[tiberiusParticipant]

The number 1 draft pick has been putting up terrible numbers this past week for a number 1 draft pick. Heck even his overall season isn’t very statistically impressive. He had 1 point today, and 2 points the previous match, and 8 in both of the matches before that, all the while tallying 4 assists in 4 games and putting up worse rebounding numbers than most starting bigs. Why?

[Chilbert arenasParticipant]

19pts in the last 4 games

[halfdecayedParticipant]

Well keep in mind AD suprised all of us when he came into the league with his offensive skills, most didn’t think he was going to score that much in his first year, but every1 knew he would come out a ready for the league on the defensive side of the ball, he did get 8 rebounds and 4 blocks on that game .

[SgtMcSquigglesParticipant]

While he has struggled in his last few games that is simply because he is in a slump. Every player in the league eventually hits a cold streak. So far he has 2.7 blocks per 40 minutes while Dwight only had 2 his rookie year, while he has rebounded slightly worse than Dwight did his rookie year he has been just as good as Howard was offensively. Just because he has struggled this week, and hasn’t been averaging 35 minutes per game does not mean he has performed poorly.

[FastAndFuriousParticipant]

Maybe he hit the “rookie wall”…..wouldn’t put much thought into this.

[Lebron’s HairlineParticipant]

Just a rookie slump, Beal went through one while Davis was tearing it up, now Bradley got over his and is scoring well, this rough patch will pass

[Ghost01Participant]

But this is the guy who was so good he could carry Charlotte to 45 wins, right? This was the “no doubt” number 1 pick, right? A slam dunk, a savior of professional basketball….

And yet he’s doing exactly what I expected instead. I’m not saying he’s a bum, he’s far from it. He has scored the ball well at times but its clear his post up game is nothing to brag about, and he has a mediocre mid range jump shot and that’s really it. This is a pretty horrific stretch for a number 1 overall pick, I know he’s not this bad, but its hard to ignore. My big problem with Davis is the argument that was brought up when his offensive deficiencies were prior to the draft, all the defenders of him argued he would be a once in a lifetime defensive player, and I just don’t see it. He isn’t nearly big enough to play center, and he’s performed pretty average. 5 BPG in college are great, when you are playing with 3 other 1st rounders and have no offensive responsibilities and defensively you just sit back and guard the rim against 6’8 guys. When its suddenly 1.9 BPG and you aren’t living up to your billing as a franchise savior, its a totally different story.

[ilike.panochasParticipant]

He’s probably getting adjusted to NBA’s physical play. It’s not easy to bang every game at 220lbs when the opposing PF/C are over +245lbs. Everyone knew weight and strength are Davis’ weakness and this is proof of why he needs to get stronger and bigger next offseason.

[r377Participant]

I thought he would be a 5+ all-star and potential HOF. I still believe he will reach those two lofty goals i had of him.

If he had stayed in college he would only be a sophmore. He has also had some injury probs and missed some games.

I know it sucks at the moment (i have him in my fantasy team) but he will come good.

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

He’s 19 years old and only 220lbs…

If you thought he’d average 20-10 in his first season, you’ve got to be kidding yourself.

I’ve always said he’d be a defensive Chris Bosh-type player and he’s putting up similar numbers that Bosh put up in his rookie year (11-7). Give this KID a break.

Like Bosh, he probably won’t average 20-10 until his 3rd or 4th year in the league.

[Sewok15Participant]

Rivers hasn’t hit in double figures in like 6 weeks…if you are going to talk about a disappointing rookie in New Orleans it isn’t Davis.

[sheltwon3Participant]

if he plays like this next year than maybe some concern is in order but rookie season come one. There are too many players to name that had poor rookie seasons but went on to be great players. I am sure he is just in a slump offensive wise. Also there has been a lot of changes with Gordon coming back.

Monty Williams is trying to give minutes to Robin Lopez who has been playing well, Ryan Anderson who carried them when Davis was hurt and even sometimes when he was healthy playing. NOH have to figure out what line up they will go with and how they will use Davis. Also Davis needs to get stronger and will. I remember Durant getting handled his first year because he was skinny and did not have the strength to drive on bigger or stronger players. He is still skinny but has gotten stronger over the years.

[Lebron’s HairlineParticipant]

If you look at his rookie year and then KG’s you can see they are putting up similar numbers; expect his overall numbers to make a big leap like Garnett’s did in his second year as he puts on more weight and adjusts more to the NBA.

[Scotty5000Participant]

dude dosetn get shots, thats the problem.

[A Lil EnglishParticipant]

I didn’t see the game but the box score says he had 7 shots in less than 20 minutes last night and didn’t make 1 of them.

[A Lil EnglishParticipant]

I get negs but no comments as to why. The boxscore from last night is there for all to see.

[eci_eliteParticipant]

Problem is you draft Davis then trade for Anderson and they both play the same position and Anderson is a better player right now.

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

He has been taking more jumpers in the past few games and, as he has done this year, has been missing them. Here is the problem, if Davis is on the floor with Robin Lopez and Al-Farouq Aminu, then someone has to be out on the perimeter. Aminu cannot shoot. Lopez isn’t a threat out there. He will take those shots opponents want him to take (and he has been making them this year), but it isn’t his game. It isn’t Davis’ game either, it is Ryan Anderson’s game, but he is spending a good deal of the time outside of the paint missing shots because there is only so much a team can do with three frontcourt players who cannot shoot.

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

I think Anthony Davis has been running into the rookie wall. IF you look at his numbers, you will see that they’ve gone down each month.

Throw in the fact that Ryan Anderson and Brook Lopez have just played better lately. Monty Williams usually goes with Anderson and/or Lopez or Jason Smith in crunch time.

I’m not worried about Davis though. He needs to add bulk and get stronger, but I see him developing into some sort of Chris Bosh/Serge Ibaka type of player.

[Ghost01Participant]

I don’t disagree with anything everyone has been saying on this board. And Indiana, I sware I just was telling my friend the other day I see him as a Bosh on offense, Ibaka on defense type player.

But he isn’t going to be a transcendent franchise guy who could carry Charlotte to 45 wins as a rookie. That’s all I said.

[Scotty5000Participant]

But he isn’t going to be a transcendent franchise guy who could carry Charlotte to 45 wins as a rookie. That’s all I said.

Your expectations are ridiculous. To expect a 23 game turnaround? LBJ only made an 18 game differnece.Jordan 11, first year with Durant the team actually went in the hole 11 games. Not too many guys are going to be able to make the big of an impact.

[Ghost01Participant]

I wonder if this draft was redone today how it would change…does he still go No.1?

[r377Participant]

21-11-3 with 2blks in today’s game. I still believe he is the number 1 player from this draft…..

<img src= "http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2012/writers/sam_amick/05/01/nba.draft/anthony-davis-uk.jpg&quot;

[GoJOSH HUESTISParticipant]

No one (who knows basketball) ever said he’s was going to light the world on fire in year one. Just like most bigs he will need time to adjust. He was picked some on immediate impact but mostly of what he would be doing in the future

[dahoodrecruiterParticipant]

You must be blind if you don’t see clearly DAMON LILARD as so far proven He should of been the #1 pick
I never bought into the hype of Davis Being this Bill Russell type center that was gonna change the game
Even on when he was in college ,Kidd Gilcrest was was kentuckys Real defensive stopper who guarded Multiple
positions …Davis Is a player who was a guard his freshman and sophomore years in high-school had no offers @ 6″2 ,shot up to 6″11 his junior and sr years AND HIGH MAJORS CAME CALLING ….Marcus Camby kinda player is his Ceiling Imo…and that ain’t a # pick

[donatoParticipant]

If the Hornets offered Davis for Lilard, Portland would jump on it in a heartbeat. If the Hornets offered Davis for Lilard and two first round draft picks, Portland would also jump all over it. The Hornets would never do that- it’s not happening and for good reason. You’re a homer.

[SubZeroParticipant]

^ He was way too many offensive skills for his ceiling to be Marcus Camby. I’d go so far to say Marcus Camby is closer to his floor than his ceiling

[CynthiaParticipant]

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has been in quite a slump lately as well. Most the season he’s consistently had decent stats across the board, but lately his entire statline is down, as are his minutes steadily going down.

I hate to say it but I’m becoming unimpressed with this draft class, outside of Lillard obviously. Drummond was slowly getting better but is now injured, Bradley Beal is trying to get up there but still nothing stellar. Anthony Davis has been a disappointment in my opinion(so far). Barnes & Singler and even Shved seem to be pretty consistent but still nothing special.

I know it takes time to develop, especially for bigs, but I don’t know, just not feeling this class much so far. It’s not that it’s a bad class, I guess I was just expecting a lot more.

[omphalosParticipant]

If you look at some historically great draft classes, most of them took a few years for the true value to become apparent; look at the 1996 class, Kobe wasn’t an instant superstar, Nash got bounced around before he became amazing, Jermaine O’Neal rode the bench initially, Ray Allen’s numbers weren’t great his rookie year.

The 2008 class is again considered very talented, but Love took a few years to emerge from Al Jefferson’s shadow, Westbrook was a slow developer, Mayo is only just coming into his own and Gordon is still finding his feet.

These are rookies; the reason people were raving about this class was because of the potential down the line, not the immediate impact. Drummond is going to be a stud, but he’s being brought along slowly, Barnes has shown flashes of brilliance but is deferring to his team-mates too much, Lillard has surpassed expectations, Terrence Ross is turning heads in Toronto as a future star, Beal was coming on strong with Wall back until injuries hit and Davis too is battling nagging injuries.

The greatness of this draft class is still there, but like always it’ll just take some time for it to bloom.

[Scotty5000Participant]

As watered down as college basketball is, we should all temper our expectations for rookies.

[HitsterParticipant]

One thing that I don’t think was mentioned os that NOH won 3 of the 4 games where Davis only scored 19 combined points. To start making judgements on Davis after only 40 games of his NBA career is highly amusing. He has missed 13 games aprox through injury so that could have helped contribute to his inconsistency.

Davis is averaging 12.5ppg,7.5rpg and 1.9bpg and I would figure that might have been a decent ballpark prediction at this stage of his career. I fully agree that once he starts to bulk out more it will increase his effectiveness and also his mid-range game needs be be developed to give NOH a shooting big when Anderson isn’t on court.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

Davis per 36 numbers are very good for anyone and fantastic for a 19 year old. Comparing him to Dwight, which Sgtmcsguiggles does above, is the right way to look at things. You could also compare him to Lebron’s rookie year numbers and Davis also beats those numbers.

Davis would still go number one, and Portland would consider trading their entire team and starting over for him because a dominate big man (top 5 in the league, which still basically seems the direction Davis is going) is much more important than a good PG. I’m kind of kidding about that, but no Lillard would not go number one if the draft were held over. I suspect Davis would go one, Drummond would go two (his per 36 minute stats also blows everyone out of the water), and Lillard would go three, which isn’t that big a jump.

The only thing I can think is that NOH needs to go into tank mode early and Davis knows this and is going to give some lackluster efforts. The other very likely possibility is that this is just a slump. Let’s see how he does in the Rising Stars Game, I suspect he is going to dunk all over a lot of folks.

The problem with NOH is that Gordon has been mediocre and Austin Rivers has been arguably the worst player in the NBA. They need much more talent and winning games isn’t gong to get them it.

[dahoodrecruiterParticipant]

WOW …… Portland would trade Lillard FOR DAVIS RIGHTNOW ? stop the madness DAVIS HASN’T DONE NOTHING AVG 12 PPG WHEN YOU MISSED A BUNCH OF GAMES MEANS NOTHING ….. HE WILL NEVER AVG 20 AND 10 IN NBA for 82 games …. ANDRE DRUMMOND WILL BE A BETTER NBA CENTER THAT’S. FOR Sure and he dam sure AIN’T BETTER TALENT THEN LILARD ….

I’m a nets/Pacer fan I HAVE NO REASON TO BE A HOMER FOR LILARD ,,,,,stop it 5

[Sewok15Participant]

Look at Tyson Chandler he went from a bust to defensive player of the year…Chandler has no offensive game outside of putbacks and lobs and is still an all-star. Davis still has a very bright future and there is nobody in the 2012 draft I would take over him.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

You obviously don’t get how big men develop. You do not evaluate 7-footers based only on their stats at 19. And you certainly don’t evaluate a guy who is getting limited minutes on his “Per Game” stats. Taller guys often take longer to fill out and develop. And their game is much more dependent on muscle that for many folks (even professional basketball players) takes year of lifting to achieve. Look, I don’t know if Portland would trade Lillard for Davis, because their front office might be a bunch of idiots. These are the same guys who passed on Durant so they could take the already injured Oden. But if Lillard were on the Spurs, I can guarantee you that the Spurs would trade him in a heartbeat for Davis.

On a per minute basis, Lillard is currently BELOW average (compared to the average PG in the league, not just the starters) in assists, steals, rebounds, and turnovers. While being only slightly above average in points scored. His TS% is just average for a PG. Now is it very impressive for a rookie to come in and shoot league average at PG? Yes, that is impressive. And Portland is asking him to take a huge amount of shots and lead the team. it is all awesome and very good to be doing that as a rookies. He should get better. Maybe next year he becomes a good starting point guard. Right now nearly half the teams in the league are probably starting someone better than him. Not better than his potential, but yes actually currently better.

It is like the announcers I heard who thought Shaqs team was going to win the Rising Stars Challenge. Oh my god they have Lillard? How will we stop him!?! And that game was never in doubt. Chuck’s team just dunked all over them.

[Ghost01Participant]

I would take Drummond over him. He is younger than Davis, and seems to have even more upside. I think Davis’ potential is as a Bosh offensive/Ibaka defensive type player. That’s an all star for sure, but not a superstar, and I think that’s really his ceiling.

I’m not disagreeing with what most are posting in here about Davis. But people were saying this guy was going to be so good he could “Carry Charlotte to 45 wins” from day 1. People were ALL IN on Davis. I mean ALL IN. I get what all of you are saying he still has potential to be good, just not legendary or revolutionary like some actually did think.

And Lillard guy- Right now Lillard is an above average point guard on probably a lottery team. Before you overrate his ceiling, keep in mind:
Kyrie Irving is 2 years younger than him.
John Wall is 2 months younger than him.
Jrue Holiday is a month older than him.
And Derrick Rose won an MVP when he was his age.

So yeah, he isn’t exactly the PG of the future.

[JonOatsParticipant]

but the Hornets are basically the same team with Davis that they were without him. Their wining percentage is roughly the same as last year and they added Ryan Anderson and a healthy Eric Gordon (just 18 games, but they are .500 with him playing.) He still has a long time to improve (baring injury), but the hype of a perennial all-star and once in a generation type player. He could still have a career like Pau Gasol’s, 2nd best player on championship teams, but he’s not taking over the league…ever.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

As you point out they’ve got 18 games of Eric Gordon. And he has basically been no better than an average SG. Also, for the first 20 to 30 games they were giving Austin Rivers serious run and he was terrible (like worst player in the league terrible). Like the Knicks at the beginning of last season when they were playing Tony Douglas and he was shooting 25%, sometimes you have a guy on your team that is so bad nobody can do anything about it no matter how good the rest of the team is. (The Hornets being .500 when Gordon plays is more because they are sitting Rivers than anything particularly special Gordon is doing.) The other problem is that their two best players this season (Davis and Anderson) play the same position, PF.

Pau Gasol is going to the Hall of Fame, so if you are saying that is Davis’s ceiling I guess you aren’t really limiting him too much.

[Scotty5000Participant]

Name all the bigs that have taken over the leauge? Ill start

Shaq:

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

Hakkeem
Duncan
Kareem
Wilt
Russel
Moses
Mikken

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