WEBVTT - Why Anthony Davis is #10 in my NBA player rankings | Dallas Mavericks 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:17.120 The volume. All right, welcome to him tonight here at 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:19.240 the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody, Oh all of you guys 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:21.520 had a great weekend. We are starting the top ten 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.759 of our player rankings today with number ten Anthony Davis, 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.400 going to do a very deep dive into ad some 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:31.560 of the ups and downs of his career with relation 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:34.519 to health, also with relation to his skill development. I 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:36.440 even want to zoom out a little bit towards the 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.400 end and talk about his perception of the center position 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:43.280 versus the power forward position in some of the strengths 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.120 and weaknesses of that approach, and some of the things 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:47.680 we got to keep an eye out for him with 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:49.839 the Dallas Mavericks in that regard. And then at the 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:51.320 tail end of the show, one of the things we're 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.200 going to start doing, since we're only doing one player 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:55.200 at a time from this point forward, is we're going 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:59.880 to start hitting some bigger picture basketball debate types of topic. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:01.800 And today we're actually going to start with one that 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:05.120 was a raging debate online last week while while I 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:06.640 was in Alaska, and I give you guys just a 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.480 very quick, kind of like thirty thousand foot version of 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.360 my opinion. But I wanted to kind of dive deeper 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.720 into the concept, and it's about two basketball players, one 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.839 of which is a champion, one of which is not. However, 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:19.640 the player who's not a champion is a guy that 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:21.520 I view as the better basketball player, and I want 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:23.840 to kind of dive into that concept. It's Kyrie Irving 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.039 versus Chris Paul and who I think is a better 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:29.360 basketball player at their absolute peak. So we're going to 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:31.000 dive into that at the tail end of the show. 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:32.240 You guys are the joke before we get started. To 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:33.720 subscribe to the Hoops and Not YouTube channel so you 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:35.760 don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter, 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.920 underscore jcnlts, you guys, don't miss show announcements. Don't forget 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:41.320 aboutter podcast for you or every podcast under Hoops Tonight. 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:43.080 It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:45.640 a review on that front. Jackson's also doing incredible work 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.360 on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:50.040 Make sure you guys follow us there. In the last 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:51.520 but not least, if you disagree with any of these 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:53.760 rankings in any way, shape or form. Where you're doing 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.280 Friday mailbags throughout the remainder of this series where you 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.400 guys have the opportunity to explain why you disagree guy 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.360 too high, guy too low, whatever it might be. Just 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.160 right mail bag with the colon, write your elevator pitch 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:09.079 just as concisely as possible, your basketball case for why 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.600 you disagree with a ranking, or even if it's just 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:13.640 something you want me to elaborate on a bit further. 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.079 Put that in the YouTube comments and we'll get to 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.280 those in our Friday mail bags throughout the remainder of 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.160 this series. All right, let's talk some basketball. So number ten, 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.160 Anthony Davis, as last season in review, played in just 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:29.239 fifty one games. We're going to talk about ad and 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:31.440 kind of his history with health here in a little bit. 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:34.760 Came out guns blazing to start the year, as he 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:38.160 was very heavily featured in JJ Redick's offense early in 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.640 the season. In his first twenty five games, he averaged 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:44.000 a super efficient twenty eight points per game to go 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.480 with three point two steels plus blocks per game. He 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:51.360 was legit playing at that top tier superstar level to 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:53.160 start the season. Then he got a little banged up. 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.240 You're starting to deal with a couple of nagging injuries, 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:59.160 and he slowed down pretty significantly after that point. He 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.720 averaged just twenty three points per game on lower efficiency 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.320 over his final seventeen games as a Laker. Also, as 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.640 he started to not perform as well on offense, he 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:10.960 started to become less and less featured in the offense, 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.440 which seemed to take him even further out of rhythm. 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.160 It just was starting to look like more or less 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.880 the offensive player that we had seen in previous seasons. 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.800 But he did come out guns blazing to start the year, 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.160 and then he ended up finally succumbing to a groin 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:26.760 injury which kept him out the majority of the rest 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:28.840 of the season. He ended up playing just nine games 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.480 as a Dallas Maverick after the Lukadancics trade. Finished the 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:34.480 year in the total of the fifty one games at 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.960 twenty five points, twelve rebounds in four assists, three point 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:40.840 four stocks per game, and his percentages fifty four percent 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.200 from the field, twenty eight percent from three to seventy 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.880 eight percent from the line, which amounts to fifty four 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.760 percent an effective field goal percentage waited for threes and 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.960 fifty nine percent in true shooting. This is where I 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.520 want to start in the health arena for just a minute, 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.440 because it's always an important context with AD. Eighty has 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.080 a pretty low, large gap between what his potential ceiling 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.200 is and what his potential floor is relative to some 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.080 of these guys, Like there's a case to be made 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.000 that he belongs in that Kawhi Leonard Joel Embard grouping 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.320 closer to the bottom of this tier. I disagree because 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.800 I think he's considerably more reliable than those two guys. 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:19.960 But there are going to be people who disagree with 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.400 this ranking based on the idea that Ad is not 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:26.960 healthy enough, and there is some legitimacy to that argument. 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:29.960 I was hopeful as a Lakers fan that after that 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:31.960 twenty twenty four season, which if you remember, that was 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.680 a return to form for Ad from the standpoint of 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.200 his health. He played in seventy six games. He made 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:39.440 the All NBA team second Team All NBA, which was 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:41.919 his first time making an All NBA team since the 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.120 twenty twenty season when they won the title, And so 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:48.440 it looked like, is this gonna be the segment of 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.600 AD's career where he kind of figures out the health 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.359 stuff and he starts to be more available and he 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:57.599 just couldn't in the following season, goes for fifty one game, 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.520 suffers a growing injury soft tissue injury pretty simp similar 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.120 to some of the injuries he had had early in 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.520 earlier in his Lakers tenure. So if you zoom out 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:10.920 in the four seasons surrounding Anthony Davis's seventy six game 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:15.159 All NBA season, he averages forty six games played, thirty 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:17.880 six games in twenty twenty one, forty games in twenty 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.680 twenty two, fifty six and twenty twenty three, and fifty 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.960 one in twenty twenty five. So now when I look 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:29.200 at him relative to the Mbat Kawhi tier, first of all, 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.440 Joel Embiid and Kawhi are both dealing with severe degenerative 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:39.200 issues in their knees, issues that have completely dominated this 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.400 phase of their careers and have been recurring in the 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:46.000 same knee, and that makes them, in my opinion, significantly 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.880 less reliable than an Anthony Davis who's just been dealing 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:52.080 with some soft tissue related injuries and for the most 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:55.800 part doesn't have any sort of big glaring like ooh 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:58.240 that part of his body is likely to break down 0:05:58.279 --> 0:05:59.800 this season, So I think he's a little bit safer 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.120 that and then another part of it is the motivation 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.600 element with him being involved in the Luka Danchitz trade, 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:07.880 which we'll get to in a little bit. But I 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:09.880 think it's been a combination of three factors that have 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.320 led to Anthony Davis's health issues. First of all, luck, 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:17.920 like it or not, there is some kind of ethereal 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.320 injury luck factor that's at play that affects all athletes. 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:25.760 Some dudes just break down more, and it's not because 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.279 of anything they're doing. It's just something that exists there, 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.599 that injury prone factor, and AD is certainly one of 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.520 those dudes who just happens to get hurt more than 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.960 some of his peers. Secondly, conditioning, AD deserves some of 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:42.960 the blame with respect to his injury history because it's 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.120 been widely reported that, especially in the few years after 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:48.799 they won the title, AD would show up to camp 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.479 out of shape, it would take long stretches of the 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:55.400 summer off, and it led to a situation where he 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.960 wasn't as well conditioned to start seasons as some of 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:00.839 his peers at the top of the league, and that 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:03.720 certainly didn't help matters with his health. Right if you 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:06.840 look at it as like a spectrum of possible outcomes 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.960 within the regard or within the range of his injury 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:15.280 prone nature. He's been tilting more towards the injured size 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:17.960 a side of it in large part, I shouldn't say, 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:20.800 in large part partially because of the fact that he 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:23.440 didn't come into these seasons in as good as shape 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.880 as he could have come in. Lastly, he put on 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.360 an insane amount of muscle. This is a concept we're 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:31.160 going to talk a lot about today with Ad, which 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.200 I thought was a miscalculation on his part in terms 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:38.000 of his development. The reason why is it flat out 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.360 came at the expense of his foot speed. We've all 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:42.440 seen the videos. When a video pops up of Anthony 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.120 Davis playing basketball in that twenty twenty season, doesn't even 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.400 look like the same guy. He looks considerably thinner, He 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:51.000 was moving considerably better, and it made him a more 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:54.640 dynamic player in a bunch of different ways. AD got 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:58.200 shoved around in a couple of matchups, especially when he 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.800 was playing center during that phase of his career, in 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.880 that twenty twenty twenty twenty one stage, and so he 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:06.480 decided he needed to bulk up, and I thought it 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:10.760 was a classic example of over indexing on addressing a 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.840 weakness rather than leaning into your strengths. That's not to 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:16.640 say that you don't want to address your weakness, as 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:20.080 certainly Ad should have put on some muscle, as every 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.040 super thin player that comes into the league should. As 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:25.400 we talk about Victor wemb Minyama, he'll face a similar 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.280 decision in his career how much should he bulk up. 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.240 Certainly needs to bulk up some, but he doesn't want 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:33.280 to bulk up so much that it comes at the 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:35.840 expense of his speed, which is the thing at his 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.640 size that makes him such a transcendently great athlete. And 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:44.280 what happened was is eighty's newfound muscle mass really wasn't 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:47.200 helping him win as many physical battles as you'd think. 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:52.760 Basketball is every bit is much about leverage and angles 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.160 as it is about just pure strength and muscle mass. 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:58.280 This is a big part of why I've been gravitating 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.920 towards those like shorter, stockier wings over some of the longer, 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:06.880 lankier wings, because it doesn't really like length is of 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.599 the highest factor at the rim. It certainly helps on 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:11.439 the perimeter when you're contesting shots I don't want to 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.240 pretend it doesn't, but it has its largest impact on 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:18.400 the game at the rim. And if you can win 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.439 battles on the ground as a stocky athlete on the perimeter, 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.160 that can prevent guys from even getting past you. That 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.760 carries a lot of value in the league and prevents 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:31.680 some of that length at the rim from being as 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.040 much of a factor. That's why I gravitate towards some 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:36.800 of those shorter, stockier wings, right, And that's the thing. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.920 Like eighty put on all this muscle, and then he 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:42.760 still in the last few years would get bullied by 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.000 jokicch and bullied by Sabonis at times, although he won 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.800 that battle a couple times last year. Or like even 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.240 guys like use of Nrkic sometimes would bury him on 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.120 the offensive glass. Zubats gave him a lot of issues 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.240 on the offensive glass. And then the problem was is 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:00.680 even though he had all this muscle and he's still 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.320 kind of struggling with some of these bigger centers, he 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:08.079 also at the same time was not as capable of 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.600 punishing those guys with his speed because he wasn't as 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.559 fast as he used to be, and he lost a 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.160 lot of that in the pursuit of that muscle mass, 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:18.800 and I mean you got to factor that in with 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:22.199 the injuries as well, Like it made him heavier, and 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.080 if you're heavier, your lower body's going to struggle to 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.679 hold up under the wear and tear of moving your 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.520 body around. And so really, as we zoom out, the 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.120 injuries have been the thing that has prevented Ad from 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.959 reaching his individual ceiling, his ultimate potential, which was like 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:43.000 there's a version of AD's career where he's healthier and 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.400 he's thinner, and he holds up more, which allows him 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.640 to be in the gym more, which allows him to 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:51.560 develop more in terms of his skill set, which allows 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:53.360 him to build more of a rhythm in the season 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.600 and develop into something closer to the Yahnesses of the 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:00.920 world and the hyper versatile bigs that ranked above him 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.360 on this list that Joel emb when he was healthy, 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:06.480 for example, there's a version of eighty's career where he 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.640 had better health luck, and he too took a different 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.160 approach in terms of how he built his body, and 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.640 maybe he was a more skilled player that reached higher heights. 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.000 But I do think all of those factors played a 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.080 role in his injury history earlier in his career, so 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.760 I have him in the top ten, ahead of guys 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.400 like Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell. 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Bonus bets expire seven 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.559 days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:19.679 see DKG dot co, slash audio. I'm obviously a huge 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:22.719 believer in Anthony Davis's impact on basketball games. That goes 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:24.480 without saying. Anybody who's listened to the show over the 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.240 last few years knows I'm a huge believer in eighty, 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.280 but it also extends into what I believe will be 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:34.920 a revenge campaign from him. This year, both Anthony Davis 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:39.000 and Luka Doncic will be ranked on this list higher, 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:44.880 much higher than what their previous seasons justify. Ad has 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.760 no case to be a top ten player based solely 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:50.880 on last season, and Luka Doncic has no case to 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:53.600 be a top five player based solely on last season. 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.920 But we've already seen a completely different looking Luca in 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.439 a game with Salave against Germany. There were three moves 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.280 in particular, a euro step, a move driving a close out, 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.000 and there was one more. I can't remember exactly what 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:08.480 it was. I think it was just like a jab 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.240 step behind the back, dribble off the right wing in 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.160 the first half. But he had three moves in that 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.600 game where I was like, that's a different guy. He's 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:19.360 moving at a completely different speed than he moved in 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.640 the past. Why Because he got embarrassed by the maps, 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.800 completely embarrassed by the maps, and he's super pissed off, 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:27.760 and he lost a bunch of weight and now he's 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:29.640 on a mission to prove everybody wrong. And as we're 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:34.000 looking towards next season, I'm factoring that in same goes 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:39.200 for Ad, AD was similarly embarrassed. He was basically shipped 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.800 off as trade filler in the dead of night. It 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.960 was unprecedented for a Lakers star. It's unprecedented in the 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:49.320 entire NBA. It was the craziest trade in the history 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.600 of the MBA. How often do you see a superstar, 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:57.160 not DeMar Derozen getting traded for Kawhi, but a superstar 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.720 that gets moved in person of a better player in 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:06.160 his prime because the team wanted the even better player. 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:10.200 It's so rare, and so Ad has been similarly embarrassed. 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.560 I think he wants to prove everyone wrong. I do 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:18.000 think we will see Ad come into training camp in 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.720 great shape relative to previous seasons from him, which I 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.560 think will lead to him having a healthier season by 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.800 his standards, which I think will have him in better 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.440 rhythm in most of these games, which will allow him 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:33.720 to show more of his offensive upside, which we're going 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:36.760 to talk about in a bit. That's really what separated 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:40.040 him from that top tier. When Ad is a reliable 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.520 twenty eight point per game score, the guy that you 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.960 saw in the bubble, that guy's a top tier superstar. 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.400 When he's not. When he's in the low twenties and 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.920 he's more inconsistent offensively, that's when he's more of that 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:57.600 second tier star like we have in this particular list. 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.760 And so I actually look at AD and the reason 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:02.560 why I put him at ten is I think we 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:04.920 are going to get one of the better seasons from 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:08.200 AD out of this phase of his prime. It's a 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.560 big part of why I ranked him where I ranked him. Now, 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.800 let's talk about AD as a basketball player. Rather than 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:15.760 looking at his injury history and in the big picture, 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.960 let's zoom in on his basketball traits and what sets 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:21.360 him apart from his peers. We have to start with 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.880 defense for AD, because that's his calling card. There's a 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.360 similar range of outcomes for AD as a defender centering 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:33.520 around his health. Because of his foot speed. Even the 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:37.480 lesser foot speed version of AD has a really high 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:42.000 floor as a perimeter defender. It's not the same guy 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.120 from New Orleans, not the same guy from like twenty twenty, 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:50.560 but healthy Ad, even bigger, bulky, healthy Ad has real 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.200 footspeed on the perimeter relative to his position, which brings 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:58.160 a lot of upside. But as we talked about there's 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.240 like these banged up versions of Ad, like that second 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.440 chunk of last season with the Lakers or what you 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.560 saw with Dallas, where it's like that's a d but 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.880 he's clearly not moving very well even by his big 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.520 bulky standards. Right. But what's crazy with Ad, and it's 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.280 a big part of why I have him this high, 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.680 is even lumbering Ad, even big bulky Ad that's out 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.399 of shape and is just coming back from an injury. 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:28.479 Even that guy has an incredibly high floor as a 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.840 defensive player, and it starts with the shot blocking. Has 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.120 a standing reach over nine feet, he has good leaping ability, 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:40.160 and he has outrageous natural defensive instincts. He can anticipate 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.240 what offensive players are going to do around the rim, 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.040 guessing release points where they're going for layups. And as 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.760 a result, even while constantly battling injury issues for the 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:52.160 last five years and carrying all that extra weight, even 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:56.520 with that, he still averaged two point one blocks per 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:59.879 game over that five year span that we were referencing earlier. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.040 He was consistently banged up. Now, as we know, the younger, 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:08.359 faster AD averaged two point five blocks per game for 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:11.639 the seven seasons previous. Obviously, he can get to a 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.680 higher level there. Even when he's healthy in rhythm, When 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:17.240 he plays game after game after game after game, and 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.080 he drops some of the excess weight he's carrying and 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.159 he's in good shape, he can go on runs. He 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.320 had a stretch five games last year with the Lakers 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.080 where he averaged three point six blocks per game over 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:29.760 a five game stretch. He can still get there. But 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:34.800 the point is his floor is an outrageously good shot 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.080 blocker and rim protector. He does it without committing fouls. 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.080 He does it without giving up too many unnecessary offensive 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.600 rebounds by chasing stupid shots that he has no chance 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:48.879 of blocking. He is a rock solid, foundational rim protector 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:53.399 in this league, even when he's banged up. He's also 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.720 an excellent defensive rebounder, a career eleven rebounds per game 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:01.920 in twelve point three rebouls game. Over his last three seasons, 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:05.960 he led the entire league in rebounding in twenty twenty three, 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:08.600 He was third in rebounding in twenty twenty four, and 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.200 even the banged up version of Anthony Davis last year 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:18.000 was seventh in overall rebounding. He has had occasional issues 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:22.159 giving up certain types of offensive rebounds on like Duccans 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.720 to certain types of centers, so guys like Zubat's so 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.520 Bonis yokicch even Nurkic sometimes like we talked about, But 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.919 even factoring in that down mark, there's no way to 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:35.800 look at Anthony Davis as anything other than a monster 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.159 rebounder and one of the very best rebounders in the 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:41.000 entire NBA. And that's part of the appeal for a 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:43.920 player like Anthony Davis on a list like this, his 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:48.719 floor no matter what Dallas is gonna get, even if 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:52.000 he's banged up and only plays fifty games. For fifty games, 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:56.359 they're going to get a rock solid defensive anchor, a 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:58.760 guy who can protect the rim at an elite level 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.280 and rebound at an an elite level. And when you 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.080 can do those two things, it just makes it so 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.040 much easier for a basketball team to build around that 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:12.120 and to function around that. We used to talk about 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:16.159 this for eighties bad games, right like even the slower moving, 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.000 banged up version of AD. He'd have these like bad 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:23.640 games where he'd have twelve points, fourteen rebounds, and three blocks, 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:29.240 and people would rightfully complain that, like, yeah, that inconsistently inconsistency, 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:32.320 especially on offense, is what would separate him from guys 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.040 like Yannis, And that would be fair. If you're comparing 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:37.679 him to Giannis, you're gonna frequently run into things that 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.800 are frustrating. I'm not going to argue against that. But 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:44.879 in those games, he was still doing so much dirty work, 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:48.480 like he'd have twelve, fourteen and three, and people would 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.639 be complaining and like to quote Pete Zayas and again, 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.200 if you're a Lakers fan, I think Pete and Darius 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.600 have the best team specific Lakers podcast. You guys got 0:20:57.640 --> 0:20:59.800 to check it out. Pete taught me so much about 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:02.119 what I know about the modern NBA, and I just 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:03.760 think he's awesome. You guys have to go check out. 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.400 It's a Laker film room podcast. But Pete, you would 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:10.639 always say, like everyone's yelling at Ad when he's trying 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:13.320 to move the couch by himself, and it's like, how 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.239 about we help him move the couch, and then we 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.320