What Can Ed Davis Bring to the Table?
Not much is known by the casual fan about new Laker big man Ed Davis. Here is what we do know: Ed Davis was the 13th overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft. He is 6’10”, can play both power forward and center and is a left handed player. Those were some basics. What we don’t know is what exactly will Ed Davis give to this undersized Lakers unit?
Ed Davis is a fairly large fellow. He is big and strong enough to cover minutes at the center position, but agile enough to stick with some of the smaller power forwards in the league. Davis is a strong player on the glass; he averages 5.9 rebounds per game for his career in 20.8 minutes per game. That projects to 10.2 rebounds per game if he were to get 36 minutes a game to do his thing. Davis is a bit of a bruiser. He isn’t the most athletic guy on the court, but he does try hard on the glass and will outwork a lot of guys in the league.
Ed Davis is a player the Lakers sorely lacked last year. He’s not a star player, far from it, but he does the little things that any team could use out of their back up big man. Not only does Davis produce well on the glass, but he is also quite efficient from the field. Last season, Davis shot 53.4 percent from the floor for the Memphis Grizzlies. Ed Davis is a guy who won’t force the ball into the hoop and will opt to not take the shot if he feels it won’t be a good shot.
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Ed Davis probably won’t reach his full potential. He’s 25 years old now, so it appears that Davis will only be a good role player at his best. And rest assured, he is a quality role player to have off of the bench. In fact, Davis could even contend for a spot in the starting line up, if given the chance. He does put up some good advanced stats, good enough to maybe take a look at him as a potential starter.
Here are his advanced numbers for his career:
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/25/2014.
What stands out to me is his Player Efficiency Rating (PER). Ed Davis has managed to have a career PER of 15.9, placing him solidly above the average of 15. It was as high as 17.8 in 2012-13, proving that Davis still does have some upside. Davis is also a pretty good defensive player. He averaged 0.7 blocks per game in 15.2 minutes last year, which projects to 1.6 per game as a starter. Davis’ Block Percentage (BLK%) comes in at a pretty high 3.7 percent. For reference, three time Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard’s Block Percentage last season was at 4 percent. He keeps the offense going smoothly with high percentage shots, and has been considered to be an above average player by both PER and Win Shares per 48 minutes, while being solid on the boards and active on the defensive end. Clearly, Davis is doing something very right.
Ed Davis will likely be coming off of the bench in small spurts to start the year, helping to give size to the Lakers rotation along with Robert Sacre. If he continues to play well, he could be in Jordan Hill’s role from last season as the first big man off of the bench. We can’t expect Davis to be an offensive juggernaut, but he will keep his offense coming efficiently. He won’t try to do too much and he will be very helpful defensively. We can count on Ed Davis at least being a quality role player next season. We’ll see if he gets a chance to do more.