5. The Lakers have always had a Hall of Fame big man when they’ve won the NBA championship
From Wilt Chamberlain helping Los Angeles claim its first NBA title in 1972, to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar‘s graceful skyhooks in the 80s, to Shaquille O’Neal‘s rim-snapping slam dunks in the early 2000s and Pau Gasol‘s highly underrated all-around skill set in the late 2000s/early 2010s, the purple and gold have always had that presence in the middle.
It’s a little like saying the Dodgers have always had a great pitcher whenever they’ve won the World Series. It’s just one of those constants that’s always held up.
I don’t know if you’re the sort to believe in this kind of stuff, but maybe the basketball gods have it set up where this is a prerequisite for the Lakers to win a world championship.
In more practical terms, we have recently seen a reemergence of quality centers throughout the league. From Joel Embiid emerging as a truly dominant center in Philly, to guys on the next tier down like Karl-Anthony Towns, Nikola Jokic, Clint Capela, Steven Adams and Jusuf Nurkic, the league is suddenly awash with quality pivots.
It would really help the Lakers to go all the way if they had a matchup advantage against all of these teams (except for probably Philly), instead of just trying to barely contain these guys using a combination of JaVale McGee, Tyson Chandler and Ivica Zubac. Who knows if McGee or Chandler will even remain with the team past this season?
In case you haven’t noticed, Anthony Davis is pretty good. He’s only averaging 29.3 points, 13.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.7 steals and 2.6 blocks per game this season. For you analytics geeks, he’s leading the league in PER right now with 30.9. For some perspective, neither Shaq nor Kareem ever had a PER that high for an entire season.
Davis is a truly once-in-a-generation type of talent. He is athletic, can handle the ball pretty well for a big, can hit shots from the perimeter, post up, throw it down with power and disrupt offenses by blocking shots and getting deflections.
Plus, he’s only 25, so if the Lakers get him, they could enjoy dominant or at least All-Star level play from the center position for as much as a full decade.
When you have an opportunity to add all that to your team now, you must move heaven and earth to do it. They’ve done it in the past, and they must do it again.