Age: 25
NBA experience: Six seasons (six with Pelicans)
Games played/started: 75/75
SEASON OVERVIEW
A fifth straight All-Star appearance was expected. A third selection to the All-NBA first team is likely. But two things that made Davis’ 2017-18 campaign more rewarding than any other were a 48-win regular season and his initial trip to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs, on the strength of a 4-0 sweep vs. Portland.
As the sixth-year pro said in a December interview with ESPN.com’s Adrian Wojnarowski, “Winning. That’s it. That’s how you're judged. You can score, you can dominate. You can do whatever. But they calculate everything off winning. You know that. I know that. Everybody in the league knows that. I hear it all the time: ‘Anthony is a good player, but he hasn’t won anything. He’s not a winner. He hasn’t been to the playoffs in two years.’”
No one’s saying that anymore. New Orleans did more winning than it has in a decade, with its perennial All-Star leading the way.
VOICE OF THE FAN
As part of our look back at the season, we checked in with Pelicans fans to get their feedback on 2017-18. First up: What was your favorite aspect of Davis’ season? Some of the responses were mentioned in the podcast portion of this season review, but here are a few others:
Davis finished third on NBA.com’s MVP ladder, behind only James Harden and LeBron James.
People talk increasingly about the new “unicorns” of the NBA, but no other young big possesses Davis’ skill set, featuring elite athleticism (211 dunks) and accurate perimeter shooting ability (55 made treys).
Davis registered career highs in shooting percentage on two-pointers (55.8) and three-pointers (34.0). In a statistical oddity, he still came a sliver shy of his best field-goal percentage, at 53.4, because he took 28 more threes than the previous season.
Some star players feel pressure to force things offensively, but Davis simply does not take bad shots, never has. He still has room to improve as a passer, but set a career high by averaging 2.3 assists.