How Anthony Davis has looked t...

When Anthony Davis helped carry the Lakers to the 2020 NBA title, he did so by unleashing a career-best brand of all-court dominance: as an inside finisher, a possession-destroying defender... as well as a devastating leap shooter.

In addition to shooting 80% from the field and going to the free-throw line 8.5 times a game during the 2020 playoffs, Davis shot 49.6% from midrange and 38.3% from 3-point range, tearing up defences as L.A. tore through the Western Conference before defeating the Heat in six games Seven seasons after being drafted first overall out of Kentucky, Davis had achieved the rarified air that many had predicted for him; one year away from the Lakers' daring-the-torpedoes, all-in trade to get him out of New Orleans, he looked like a steal at double the price. Davis in that form — a three-level offensive force and Defensive Player of the Year finalist — might carry the team through LeBron James' eventual decline and keep the Lakers competitive for years to come.

Perhaps Davis took advantage of the clearer empty-gym sightlines provided by the bubble and hasn't been able to reacclimate since spectators returned to NBA venues. Perhaps the weight of all those injuries over the last several years has permanently harmed his form (though, for what it's worth, he's shooting 81.5% from the charity stripe this season). Whatever the cause, the good news is that Davis has found a simple solution to his jumper problems: he's quit taking them.

Davis has attempted only 19 3-pointers in 17 games and just 70 shots beyond the paint; he’s taken more than three-quarters of his field-goal attempts inside the lane, according to NBA Advanced Stats. In a related story, the eight-time All-Star is off to his best start in years, averaging 26.2 points, a league-leading 12.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 34.5 minutes per game, while shooting 59.6% from 2-point range with a .635 true shooting percentage — both career highs.

After many years of Davis hemming and hawing about preferring to play power forward rather than center, due partly to the greater freedom it afforded him on the offensive end and partly to save him some of the defensive pounding that comes from banging with opposing bigs all night, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham now has AD playing nearly all of his minutes at the 5. And since the vanishing of his J means he can’t really be a stretch-5, Davis is playing like a proper traditional center — a mammoth but nimble roadblock dedicated to the business of planting himself in the paths of opposing guards and separating them from Lakers ball-handlers.