When the Los Angeles Lakers acquired forward Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans last month, fans of the Lakers were ecstatic about the pairing of Davis and LeBron James in the same lineup.
A new report indicates that Davis is also looking forward to teaming with the veteran.
Anthony Davis on getting play with LeBron James (who is standing off to the side watching): "To get a full season and see the things he's able to do: pass, shoot, talks defensively, be a great leader. I'm excited for that." #AD3 #Lakers
— Matthew Moreno (@Matthew__Moreno) July 13, 2019
James’ first season with the Lakers didn’t go according to plan, primarily due to injuries that limited him to just 55 games. However, he also was without a teammate of Davis’ stature, with a midseason effort to acquire the Lakers’ new addition coming up short.
Now that Davis will be wearing a Lakers uniform, he’ll get to see on a nightly basis what James has done during the first 16 years of his legendary career. Over that period of time, James has averaged 27.2 points, 7.4 points and 7.2 assists and has also delivered on defense with an average of 1.6 steals per game.
From a leadership perspective, James has also taken nine teams to the NBA Finals, including eight years in a row from 2011 to 2018. On the three occasions that his team won the league title, he was named MVP of the Finals each time.
In the first seven seasons of Davis’ career, he’s also put up standout numbers that have him on the path to the Basketball Hall of Fame. He’s averaged a double-double with 23.7 points and 10.5 rebounds per contest. While his assists average stands at just 2.1 per game (boosted by a 3.9 average this past season), his defensive prowess is evident from averages of 2.4 blocks and 1.4 steals per contest.
Establishing some chemistry with James will take some time, but given the respective skill level of each player, that doesn’t figure to take too long. Laker fans are no doubt counting down the days when that chemistry class begins.
