Anthony Davis has transformed the Lakers’ defense in his first season in L.A. and could be in line for his first Defensive Player of the Year award, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Davis is averaging a league-best 2.7 blocks per game and has become the anchor of a rapidly improving defensive unit. Going into last night’s win at Utah, the Lakers ranked fifth in defensive rating, third in points allowed per game and seventh in opponent’s field goal percentage.
“I think he can and will win Defensive Player of the Year this year,” coach Frank Vogel said. “I think there’s no one in the league like him defensively in terms of being able to guard all positions, protect the rim the way he does and deflect the basketball, contain the basketball. There really isn’t anyone in the league like him and if our team defense continues to play at a high level throughout the year, I think he’ll win it going away.”
Davis has been in the top five of the DPOY voting a couple times and believes he should have won the award two years ago. He said he developed his defensive philosophy by studying Kevin Garnett and Dwight Howard, who is now a teammate.
“I’ve watched him grow over the years to blossom into a really great player on both ends of the floor,” Howard said. “So, really proud to see him sticking by his word and doing what he has to do every night to make this team better.”
There’s more Lakers news to pass along:
- One of the reasons the Lakers have the league’s best record is Howard’s willingness to accept a complementary role, observes Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times. He’s giving the team quality minutes as a backup center without demanding to be the focus of the offense. “Throughout Dwight’s career, he’s been a guy you bring the ball down and you throw to him in the post and everybody works off of him,” LeBron James said. “Now he’s a screener. He’s a roller. He’s a guy who facilitates the offense if you pass it in to him. He gets the ball to the guards and he waits for his opportunities and he’s basically been great in that role.”
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope often heard boos early in the season, but his game has improved since he became a starter, Turner adds in a separate story. KCP is averaging 10.6 PPG while shooting 52.5% from the field and 47.7 on 3-pointers since an injury to Avery Bradley moved him into the starting lineup.
- The Lakers still need to develop a dependable third scorer to go with Davis and James, notes Pete Zayas of The Athletic, who examines how Kyle Kuzma can fit that role.
Great article!
Nice about KCP… since the defense is working, he is valuable now. My other punching bag, Kuzma, should be traded for a good role player. It’s the Davis-James show now, not the old (3 years ago) Lakers, and a #3 scorer is unnecessary, which is part of Kuzma’s problem. “Big 3s” are unnecessary.
They’ll need him in a year or two, no draft picks and when LeBron is gone.
Who would be on your shortlist for trade targets?
Cj mccollum and bradley beal. Neither of those teams are close to competing.
They can’t make the money work for those 2
Beal & McCollum are scorers and would not go for what LAL would be offering (say Kuzma+Bradley, $6.7MM). It would firstly be up to ADavis, who would be a FA, or James, who may be considering himself a 1. And who would want a solid 3/4 prospect in Kuzma?
Rodney Hood POR, who James played with;
Boston has to unload someone, Thies or JBrown.
Bitadze, OConnell, AHoliday in packages -or- Jeremy Lamb $10.5MM when Oladipo returns, IND.
LA cannot get a high-salary guy or maybe even Lamb or Sabonis.
Lots of good guards around… Lakers have the tough spots down.
they cant make the money work on those 2 guys and beal just signed an extension so he’s not likely to be moved. nobody else available is worth losing kuz over
Kuz is all potential, no production. It may never happen for him.
a 3rd scorer is necessary what are you talking about . so you dont want someone who can score when lebron and ad arent on the floor?
kuzma has just struggled because he miss camp and pre season because of his injury. he’ll find his groove and they definitely need him being a 3rd scorer especially come playoff time
Honestly, that about all I want to know about the Lakers.
Weird I can see this article on my phone but not on my PC. Its still blank.
Unplug the router.
I don’t think my boss would be happy if I did that.
Websensed. Article is NSFW. jk jk
There was some wonky background HTML messing up the desktop view. Should be OK now.