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

Now that's more like it!

 

Refs AGAIN!! Absolutely perfect block by AD. Nothing but ball, not even KD's hand on the ball was touched and they called a foul. This one and Hayes getting cracked in the grill and NO challenges from Hambone.

 

When KD was at 5, AD did really well with the assignment


Gordon might have Paul Pierced his pants during this one.

 

Much better showing and was expected with Suns' lack of a good center.

 

AD is an off-ball big that needs players to set him up. He’s most productive in the pick and roll finishing at the rim. The guards gotta find him on plays like the below

 

AD at PF really unlocks him even more on defense - he may the best combination of rim protector along with perimeter defense that I've ever seen.

 

i think he is. and when wood was in there, they were sort of switching off on duties. this could be great against like, 90% of the league. denver is still a problem, of course.

 

We should sit him and start whitecastle!

 

Great show yesterday. Played like a dawg and took advantage of Suns' poor interior defense. We need a 30pt AD and he delivered.

Absolutely great on defense as always

 

I actually want the two playing together. AD might learn something...lol.

 

AD is at his best when he's not asked to score but can get easy baskets. Lobs, putbacks, and shots where he can cause mismatches with his length. Giving him the ball and expecting him to become Shaq or even Dirk isn't going to happen. That's not AD's game. He won the NCAA championship MVP strictly off of his defense.

This is where guys like Rui, Vincent, D'Lo, and the rest of the other guys minus LeBron have to step it up and become more of a scoring threat. It will free up AD's game. In 2020, AD was getting so many easy baskets off of lobs and putbacks. Seems like he doesn't get many of those opportunities these days.

This doesn't excuse his inconsistency but the rest of the Lakers also have to step it up. I know people are always going to bring up AD being with the likes of Giannis, Jokic, etc., Those days are over. AD is 30 years old. Giannis and Jokic have already proven that they can be the first option on a title team and they show up every night. If AD can just be a bit below them in terms of impact on the court, that's more than enough.

 

Honestly AD and Wood played VERY WELL together.

I would like to see that more...and the switching really helped too.

Also - great bounce back game from AD and he def needed it. Loved his aggression too, and he made quicker decisions when he got the ball which si great.

He still needs to work on reading defenses especially when a soft or hard double comes.

 

Agreed. If we are facing Denver again in the playoffs, we need to keep AD off of Jokic. It wears him down in the 2nd half and neutralizes his strengths on D.

 

i mostly agree, though i still think the idea that AD is a career 25ppg guy without being a good offensive player is sort of a ridiculous take that i see repeated a lot. he's an elite face up scorer below the arc. if he has a one-on-one matchup there or in the post, you're screwed. like go ahead and count the bucket. the fact that he demands a double is not to be sneezed at. teams barely even double lebron anymore, tbh. now, the fact that doubles are so effective against him is why he's not a 30ppg scorer. but it's not lack of scoring ability.

so yeah, we shouldn't have to count on him for 30ppg, and that's not his ideal game. and that is part of why we have rui, dlo, and austin, right? as you said, if those guys step up, we don't have to ask AD to score 30 or 40 points except for on rare occasion, and that's the blueprint.

again, everyone keyed in on comments about aggression in game 1, but the real difference (aside from not playing denver) was that we severely cut down the 5-out stuff and focused on trying to get him touches closer to the basket. if we ever start making perimeter shots, he might have more space to operate in isolation, but it seems teams are still just going to collapse on him and dare anyone--literally anyone--else to make a shot.

 

This is exactly what I've been saying all summer. I get frustrated at AD sometimes but IMO we just don't use him correctly and make things harder on him than it needs to be. He needs to be a four. He has been saying that all along bc he knows how he can contribute the most.

 

to me, the real issue is lebron can't be a 3 anymore. when we won the title with AD at the 4 for most of his minutes, lebron credibly defended the perimeter. i just don't think he can do it anymore, not consistently. with dwight/mcgee and AD at the 4, we could be a top defense, and then just rely on the brilliance of our stars on offense.

now we can't defend that way. i think this is why ham (and i think maybe vogel a bit?) tried lebron at the 5 defensively. but lebron didn't like it, and we didn't rebound, anyway.

 

I think it depends on the 3. If it's a spot up shooter, he can take it. If it's a guy who can dribble or slides through screens, he can't take it.
So if it's Okogie, it's ok. If it's MPJ, it's not

 

We need Bismack to at least be a deterrent to Joker. If we have to play them in a series with our current team, we’ll be swept again.
I agree that a Wood/AD combo can work against most teams.

 

most teams don't play an okogie in the starting group so that we could hide lebron, but yeah, there are definitely matchups that can work.