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

availability is best ability

 

every which way is actually better than repeated same way and bodes better for the future. he'll never play 82 games, but most bigs don't.

what makes AD special also makes him more likely to get hurt. jokic never gets hurt because he doesn't have to run or jump much. the fact that AD can chase guards around on the perimeter AND recover to protect the rim or defend the post on the same possession is both why he's hurt a lot AND why we have a ring.

people acting like it's some guarantee he'll miss the playoffs every year because it happened once.

 

I can't think of many guys I would even swap AD for. Chances of us getting fleeced on any swap is really high.

He's had some extremely bad luck and bulking up last summer wasn't a good move. I'd like to see him really rest and rehab with some good trainers.

It's been a rough season but I saw enough to show that he can still play at that bubble level minus the 3 point shooting.

 

Mitchell is definitely not sticking around in Utah. When you have to keep telling the public that you and Gobert don’t have any problems with each other… it’s probably because they have a problem with each other. You could see it on the floor last night. A few times where their defense broke down and Mitchell/Gobert were pointing the finger at each other. I think he has also recently talked about how the Utah community hasn’t been very receptive to his local outreach efforts.

Also worth nothing that when the game ended, Lebron went straight to Aaron Donald to celebrate. I figured since they were chatting for each other for a bit, the rest of the players would have left, but Mitchell stuck around to dap up Lebron anyways. (Okay, this part is a reach lol, just saying I’d love to have Mitchell paired up with AD).

But in regards to trading AD, I totally understand the mentality. Like I want to say that twisting your ankle like that is going to be a fluke, but if these “flukes” keep happening, at a certain point we have to assume this is a pattern that will continue.

So with his availability concerns, I don’t know where I’d stand on retooling around AD. Say Lebron leaves, is a hypothetical Mitchell and AD duo going to win us a championship? Or is that just going to keep us at the middle of the pack for a while and delay the inevitable rebuild? I’m not sure.

But regardless, say AD’s ankle is in bad shape and he’s out the rest of the season. Trading him this summer just wouldn’t make sense. We’d be negotiating with weak leverage. His injury concerns would be right in the face of opposing teams.

So if you do think we can’t win a championship around AD as the #1 guy and want to trade him, it still doesn’t make sense to do that yet. I’d want to give it another go next year, hope he can stay healthy and ramp up his value, and then only explore a trade the following year IF Lebron leaves.

 

Who? That's ridiculous

 

Bad luck with the injuries this season, it's been a rough one for the team as a whole. I don't consider the two AD has suffered, to be due to being soft at all. I would still like to add another young big or two next season.

 

Beal isn't a star but if you're Mitchell why wouldn't want to pair with AD? Yeah he's older but he's a much better playoff big then Gobert and for a guy like Luka, AD would be by far the best player he would play with

I think the Laker fanbase is really underselling AD and the attraction of LA's ability to draw FA's. AD is a guy who plugs and plays with these kinds of wings. Lot of Lebron haters in this forum but that's one thing he has definitely established. You're at a minimum a playoff team with literal G league roster if you are a star wing with AD

 

why? are you suggesting that other guys who have people thrown into their legs wouldn't miss time? to hypothesize a trend, you need at least a theoretical cause. i actually provided one: AD's style of play puts him in harm's way more than some other guys--especially other big guys--and because he's big and moves like a wing, yes, he'll get hurt more than other bigs or wings. but all that is also why nobody has an answer for him on either end.

i'd do anything to stave off the rebuild. like forever. i'd rather finish 5th every year than finish 1st once and then 12th over and over again while hoping tyrese haliburton will blossom into something half as good as AD.

beal had a down year before he got hurt this year, but imo, he was the league's best sg last year and has been among the best for years now. he's a star, imo. otherwise i agree. people keep imagining that we have 2012 lebron when they blame all problems on anything but lebron. we don't have 2012 lebron, and 2022 lebron is a lot closer to 2022 mitchell and 2021 beal than he is to 2012 lebron.

anyway, i just find it hilarious that we want to move AD and try our hand at rebuilding again. we did so great the last time, right?

 

I think people here are severely underestimating the amount of time it will take to rebuild assets once Lebron is gone to build another title-winning team.

we will not be able to just insert a random superstar once Lebron is gone and still compete when we have zero assets and thus rely on vet mins for the rest of the roster once again.

Haliburton's age or a guy like Darius Garland will be more in line with the amount of rebuilding we will have to do, than Beal or even Mitchell.

 

Theoretical cause for all the injuries? Bad luck, weak bones, compromised structural integrity, poor choice in shoes, play style? I don’t know, I have no clue. But I don’t think I need to be able to explain it to recognize that it is a trend. Eye test tells me he’s injury prone, and I think many here would agree.

I get that being a 5th seed and having a puncher’s chance would be preferable to more tank jobs, but at a certain point I just don’t think it’s sustainable to continuously kick the can down the road.

Roster construction wise, having quality players on rookie deals is such a big bonus. Both in terms of having players who can currently produce for you, and having real trade chips that you can use to acquire more established players.

2 max guys surrounded by minimum players, and no draft picks for a decade, is not a recipe for success unless those 2 max guys are dominant (and healthy) enough to carry the team to a championship.

To be clear, I’m not even sure where I stand on the issue. I’d probably end up leaning towards betting on AD even if Lebron leaves. But I wouldn’t consider the other approach that outlandish.

 

I sent him a message and have offered free "how not to fall down after every play lessons".

He hasn't responded yet, so I just don't think he takes this Laker gig very seriously.

 

2 max guys gives a lot more space than you're suggesting. we're in this mess because we have three max salaries and two max guys. and the non-max is a supermax salary, to boot.

 

that's what i'm asking: you're suggesting that people step on people's feet like that and don't roll their ankle...cuz strongankle?

i'm not a supporter of the strongankle hypothesis.

 

yeah, i just don't think either of his injuries this year are things that others play through or heal from faster.