Add Lakers legend James Worthy to the growing list of people who believe Anthony Davis should play more at center this season. While speaking on Spectrum SportsNet (hat tip TalkBasket), Worthy was adamant about Davis playing at the five, citing a variety of reasons why it would make sense.
“I think initiating Anthony Davis in the post is the best option,” he explained. “I’ve never been one of those players to say ‘I don’t wanna play three, I wanna play four. I wanna play.’ I don’t know what the problem is, maybe who he defends or where he is on the floor. I think the five is a good spot for him. Because other fives don’t have a shot at guarding him.
“You want to make opponents make adjustments. Him at the five shooting three is going to pull Gobert out and they’re going to have to put somebody small on him and he can take advantage of that. I think he needs to look at what position best suits the team and what position best suits how they wanna play before he just says ‘Ahh, one or the other.’”
Giving Davis more minutes at center could also help with the Lakers’ potential floor-spacing issues. The team added Russell Westbrook to its core this offseason, wisely signing shooters such as Trevor Ariza, Carmelo Anthony, Kent Bazemore and Wayne Ellington to fill around its star trio.
There’s more from the Pacific Division today:
- Speaking of the Lakers, Jovan Buha of The Athletic examined a number of topics related to the team in his latest mailbag, including Davis, Talen Horton-Tucker and more. Buha also examined which new addition (outside of Westbrook) could have the biggest impact on the club this season.
- New Magic guard E’Twaun Moore had hoped to re-sign with the Suns after reaching the NBA Finals last season, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic writes. Moore also believes Phoenix would’ve had a better chance at winning the Finals if he played. “Just being another playmaker,” he said. “Somebody else that can make shots. Somebody else that can handle. Man, I felt like we would’ve gave Milwaukee some problems if I would’ve played. I felt like I could’ve helped us win for sure in the Finals. So, I definitely do wish I played more towards the end of the season and into the playoffs. I ain’t going to lie. I was itching for it.”
- Clippers owner Steve Ballmer recently brought up an interesting point about his team sharing Staples Center with the Lakers, as relayed by Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times. “I attended a whole lot of 12:30 p.m. games with sleep-deprived players rubbing bleary eyes in timeouts,” Ballmer said. “Don’t like those 12:30 p.m. games on Saturdays and believe me, in our own building we don’t have to play as many.” Team consultant Jerry West echoed the same sentiment. “The Clippers have been in a great building in Staples but when you are the third tenant in the building, I mean, my goodness, we have the worst schedule every year.” The Clippers held a groundbreaking party on Friday to celebrate the team’s new Intuit Dome arena, which will open in 2024.
AD doesn’t want to bang against Centers all regular season In the post season he will play the 5 more.
Yeah but you need to figure things out in regular season so when pressure sets in for playoffs your comfortable with match ups and sets
True or false?
Lakers are the most talented and experienced in the nba history
False
Are you high?
Lakers biggest strength is
Talent and Experience
Rondo, Ariza, Howard, Melo, ……
Current Lakers players have more rings than Warriors?
Warriors have only 14 rings.
Not even the most talented Lakers team of all time, let alone the NBA.
Google the 72 Lakers and you’ll see a much better “team”
96 Bulls would be my pick for talent and experience.
Lakers’ perimeter D became weaker with the exit of caruso & KCP.
I think this will go about as well as any Russel Westbrook team
Clippers should have their own arena but that day game comment is such nonsense. They don’t play day games back to back after night. If players are tired, that’s on them for not going to bed early.
I don’t care whether AD plays 4 or 5 as long as he gets the credit of the position he mostly plays. What bothers me, mostly from journalists, is when AD plays the majority of the time at 4 and they want to put him on awards ballots or Allstar ballots as a center. I think that is unfair to people like Embiid, Jokic, Gobert, etc who have to deal with the tough physical play of the position.
ETwaun, love ya but you are not a difference maker, at any time against any team.
3rd tenant?
I think the homeless people around Staples hold more stake in Staples than the Clippers
2024 can’t come soon enough
Agreed. Finally the perpetual smell of disappointment won’t linger in the arena and can stink up another one.
Amen!
Fool
says the fakers who got bounced by the suns. Clippers are LA’s best team right now
Clippers are by far the most disappointing team ever. They won’t win again this year and then people will still act like they deserve to be talked about. Total loser franchise
Lol. Who did the Clippers get bounced by?Since 1949, lakers have won a championship in every decade except the 60’s and the 90’s.
We will always be the better team. You should have stayed in San Diego.
I guess being 5’8 makes me envious, but I would love to beat the s**t out of ppl in the post bc that’s the only spot you can get away with being physical. I get it to some degree bc of his injury history, but the 5 is definitely the most physical position.
Many more of the top bigs ever were 5s not 4s.
Often hard to tell though.
Mr. Ballmer great franchises wins championships.17 to be exact.
AD at center and Bron at the 4. Is actually a good lineup. It’s probably best for Bron at his age. Defensively he doesn’t need to be chasing 3s. I know AD doesn’t like the physical part of gm. But he can avoid most of that till playoffs. I’d say the best way to get to him. Is to get physical. Lakers are a smart vet team. They only want to be healthy for playoffs. Personally I don’t think they have enough. But they will be fun to watch. Always liked Westbrook. I expect him to be the man on this team. He still got plenty of game.
No disrespect E’Twaun, but get that ish out of here. We let you play in the playoffs when we needed you, and you didn’t do anything.
Intuit Dome??that sounds terrible. That’s such a Clippers thing to do