I'm going to take Ham at his word unless he shows otherwise.

 

You guys are funny.

 

Mr. Above It All chimes in.

 

This site does provide for laughs.

 

i agree that reaves should be the starter. i'm guessing lonnie and THT will both be given opportunity to compete for the job, but if ham's serious about defending (and especially if russ is still here), reaves will have to be the choice.

i'm very interested to see which center gets the starting nod. bryant's never been a defender, but if ham wants to play 4-out, he sort of has no choice but to play bryant with the starters. i need to watch that interview of his to see if gives any hints in there. he's got his work cut out for him to accomplish his two big goals (4-out player/ball movement offense and top-tier defense). such is life with a roster full of minimums.

 

I honestly don't understand the negativity to AD improving his 3 point shot. This isn't 90's basketball: team defense is just so much more sophisticated nowadays that they just close off anything in the paint if you can't stretch the floor.
-jumper typically gets better with age (yes I know in Russ's case this is not a set in stone rule)
-AD shooting regression in FT's as well as 3pt shot makes me think this was a fluke that can be corrected
-He's a very good FT shooter and his jumper looks natural: no reason that he shouldn't be able to get significantly better at 3 point shooting

Would also like to see Damian Jones shoot some corner 3's: he's also a very good FT shooter and usually (again not always) this is a good predictor whether a player can become a decent to good 3 pt shooter

 

There was some data suggesting AD could shoot from the left corner well but it was a small sample size and, no, he is miserable from the corners just like anywhere else from distance.

 

Batman!!!

 

ADs shooting was an enormous problem last season.
1. Injuries
2. Roster construction (cough, Russ)
3. ADs lack of jump shot and lebron’s lack of D

 

what if he says "Hold my Beer" to 2022 AD?

 

i think his shot quality hasn't been good because our offense hasn't been good. he's made shots before, but the haters act like nothing before 18 months ago ever happened.

 

I especially agree with #2. It is possible AD was trying too hard to help Russ and Lebron fit together that he wasn't aggressive enough or was thinking should I or shouldn't I, one of the biggest reasons percentages go down, uncertainty leads to lower confidence and focus. I believe Coach Ham has the right idea of making AD the focus of the offense. He needs to be kept active and engaged. An engaged AD that can really feel like this is his team could be formidable. But it has to be more than just words. Saying it is AD's team doesn't make it so. Can Lebron let this be AD's team is one of the big questions I have this season. With Coach Ham's job security this is more apt to become reality.