Anthony Davis should play at the four or five continues to be brought up and this time by their own head coach according to Dravin ham starting A. D at the five is quoted unquote under heavy consideration and it’s something they’ve already been trying as well during their game on Sunday against golden state that is what they did they began the game with Anthony Davis at the five and played in there for a majority of his minutes.
I think we can all agree that he played well there too dropping a team-high 28 points in only 21 minutes and have a much more room on offense compared to usual and that definitely contributed to why Dravin ham made those comments we all know that Anthony Davis is a more natural fit at the five and particularly on offense although there is an argument against playing him there too.
We’ll review both sides of that argument and try to come to a conclusion on what they should do here, we’ll Begin by looking at the advantages of moving him to the five with the number one advantage undoubtedly being floor spacing it can tend to be difficult to space the floor with 80 at the four and especially when he shares the core with LeBron and Russ neither of them are comfortable playing into a catch and shoot role and all three of them would prefer the ball in their hands and that low makes it very difficult to create an effective offense around them they quickly found that out last season too with both DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard being unable to space the floor it’ll loud opposing teams to collapse on them and then with Anthony Davis having the worst three-point shooting year of his career that only made it harder on them which is definitely something they’re hoping will change although even if it does improve I’m not sure what enough to compensate for them having a non-three-point shooting center along with LeBron and Westbrook on the court with him as well.
That is where moving him to the five benefits them rather than relying on Anthony Davis to shoot average to above average from three they would be able to include a three-point shooter that they can actually rely on and whether he wants to admit it Anthony Davis prefers that on offense it provides him with a ton of room on the court to operate and much more compared to having a traditional big at the five it’s not only three point shooting either their ball movement.
Overall offensive flow is typically better with 80 at the 5-2 because when they move him there they can include more players in their starting lineup or cape capable of putting the ball on the floor bringing the ball up the court and all of which are actual threats to shoot the ball and having that around them allows LeBron Anthony Davis and Westbrook much more freedom when running an isolation player as they know the defense cannot afford to collapse on them and the better ball movement and offensive fluidity you have the more efficient your offense will become which would appear to be more likely to happen with 80 at the 5. I would argue that they’d benefit on defense too or at least in a couple of areas anyways with one of those being Wing defense.
If they do indeed go the starting lineup of Westbrook Kendrick Nunn LeBron Anthony Davis and then either Thomas Bryant or Damian Jones that would put a lot of pressure on LeBron to play defense and not only play defense but routinely defend the best Wing player on the court as they cannot expect naan or Westbrook to do that for one they are simply not big enough to defend a guy like Kawhi Leonard Paul George or Luka Doncic as they would get eaten alive in that match up and although LeBron can defend them here and there that’s not something.
I want him doing very often doing that would require a lot of energy and like they put too heavy of a burden on him and that is where moving A. D to the five could help them it would allow them to include another Wing player in their lineup and one who could alleviate that defensive burden off LeBron the obvious candidate for that would be Joan Toscano Anderson, but they could even go with Troy Brown Jr when he gets healthy too as both of them are much better fits for that role on defense compared to LeBron not only that though.
But adding a wing player like one of them would make them faster too and that is something that would be of huge benefit to their DM we all know how much LeBron and Westbrook absolutely love running the floor it’s one of the things that they’ve been known for throughout their careers and something they continue to be great at doing however they their ability to do that is limited in a bigger and often slower starting lineup even with Thomas Bryant and Damian Jones being fairly athletic they cannot compare to JTA or Troy Brown Jr now it’s definitely a bit of a trade-off but Moving 80 to the 5 can benefit their defense too and specifically in an area that we know they want to be good in how about keeping ad at the fore though do the pros outweigh the cons and is it worth keeping in there purely.
Because he prefers it that is without a doubt the main thing keeping him there and oftentimes the thing that limits his ability to reach his full potential whether he likes it or not Anthony Davis is built to play out Center in today’s NBA and moving him to the five does not make him more injury prone either that is a claim that has little to no proof behind it and one that can actually be flipped in the opposite direction throughout his time as a Laker Anthony Davis has played at both the four and five with the 2020 21 NBA seasons being the most time he spent at the four.
Then the 2021-22 season being the most time he spent at the five and if you take a look at how many games he played each year he was not protected from injury either way he dealt with Achilles ankle and shoulder injuries while playing out the four and then ankle and knee injuries while playing out the five and the injuries he dealt with last season were completely out of his control which again makes any argument claiming that he is protected from injury at powerful word completely false with that being said though there are benefits to keeping him there and the two biggest ones would have to be rebounding and rim protection whenever they move Anthony Davis the five and then LeBron to the four their rebounding takes a big hit LeBron and Westbrook are horrible at boxing out and oftentimes do not help Anthony Davis grab defensive rebounds.
If anything that is where ad deals with the most physicality not while playing defense events but actually while fighting for rebounds as he is pretty much the only guy routinely fighting for them when playing at the five and in my opinion that is their biggest problem with moving in there rebounding and defensive rebounding in particular is not an overlooked aspect of building a good team and whenever they move 80 to the five they immediately take a big hit in that department now they do have the ability to be better, but we have yet to see them correct that issue it would take more commitment from LeBron in particular to help with rebounding which is definitely something he can do but it’s something you need to put its mind to now they would take a hit in Rim protection as well but not as big of one compared to rebounding.
I prefer keeping Anthony Davis more of a free roaming role on defense, but he is certainly capable of becoming a legitimate rim protector for them too and if they are able to play better point of attack defense which they should be able to do with another Wing defender on the court that should lead to them not requiring as much rain protection the final con worth mentioning with moving him to the five is having only one lob threat which although is not a huge deal it does help at times have more than one mob thread to wrap everything up here though moving Anthony Davis to the five would appear to be the better all-around option.
Especially if they plan to keep Westbrook in their starting lineup although I do think it should be based on their match up on the occasional night they match up with a guy like Joel embiid then that is when they insert Damian Jones at the vibe and then move Anthony Davis back to the fore other than that though I don’t see a big issue with moving Anthony Davis the five in their starting lineup it’s not like you’ll play there throughout the entire game.