The Los Angeles Lakers, after their slow start to the season, seem to have picked up their pace. After a miserable 2-10 opening, the Lakers have gone 8-4 in their last 12 games. A huge part of their recent success has been their 6ft 10″ star Anthony Davis.
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The 29-year-old has shown up to the party and is giving the fans everything they had been waiting for.
His performances had led to a lot of sports analysts and former players rooting for him, and claiming he should be included in the MVP conversations. However, former Laker great, Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t believe that would happen for one simple reason.
Shaquille O’Neal explains why Anthony Davis won’t be in MVP talks
On the latest episode of ‘The Big Podcast’, Shaquille O’Neal talked about AD and his recent performances. O’Neal was very impressed with what the 8x All-Star has been able to do in the last 10 to 12 games.
While a lot of media personalities want AD in the MVP talks, Shaq doesn’t believe that would happen. Talking about it, Shaq said,
“AD’s playing good but they’re not going to give him MVP talks because of his record. When I was playing, it was like what your team does. I always thought it was what you did as an individual player, but because they’re in the eighth and he’s putting up these legendary numbers, he wont get mentioned in the MVP talks.”
Shaq happens to be speaking from his own personal experience as well. Despite putting up many seasons of dominating numbers, Big Diesel only has one regular season MVP to his name. His teams, even though didn’t have losing records, the other candidates with slightly lower stats had a much better team record.
Can AD sustain his current form?
The biggest thing, when it comes to Anthony Davis, is staying healthy. The 6ft 10″ forward had played only 76 out of 154 games in the last two seasons. When he plays, AD brings quite a lot to the table. However, due to the injuries, even his game had been affected.
What he’s shown us in the last few games, if AD can sustain it, he can probably be in the running for the MVP honors. However, a big deciding factor behind the same would also be how the Lakers fare. It would also depend on if AD can lead them to a winning record and decent seeding.
