The Los Angeles Lakers are hoping for big things out of Anthony Davis this season. Davis has only played half of a season in each of the last two years and that has been one of the main reasons why the team has not been as successful as it would have hoped.
When Davis is right we have seen just how dominant the Lakers can be. AD put together one of the best playoff runs in NBA history in 2020 to lead the Lakers to their 17th championship. In that run, Davis finished sixth in NBA history in win-shares/48 minutes in a single playoff run.
At his best, he is a bonafide top-10 player in the league and is someone who has the talent on both ends of the court to legitimately win MVP. You would expect that to be Davis’s ambitious goal for the 2022-23 season but that is not it at all. In fact, I would argue that Davis’s goal is even bigger than that.
“I want to be able to play all 82,” AD said about this season
— Brad Turner (@BA_Turner) September 28, 2022
After playing a combined 76 games over the last two seasons, Davis wants to be able to play in every single game for the Lakers this season. If that happens, it would be a massive accomplishment for the star forward and the team.
Why Anthony Davis playing 82 games for the Lakers is so improbable:
First of all, Davis himself is obviously pretty injury prone. On top of two injuries last season Davis was also dealing with a secret wrist injury that nobody knew about. Injury-prone big men don’t typically get less injury prone as they get into their 30s. Davis turns 30 in March.
Davis has never even played 80 games in a season, let alone 82. The most games that the big man has played in a season is 75, so him playing all 82 games would be completely new to him.
Not only is Davis himself not suited to play 82 games, but that just is not how the league works now in 2022. Very few players actually put in the work to play every single game in an NBA season, especially players that play as many minutes as Davis does.
Last season there were only five players in the NBA that played all 82 games and of those five, only Mikal Bridges and Saddiq Bey averaged more than 30 minutes per game.
Granted, there were a lot of outside factors that included a wonky NBA schedule from the last few years as well as players that had to miss time from COVID-19. If we go back to 2018-19, though, you will still see how rare it is. In that season, 21 players finished with all 82 games played. Of those 21 players, 11 were primary starters.
LeBron snubs Lakers legend in favor of himself in LA’s all-time starting 5
LeBron James revealed his all-time Lakers starting five at media day and shockingly included himself over purple and gold legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
It just does not happen often and it would go against what Davis has been his entire career. While we respect the goal, it likely is not going to happen.