“Anthony Davis has to dominate more!” – Shaquille O’Neal echoes Charles Barkley’s sentiment as he pins Lakers struggles to AD’s underperformance

Arun Sharma | 08/12/2021
"Anthony Davis has to dominate more!" - Shaquille O'Neal echoes Charles Barkley's sentiment as he pins Lakers struggles to AD's underperformance

Anthony Davis needs to step up if the Lakers have any chance of making a deep playoff run

Anthony Davis has never been a great 3 point shooter – but he makes a few. This year he’s been shooting like those fans during half time playing for those lottery shots. Shaquille O’Neal on NBA TNT rips into Davis for not being the go to guy. Shaq knows a thing or two about playing that 1-2 offense, with him and Kobe being hugely successful when they played together.

This season, LeBron has had his injury struggles, Russell Westbrook wasn’t hitting his stride which meant AD was the main guy. When put in the spotlight, he froze like a deer in headlights. His points numbers do not show the whole picture, masking his shooting struggles. On paper he’s scoring more than last year, but he’s been horrendous while shooting.

Everyone knows the player Anthony Davis can be when he finds his groove – he just needs to find it fast. With LeBron James back, a lot of the pressure on him should be taken off, and he should be able to perform freely.

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Anthony Davis may have been selected into the top 75 best players of all time – he certainly isn’t playing like one right now

Whenever the Los Angeles Lakers play, the story mostly revolves around their struggles. Even if they do win, it’s either a blown lead or a struggling single digit win. Early season struggles have been pinned on a lot of players – Russell Westbrook being the prime target.

He deserved a lot of the criticism in the early games, turning over the ball so often that he had a quadruple double if turnovers counted in the stat sheet. But another player who’s struggled is Anthony Davis. AD was probably the best player the Lakers had in their title run, even better than LeBron James. He was much more effective in all positions, both offensively and defensively.

He was never a volume jump shot maker, but this year Davis has been abysmal. 19% from 3 is what you expect from Dwight Howard, not Anthony Davis. Many fans feel Davis has no motivation to win now that he has won a ring.

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Post Edited By: Samir Mehdi
Anthony Davis Los Angeles Lakers Shaquille O'Neal

About the author

Arun Sharma

Arun Sharma is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. A double degree holder and a digital marketer by trade, Arun has always been a sports buff. He fell in love with the sport of basketball at a young age and has been a Lakers fan since 2006. What started as a Kobe Bryant obsession slowly turned into a lifelong connection with the purple and gold. Arun has been an ardent subscriber to the Mamba mentality and has shed tears for a celebrity death only once in his life. He believes January 26, 2020, was the turning point in the passage of time because Kobe was the glue holding things together. From just a Lakers bandwagoner to a basketball fanatic, Arun has spent 16 long years growing up along with the league. He thinks Stephen Curry has ruined basketball forever, and the mid-range game is a sight to behold. Sharma also has many opinions about football (not the American kind), F1, MotoGP, tennis, and cricket.

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