Anthony Davis has not had the ideal circumstances with the New Orleans Pelicans, and you have to think he’s losing his patience.
Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans are currently sitting at 12th in the West, and things haven’t been looking up for a few years. The first pick of the 2012 NBA draft has had far from an ideal situation in his five-year career. In a recent column, Brian Boyles of Bleacher Report demonstrated how the ownership of Tom Benson and unqualified front office executives had not done their part in assembling a quality roster to surround the best young player in the Association.
Benson was supposed to be the tailor-made owner for the Pelicans franchise. He’s a local, hard-working guy that delivered a championship to the beloved New Orleans Saints. He has not been as hands-on and locked-in with the Pelicans, though. Bringing in the General Manager of an NFL franchise (Mickey Loomis) to be the head of basketball operations has not been the smartest move, for example. It’s apparent that the team is wasting the unbelievable talent of “The Brow.”
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Given the constant indecision of the Pelicans on whether or not they want to completely rebuild or attempt to make the playoffs has them in their current state of irrelevance. Their roster is not constructed for success under the current head coach Alvin Gentry, who likes for his squad to push the ball and shoot at a high clip. This has not been the case.
The Pelicans are 18th in the league in three-point percentage, and 21st in effective field-goal percentage. To compare, Davis has had a career effective field-goal percentage of 52.0 percent. He’s also third in the NBA in player efficiency rating at 27.8. He’s only behind MVP candidates Kawhi Leonard and Russell Westbrook in that category. When Davis is getting the bulk of the defense’s attention every single night, that’s a pretty darn great number.
Near the end of Boyles’ article, he said that a source close to Davis’ agent, Thad Foucher, said Davis and Westbrook could end up as a dynamic duo on the Los Angeles Lakers. This has legitimate consideration, due to Foucher being an integral part of the Wasserman Media Group, which represents Russ.
It’s clear that Westbrook is doing all he can for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He’s averaging a triple-double and leading the league in box plus/minus at 14.0. I could see this being an intriguing proposition for the two, as they could help each other contend. It’s very admirable for both of these guys to sign extensions to stay with the teams that drafted them. It’s just a different kind of league now. You need at least one other star, if not two, to win a ring, let alone rings — plural.
Whether people like to admit it or not, the NBA is a better product when its big-market franchises are relevant. If the Pelicans do not start bringing in better basketball people into the front office, and Westbrook keeps playing with reckless abandon for a seven-seed Thunder, the City of Lights could be thrust right back into the national spotlight. You better believe the NBA would be licking their chops at that.
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