In his return after a two-month absence, Anthony Davis‘ numbers were not overly impressive, as he scored just four points in 17 minutes. However, the Lakers’ superstar said he wasn’t giving any thought to the calf strain and Achilles tendinosis in his right leg that sidelined him for 30 games.
“I didn’t think about it one time tonight,” Davis said, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “Honestly, I just went out there and played. I think it can limit what you do if you’re out there thinking about your injury, so I just went out and played and not think about it. Just go out there and have fun and be excited to be back on the floor. That was my main thing. I was just excited to be back on the floor with the guys, so I never thought about it. I never did a limit to any moves. Wasn’t hesitant with anything, so that was a good sign for me.”
Injuries have limited Davis to 24 games this season, and he’s averaging just 21.8 PPG and 8.2 RPG when he has played, his lowest marks in several years. However, as he rounds back into form and LeBron James moves toward a return, the Lakers are poised to have some serious firepower back on the court as they seek to defend their NBA championship.
More Pacific Division notes here:
- The Clippers says that center Serge Ibaka is making progress in his return from lower back tightness that has sidelined him since mid-March, Mirjam Swanson of the Orange County Register writes. “He’s progressing,” head coach Ty Lue said. “We’re not sure the timetable when he’ll be back, but that was his first time getting on the floor and actually doing some playing so that’s a good start.”
- In the midst of an up-and-down season for the Warriors, Jordan Poole has emerged as a bright spot in the team’s future, Anthony Slater of The Athletic writes. Poole has shown an innate ability to score, prompting head coach Steve Kerr to laud his 21-year-old. “We can’t have our decision to play him based on whether he’s making shots or not,” Kerr said. “That’s not a recipe for consistent performance. He has to take that next step and he’s showing signs. Which is great.”
- With Marvin Bagley III seemingly close to returning, NBC Sports’ James Ham analyzes what the big man’s role with the Kings might be once he’s back on the court.
AD speaking like a true veteran of the injury recovery process!
He should be after missing 152 games (and counting) throughout his career.
You should note that he’s already got one ring (and counting). Meanwhile, fat James Harden is out indefinitely with a hammy. Not that it should concern Rockets fans, but hey, at least you got some pick swaps.
Don’t bother this is just how he gets off…he belittles LeBron and AD so that there’s tension while he stares at their posters he’s hung above his bed at night
Definitely like Jordan Poole’s game. He can definitely be a valuable 6th Man for Golden State someday if he keeps at it.
Poole was the worst player in the in nba before January
Now he is a below average player
He needs to be like Johnny Juzang
After my promotion, many reporters have assigned Juzang to lottery pick
Improve from 97th pick to 14th pick
Pretty soon a stable of players will come calling to get you to be their hype man. Perhaps it’s time to hire an administrative team to help sort through the offers you will be getting, manage contracts and finances, assisting clients on their expectations on timelines and of course coordinating your media availability.
Worst? He wasn’t even the worst player on the warriors. Poole’s offense is better than most bench players in the NBA.
His defense needs to come around a bit, but if it does? He’s already a key rotation piece, if he becomes a plus defender or an elite one, he might be worth giving 30+ MPG to.
Poole has been incredible since the all-star break, and making the second unit steer Oubre the right way has been huge for GSW in this run. When the second unit is led by Looney, Poole and Oubre, it’s showing for the first time all year, a unit that can do well in non-Steph spaces. This is huge for the playoffs. While it has been painful to sit through the low-IQ madness playing styles of Wiggins, Wiseman, Oubre, Bazemore, Wanamaker, Lee, Smailagic and Mannion, the fact that the Warriors got two very important high IQ future building pieces in Poole and Toscano-Anderson, only bodes even better for them in this year’s offseason market. Payton 2 is also looking like a high IQ/big energy-type future piece off the bench as well.
This offseason, if GSW can flip Wiggins, Wiseman, Oubre, Bazemore, Lee, Smailagic and Mannion into all high IQ players to pair with Steph, Klay, Dray, Poole, JTA, Paschall, Looney, Mulder and Payton (and probably Chriss), then they will run the West easily, especially now Steph has unlocked his “truly transcendent, no one ever been this good for 10 games in a row” level.
I can’t stop thinking about Oubre for Kawhi sign-and-trade and how that would unleash a tidal wave of high IQ/great players wanting in on another big title run from GSW. Or even Oubre for Towns! This offseason will be so spectacular and fun for GSW fans to pontificate over for sure….
Why do you want to get rid of Wiseman? It doesn’t make any sense.
Because the front office refuses to play him at 4 and Draymond at 5, which is the only way he’s going to work under Kerr. At this point, its better to keep the pick and flip Wiseman to a team where he has freedom to play as the true 4 he is.
Turner-Green-Leonard-Thompson-Curry = bye
Where do you get this idea that Wiseman is a Forward? That makes even less sense. It difficult enough for Bigs to develop. Why play him out of position? There is nobody on the Warriors roster by the name of Turner or Leonard. Why would you want Myers Leonard? The Clippers aren’t trading Kawhi to the Warriors.
Last offseason was supposed to be big but Myers had no bright ideas except to stick with the conventional.
Wiseman, Leonard, Turner… Marty starts halfway into his convo… The site he likes more probably mods him.
Not sure Kawhi is high-IQ, but he is a combination of things normally hard to connect, like both hard patient worker and spontaneous. at least physically. Not sure why he would want out though.
Can you and Sillivan speak English in complete sentences. Why would you trade Wiseman? Why you trade away 2 draft choices in a deep draft? Please explain why you believe the Warriors should trade away the ability to land great players. I don’t understand why you and Marty are fighting this
Me? What in my post would Marty fight, except that he might like another site better lol.
Perhaps the trading discussion started somewhere else; I do not see the details laid out here. He indicates he looks forward to seeing various GSW trades laid out.
He wants to flip the players he doesn”t like for players he does, and opposing GMs will all agree, just like in Myers’ GSW plans last offseason. That last sentence is sarcastic.
The page will not let me reply to Marty’s long post; not sure what’s up with that. That’s the real takeaway!
All in For another Steph championship. By any means necessary
Shawn Hemp struggled to hold up a bong. Shawn Hemp spilled bong water all over his Gucci carpet. But Shawn Hemp still was able to give his Trump supporter friends a little party favor.
Warriors would only be Tier 2 team next season without trading away both Wiseman and Wolves pick
What does Tier 2 teams mean?
To me
It means that the teams have zero chance to win Championships unless other teams are injured
Example would be this year’s Bucks, 76ers and Jazz
There is no top team this year. Every team had to deal with injuries. Every team went through streaks of winning and losing. The team that can get hot in the playoffs will win it. To me there are probably about 10 to 12 teams that could be champs this year.
Why do you want to get rid of Wiseman and the TWolves pick? It is a deep draft. Losing that pick would be stupid. Wiseman is going to be a great player.
I know Sillivan believes he knows what it takes to win an NBA championship living in Moscow.
The Jazz look real to me, but the playoffs will tell.
The Jazz are fire…I’d love to see them win it all if it didn’t mean rolling my squad
Why are Warriors and Lakers haters the most active posters on this page?
Because Californians are so thin-skinned and can’t take the heat? Chill.
Nah because those 2 teams dominate basket ball for a long time. Nobody hates a bad team. They only hate winners.
That explains why everyone hates the Rockets so much. Right?
No. We could care less about the Rockets.
Nobody cares about the Rockets they just trash them on here cuz you are constantly trashing their teams.
Thin-skinned? Nah. You just post ridiculous stuff.
I’d say the guy who can’t get off those teams’ nuts 24/7 is the one with the thin skin. I definitely don’t hate the Rockets or their fan base either. I wouldn’t let one little secret LeBron/AD fanboy ruin it for a whole city.
Because Steph and Lebron have hurt the vast majority of NBA fans feelings over the last 15 years.
I guess you’re right and I should take it easy on ol’ WallyWood. He has definitely been through a lot this past year, watching his team evaporate like a fart in the wind
“Blew up like the Challenger”