E-Balla wrote:GONYK wrote:NYKnicksTAPE wrote:Davis had a better season than Curry last year. You're also selling the offensive capabilities of the other Warriors players a little short. Most big men are dependent on their teammates creating looks for them so how is that a knock on Davis? He also dominated the Warriors in his 1st ever playoff series. Davis>Curry last season and should be again this season.
He's also wildly underselling AD's offensive ability. He more than capable of creating his own scoring opportunities with the faceup jumper, as well as off the dribble. You don't score 24.4 ppg (slightly more than Curry) being totally dependent on your teammates.
The only thing that he's really missing is a back to the basket game, which will develop more as he gets stronger. His strength is really his only defensive weakness as well.
Davis averaged 24.4 PPG but 72% of his points came off assists. In possessions where Davis holds the ball more than 2 seconds (meaning it's not a catch and shoot) he's devastatingly average. Also you say he can create off the dribble but he's 40% from the field when he takes 2 or more dribbles with the ball (aka not good). He's missing a faceup game along with that back to basket game. And plenty of guys have scored 20+ ppg while being dependent on teammates. Davis just happens to be the best PNR finisher in the league by a distance (he's about 8% better than the next high volume PNR finisher efficiency wise).
And the other Warriors players are all decent to above average offensively but outside of Klay and Steph they're not #2 offense good.
Also Davis has a ton of defensive weaknesses right now. He's weak, not good on the boards, doesn't get back to the rim fast enough to contest a lot of shots, and he's easily taken out of the game on that end. There's a reason his teams have always played close to the worst defense in the NBA. He's not bad but he's not really great yet on that end.
Davis' numbers are amazing and he has the raw talent to be the GOAT but he still has a long way to go. Right now Westbrook, Durant, Curry, Lebron, Harden, and CP3 clearly impact the game more than him and Love would also be better if on a team built around him. I do think Davis will take a step forward defensively this year and by the end of the season be better than everyone outside of Lebron, Curry, KD, and WB.
In post up situations he ranks slightly above average in the back to the basket game.
His rebounding is underrated. Its more of a he doesent go for the rebounds than he tries to get the rebounds. He ranks 7th in contested rebounds per game, and 7th in terms of rebound chances taken (like boxout wins, rebound gets, etc) fro all players with 9 or more Rebounds per game. he ranks 0.2% worse than cousins.
He just isnt the primary rebounder on the team, and tends to go on the break.
His defense is pretty solid, its just that his weaknesses coincide with the teams weaknesses on defense (his P and R defense is attrocious, and he is working with the best P and R defensive coach in the league imo).
He is weak, but he gained 12 pounds while maintaining 10% body fat. I'd say he is stronger than the average pf by a longshot now. They were league average post all star break, and I recall they were actually quite good with him on the floor on defense.
Im not sure why people are offended by his assisted basket ratings, its still a basket.
In terms of him "creating shots for himeself" I guess we can look at that as an ISO. I recall that some people think he was league average for a big man isolation player because of an article or something, but they accidently put Tyrekes stats instead of Davis's.
in isolation situations he either gets past his man really quickly or doesent do so at all, its enough to count it as an assist.
Davis, in 177 isolations (which is a fairly large amount for a big man, Cousins had 246) He was in the 78th percentile in terms of his ability to score off isolations. A little bit better than lebron, who was at 75th percentile
His assist rate is a result of how quickly he attacks. watching footage, it really seems like even when he isos, he literally starts his attack right after he gets teh ball, as in, there is literally absolutely no delay, meaning an assist would have counted. unfair, but its true. Also,
Not saying he was better than lebron at isos, but he definately was effective.
Davis scored 0.1 more ppp than Cousins, 0.01 more ppp than steph (who had less possessions), 0.07 more ppp than Aldridge(who had less possessions), 0.35 better than Duncan, 0.01 more than Kawhi, etc. (all other than cousins had less possessions)
Now, in an iso situation, ill probably take cousins over Davis, depending on teh defender, especially on stronger ones, but you get the gist. He definately wasnt someone who coulnt be a go-to guy.
He wasnt trancendant, and was worse than Griffin and Marc.
If its about going to him in the clutch
in terms of going to him at the end of the game, he shot 60 fga with the clock at 5 minutes or less, with the score being in the 5 area, which is generally seen as clutch time.
He shot 61.7%. and 60fg is a sizable amount, and most people actually get mad at tyreke because he actually does try to "take the glory" away from davis.
only 10 of these were dunks. 1 was a tip shot 67% assisted
he was 26 of 49 on jump shots, hooks, and layups.
Bring this down to 1 minute, and he was 11 of 16. 45% assisted'
Bring this down to trailing by 3 or fewer and he made 3 of 3, 1 assisted, in the last minute.
in the last 5 minutes, he made 9 of 14, 55% assisted.
he is 9/12 when tied, 55% assisted, last 5 minutes
4/5 when tied in the last minute, 20% assisted.
He is bad when he only takes 1 or 2 dribbles, but he is a 56% shooter when he takes 3-6 dribbles, though he doesent do this much tbh.
42.5% after waiting for 2 or more seconds isnt neccesarily bad, 43-46% is a range where most star players seem to be at (cousins is 43.5% for comparison)
he shoots 43% when taking 6 or more seconds, which is just slightly worse than the average guard it seems (wade shot 43.8%)
and for players at his height, its definately above average (lebron shot 47%, Griffin shot 34%, Kawhi shot 32%,Thompson shot 39%, and tbh they only attempted 0.5 ish more each).
As a passer, in the last 21 games of the season, he averaged 5.2 assist per 100 possessions while DECREASING his turnovers per 100 to 1.9.
This is slightly below Garnetts career average, and Duncan has broken this number 5 times in his whole career.
Also, considering this is for next year, here is what we know about Davis
- he improved defensively, already before going to training camp, and does 20-30 minute drills every practice session (and he has practiced daily pretty much)
- He will be used in Transition, where he ranked in the 98th+ percentile
- He has "definately been working on passing, reading defenses better"
- Kevin Hanson, his personal trainer (imo, without Hanson Davis is probably a Camby type player, just less defensively skilled) said that his back to the basket game will probably be his most noticable improvement.
- He wants to learn how to shoot the 3, and it looks like has a fluid stroke.
- Learning how to pass out of double teams better (where the bulk of his turnovers came from)
- Gonna be a focal point of the offense
- is faster, quicker, stronger, and mor explosive than ever
Edit:
Wait a second, this isnt the general board
screw you google