Anthony Davis: Why the Mavs Season Hinges on Him
Anthony Davis has been a double-double machine since he won his first NBA championship with the Lakers in the NBA Bubble season. Is he still relevant in today’s league?
The answer almost entirely depends on his health. When he is healthy, he produces for the team–a season average of 26 points and 12 rebounds in his last season as a Laker, and 20 points and 5 rebounds last season, which included a few games with the Mavs. The issue is that he only played a few games the past two seasons: 51 games out of a possible 164. That’s less than a third.
The Mavericks are banking on the possibility that AD and Kyrie will play a lot of games together this year. Pundits are predicting Dallas to be a 30-40 win team because of their lack of shooting/shotmaking and their health issues. Cooper Flagg is a great prospect and he allegedly will be deployed as the primary offense facilitator at times, and he seems to be a good fit with AD, but the team is heavily relying on the health of historically unhealthy players to do well in the season. Hopefully, Anthony Davis can play more than 9 games this season.
For Daily Fantasy Players: HOT! Get Anthony Davis as captain if he is available. He can even get the captain spot, depending on the match-up, as he is always expected to produce 20 and 10 every time he plays. Their first NBA game against San Antonio and their dynamic bigs should be telling, and there is no shortage of skilled big men who could guard him within Southwest division matchups.
For Traditional Fantasy Players: MID! Picking him in the first-second round is a gamble because of his health issues, even if he is a double-double machine. There are better and healthier bigs available which could produce the same stat line (Victor Wembanyama, Paolo Banchero, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, even Kristaps Porzingis to name a few).
