Anthony Davis is ready to move to Center

Welcome to AD week here at Pelican Debrief. This week, our work will focus on the league’s most peculiar specimen and one of its greatest players, Anthony Davis.

Anthony Davis’ latest challenge is to dominate at the center position next to a new core built to help him do exactly that.

Since the beginning of Anthony Davis’ prolific career, there has been an understandable cry from all corners of the NBA world for an increase in his minutes at the center position. However, before being drafted, Anthony Davis measured in at an underwhelming 222 pounds, and that, along with his obvious lack of a physical defensive presence early on, made it difficult for Monty Williams’ coaching staff to answer those cries.

Those qualities, combined with the obvious problems he had when matched up against big NBA bodies like Dwight Howard’s or DeMarcus Cousins’ made it clear that he was not yet physically ready to provide the necessary rebounding, rim protection, or overall defensive efficiency right away. While his rookie season was indeed his most efficient in terms of rebounding, it was evident in watching that squad that above-average “D and Re(bounding)” guys like Robin Lopez and Al-Farouq Aminu made things much easier for the youngster to succeed. Since then, it has been the mission of Dell Demps and the New Orleans Pelicans’ decision-makers to put the right pieces around Davis, and beneath those moves, it was often easy to see that putting Davis at center was a priority.

It’s not hard to understand why. Those initial cries made sense because in every way that Davis is a mismatch at power forward, he presents trouble exponentially more as a center. The pure athleticism and quickness that Davis proved he was capable of right away present quite a tiresome matchup problem for a more traditional opposing center like Greg Monroe or Jonas Valanciunas. His shooting ability, which has become more comfortable and stretchy with each passing year, makes it so that defending him requires some form of ESP, and a fleetness of foot uncommon for NBA fives. The idea was (as it has been for so many NBA bigs before and since) that if such a skilled player could man that spot, the matchup problems would tick down the line. He would make the first domino fall, and wacky role players would fit next to him in ways that few other players could make possible.

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In short, the criticism and analysis of Davis’ first four years are acting as a thesis statement for how the front office is constructing the team ahead of his fifth, and we’re seeing all of that play out in real time this summer. But before we hitch the horses to this bandwagon and dive into this new chapter, it would be wise to take a look at how Davis’ play at center has improved over course of the first era of his career.

To jump-start AD’s abilities down low, the New Orleans Pelicans acquired the sharpshooting, floor-stretching big man Ryan Anderson during the same summer they drafted Davis. He looked like an ideal match for the role most envisioned Davis growing into. Until this summer, he remained the best option at the four next to Davis in those minutes when Davis occupied the five. However, in over 1000 minutes this season, lineups featuring both of those guys together posted a net rating (netRTG, or ORtg-DRtg) of -2 points per 100 possessions, per Basketball-Reference.

It was one of the worst rebounding couplets featuring AD that the team threw on the court, despite AD posting a total rebounding rate (17.3% of those available while he was on the court) better than his season (16.1%) and career (16.4%) averages, per nba wowy. This has long appeared the most likely question mark looming over Davis’ ability to handle the physical toll of playing center; watching him get repeatedly man-handled by DeMarcus Cousins even as recently as this season paints a pessimistic picture of what it might look like.

It’s encouraging to see him up his efficiency slightly in those minutes, but the difference is not nearly great enough. Blaming the other players on the court is easy, but those are exactly the kinds of situations that players like Davis are supposed to be able to handle; ideally, he’s good enough to prop others up and hide their weakness. Right now, they are accentuating his weaknesses. And remember, somewhere deep in the decaying secondary skills of Ryan Anderson, there is supposed to be a decent rebounding acumen.

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Nba wowy data allows us to see how Davis performed this season in lineups without any of Alexis Ajinca, Omer Asik, or Kendrick Perkins. This basically narrows it down to those minutes in which he’s operating from the center spot. Looking here at his offense, any disappointment is at least slightly remedied. His points per possession is only microscopically (.03 points) higher, but nearly every other statistic is encouraging. The team’s pace increased by more than a possession per game and his true shooting percentage (a holistic summary of all three shot types) grew by almost three percentage points. Over half of Davis’ total points came in these lineups, right in line with the percentage of his minutes that were spent at center (around 55%).

Defensive metrics are more difficult to analyze; Davis blocked shots at a slightly higher rate than average while at the five, but 62% of his shooting fouls took place while he was at center. Opponents shot layups more frequently while he was manning the middle, but dunks less often. Overall, opponents’ numbers were slightly better when Davis was playing center than compared to when he was playing power forward. Again, the defensive talent next to him suffered a downgrade when someone like Omer Asik was swapped for Ryan Anderson, and defense is more reliant on all-around buy-in and focus than rebounding or even offense. Anderson and others likely had a larger impact on these statistics than the others.

The vision of Anthony Davis as a hybrid big capable of dominating opposing centers is still a clouded one, at best. The moves made this offseason show that it’s about to get a whole lot clearer, though, and that clarity will come with experience. It’s an idea the Pelicans have been slow to fully adopt, but giving him that time is a bet worth making. Remember, having their superstar on the court is indubitably more conducive to the Pelicans winning basketball games than him not being out there. So experimenting with different ways to unleash him in the minutes he does play is probably the smartest method available.

The numbers show that the team plays more within its preferred style when Davis takes over at center, but not necessarily always within itself. Control, comfort, and chemistry will come as AD is given the time to grow within this system. The new roster is abundantly more fit to play this style, and fill in the crevices that the numbers show AD has yet to fill in this role. And while those cracks are potent and plenty, they are mirrored by upticks in other categories. He has improved every year.

Next: Anthony Davis' Floor Distortion

The re-modeled Pelicans are counting more on Anthony Davis this year than in any previous year, and their success will be based largely on his ability to improve and fill his role as a center. AD has shown himself to be more than ready to answer the call.