Every year John Schuhmann gets NBA general managers to take an anonymous survey that touches on plenty of subjects around the league. From predicting NBA Champions to players that do “the most with the least” Schuhmann gets plenty of interesting answers that lead to a ton of discussion on Twitter. This season Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans were all over the survey.
The Pelicans love started in the players section as Anthony Davis finished behind only LeBron James in the 2015-2016 predictions with 25 percent of the vote. What was more impressive than the finish was the gap between Davis, who got 25 percent of the vote, and Kevin Durant and James Harden who tied for third at just 10.7 percent. That was the exact distance that Davis finished from first place, showing that the GMs in the league clearly think Davis has joined James at the top of the leagues hierarchy.
Davis’ place atop the league was even further solidified in the next question though, as he dominated the answer to the question, “if you were starting a franchise today and could sign any player in the NBA, who would it be,” where he finished with 86.2 percent of the vote. Kevin Durant finished second with 6.9 percent of the votes, and while that may get a little closer if Durant stays healthy this season it should mark a long run of Davis dominating the category.
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Davis appeared again in the breakout player category, finishing in fifth place with 6.9 percent of the vote, which seems weird as it feels like he has already broken out. That said, GMs clearly see more growth in Davis so those votes may have just been a nod to that idea.
As expected, Davis also finished at the top of the best power forward voting, with 82.1 percent of votes, way ahead of LeBron James and Blake Griffin who finished tied in second place with just 7.1 percent of the vote. Davis also finished in a third place tie for best center which is strange since he does not play center often and does not seem to want to do so.
Finally, Davis finished fourth in voting for most athletic player, a category won by Oklahoma City star Russell Westbrook.
Davis also finished second in the voting for best defensive player in the league with 17.2 percent of the vote, behind only San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard, who won with 27.6 percent of the vote. A bit strangely, Davis finished just tied for second in best interior defender voting with DeAndre Jordan behind Marc Gasol, though Davis’ higher finish in pure defender is clearly a nod towards his ability to stick with players on the perimeter.
Besides Davis, New Orleans finished nicely in a few other categories as well. The first was in most improved team in 2015-16 where the Pelicans finished third at 14.3 percent, behind the Milwaukee Bucks and Oklahoma City Thunder. Considering the Thunder are due to get Kevin Durant back from injury, that seems to be fair to the Pelicans.
Meanwhile, Alvin Gentry finished at the top of the biggest impact by a new coach voting, with 32.1 percent of the vote, slightly ahead of Billy Donovan of the Thunder.
All-in-all the message was clear. While NBA general managers did like Alvin Gentry, the Pelicans are in great shape going forward because they have Anthony Davis. Which is an idea that is pretty hard to argue with.
Next: Observations from the Pelicans Preseason Loss to the Rockets
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