Anthony Davis wants his Pelicans to act as 'blue-collar guys,' but that won't be enough
Remember that night, all the way back in the too-safe October of yore, that saw Anthony Davis providing out of this world, record-breaking numbers on his way to New Orleans’ first loss of its season? How his ungodly 50-point, 16-rebound, seven-steal, five-assist, four-block night seemed like too pat and perfect a harbinger of sadness to come? Too easy a read on the New Orleans Pelicans season ahead?
[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball contest now | Free NBA Yahoo Cup entry]
Well, the sadness still comes in waves. Davis is working with still-ungodly marks of over 31 points and 11 rebounds a night, and his Pelicans are stuck having won a third of their games. As seems to be the case in each of Davis’ Novembers, we’re already spying the standings to see just how many games his Pelicans would have to win between now and April to fight for a playoff berth.
Those sorts of stat-houndings rarely take place in December. Let alone the spring months. Davis’ Pelicans, as is their custom since his 2012 NBA emergence, have not been a factor save for one four-game cameo in 2015. They don’t figure to be in the race again during 2016-17. If the Pelicans manage to knock off the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, they’ll have to go 34-29 on the way out just to hit 500. And this is not a 34-29 team.
Davis, working in his fifth season with the club, can’t help but notice that his early legacy is teetering on the proverbial line. In a discussion with ESPN’s Marc Stein, via Deadspin, he let out one long exasperated sigh as he deconstructs what has gone wrong thus far:
“Some teams have whoever on their team where they’re able to do whatever they want on the floor. For us, we have to be blue-collar guys who are coming in, work, being scrappy, first to the floor, rebounding the ball, sharing the ball. That’s how we have to be. That’s how we’ve been the past couple weeks, and that’s how we’ve been able to get wins.”
On the year, Davis is averaging 31.6 points on 51.9 percent shooting with 11 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.8 steals, 2.8 blocks and just 2.4 turnovers alongside a pair of fouls in 37 minutes a night. His Pelicans are 6-12, but these are some borderline unconscionable personal stats. You don’t have to be an ardent NOLA follower to wonder if he, above all others, is having the best season in the NBA.
Four other Pelicans do double-figure scoring damage, but those contributors are Tim Frazier, offseason signee E’Twaun Moore, forward Terrence Jones and the returning Jrue Holiday. These are all solid players who would perform well enough on either a championship contender or what New Orleans hoped to be entering 2016-17 – a squad that could battle for a place in the suddenly wide-open lower half of the Western playoff bracket.
The team lost 10 of 12 to start the season, though, mostly without Holiday as he attended to his recovering wife. Tyreke Evans has yet to play this season, and in spite of Davis’ assertion that “this is a playoff team” with Evans healthy (even given the caveat of the slow start), this roster is a bit of a hellscape.
This was in full view on Sunday evening in Texas, as the Pelicans scored just 81 points in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks. While the Mavs aren’t your typical bottom-feeder (they boasted the worst record in the league before that contest, and entering Tuesday night), 81 points in spite of Davis’ 36 and 13 just can’t cut it. The Pelicans watched as a whole slew of good, makeable looks spun out, but, like, you can’t lose to the Mavs.
And you can’t field a team like this – one that counts rookie Buddy Hield (35 percent so far as a pro) as perhaps the most crucial of its offseason hires – around a star of Davis’ caliber. Not after this long.
This version of the Pelicans reminds of Danny Ferry-led version of the Cleveland Cavaliers that LeBron James was left to slog with for his first seven seasons. As is the case with Davis, who just entered the first year of his maxed-out second contract, the Cavs had the benefit of working with James’ initial, relatively cheap rookie deal as they attempted to construct a winner around a player whose contributions belied his age, but could only point to a tough second-round showing (with James’ Cavs up 3-2 at one point) against the Detroit Pistons during that span.
New Orleans’ rookie-scale term ended last season, with just that first-round sweep against the Golden State Warriors in 2015 to show for it. Davis, signed through 2020 at least (he holds a player option for 2020-21), has little option but to wait out general manager Dell Demps’ time with the club, while hoping that his 23-year-old frame can not only handle the pounding, but the pledge he’s been saddled with as a do-everything player stuck on a team watching Omer Asik start most games, while wondering what life would have been had Evans, Quincy Pondexter, and Lance Stephenson stayed healthy.
(Bad! Basketball life would have been bad!)
The fear for Davis is real, as Stein briefly touched upon in his talk with the big forward, as NBA Twitter holds its collective breath any time he bounds into the lane in a career that has already seen him miss a not-so-nice 69 career games in four-plus seasons. Davis isn’t being traded any time soon; the last star packaged in an attempt at an equal-talent deal was Kevin Love’s move for two reigning No. 1 overall draft picks, and while we adore Kevin Love, he’s no Anthony Davis.
As such, Davis will have to wait for hope on the horizon — hope, with New Orleans’ payroll already over $100 in spite of letting Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon walk over the offseason, that will likely come in the form of someone stuck in a suit and tie, before it shows up in shorts and sneakers.
The Pelicans have already done “scrappy,” and it ain’t working. Sadly, Davis will likely just be left with the prospect of sighing his way into yet another underwhelming New Orleans offseason, after a regular season spent putting up stats that would leave David Robinson scratching his head.
– – – – – – –
Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
