Anthony Davis is officially one of the NBA’s worst jump shooters, and it is time the Lakers realize and transition him to a proper center.
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Before the start of the 2022-23 season, Lakers fans could not have expected to do their team worse than last season in which they failed to make the playoffs while having four of the NBA’s 75 All-time greats in their active roster.
Having retained LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and Anthony Davis for this season the Lakers management must have thought of redeeming their mistakes but it looks like they couldn’t have failed at it more miserably.
Their 0-3 start to the season is even worse than last year where they were 1-2 after their 3rd day of action after losing the first two and defeated the Memphis Grizzlies in the third, who would finish the season with the second-best record in both conferences.
The Purple and Gold team’s latest outing against Damian Lillard and Co. has proven them much more than what they should get rid of other than their Russell Westbrook problem.
Jusuf Nurkic shows the NBA how to guard Anthony Davis’ jump shot
Russ might be one of their biggest headaches but even without him, this team’s shooting is as bad as it gets. And one of the major culprits for that is the man for whom they traded most of their exceptional young talent back in the day to the New Orleans Pelicans.
After averaging 43% from 10-16 feet from the rim and 38% beyond 16 feet in his Pelicans days, and a terrific first season with the Lakers, AD was one league’s worst jump shooters in the league in 2021-22, within a year of his arrival in LA.
But he is even doubling down on that this year and has shot under 25% outside the paint in the first three games. The Blazers’ big man, Jusuf Nurkic, showed us why AD doesn’t even need to be defended while taking a jumper in the most disrespectful manner last night.
Nurkic on AD’s 3-point attempt 💀#Shaqtin pic.twitter.com/ALrv1ebqLI
— Shaqtin’ a Fool (@shaqtin) October 24, 2022
And NBA Twitter reacted in a similar fashion.
The Lakers are 3-for-24 from three.
1. Look at Jusef Nurkic when the ball goes to Anthony Davis behind the arc. He puts his head down, rubs his eye and takes a breather before looking for where the missed shot will go.
2. Look at how badly it was missed. pic.twitter.com/fJZN2ZgOeR
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) October 23, 2022
Jusuf Nurkic doesn’t believe Anthony Davis can shoot… pic.twitter.com/RKunafLz14
— Iztok Franko (@iztok_franko) October 23, 2022
It’s time for Anthony Davis to stop shooting 3’s
We tried it. Stop trying to make fetch happen
— Jason Maples (@JJMaples55_MST) October 23, 2022
Somebody did a mind-boggling digging.
For all the justifiable criticism of Westbrook’s shooting, it really flies under the radar that Anthony Davis is 41-for-180 from 3 since the bubble https://t.co/pNFDGlZmdK
— Brady Klopfer (@BradyKlopferNBA) October 23, 2022
Also read: Chris Paul Makes History and Forms a 20,000 Points and 11,000 Assists Club!
Can AD turn this around?
Apart from his horrendous shooting, Davis had a tremendous night otherwise and a monstrous game defensively, but all of his, Westbrook’s, and Lakers’ combined lack of accuracy cost them their first win of the season as they had the chance till last minute to close it out.
If the Lakers and their 8x All-Star cannot take any offense on the disrespect defenders are consistently showing toward him, they can just play Davis as a typical old-school center who wouldn’t take as many jump shots as the Big men in NBA currently do.
It might make them a bit more one-dimensional and make their task more difficult with less floor spacing, but it would surely result in them winning some games.
And they can always get some help for their shooting from free agents like Moe Harkless and even Carmelo Anthony who could definitely still help them much more than any shooter in their current roster.