Another article on AD: "Then & Now & Later: Anthony Davis"

quote:

---

7. Davis looks great in Thibodeau’s scheme, which is more conservative than the system Monty Williams has run during Davis’s two seasons in New Orleans. Depending on the circumstances — the identity of the screener, whether Davis is nominally at power forward or center — Williams will sometimes have Davis chase ball handlers out beyond the 3-point line on the pick-and-roll.

Davis has the speed for that, but it’s a hard pursuit for any young player to master, and it takes perhaps the world’s best shot-blocker away from the hoop.

Thibodeau keeps things simpler. Davis and the other bigs are dropping back against almost every pick-and-roll, corralling ball handlers near the foul line, and stonewalling any little guy who dares drive to the rim.

Davis looks more in command of those in-between moments in pick-and-roll defense — those one- and two-second windows in which he has to cut off the ball handler while staying within range of his original man rolling to the rim.

The very best big-man defenders induce paralysis in point guards during those moments. Davis is doing that now. Those ball handlers know they can’t drive or shoot, because Davis is ready to envelop any sad floater. But they’re afraid to try that little pocket pass to the roll man, because Davis, with his long arms spread wide, appears to be inhabiting that passing lane at the same time he’s deterring a shot attempt.

This in-between stuff is really hard, especially for young guys. They take bad angles, with bad footwork. They overcommit one way or the other, bracing themselves on two flat feet for a shot attempt that doesn’t come, or worrying so much about the pass that they let the driver just fly by. Davis has had issues in this window so far in the NBA, but he’s been clean in FIBA.

It will be interesting to see if Williams, an assistant with Thibodeau on the Team USA staff, adjusts his scheme with the Pelicans after watching Davis thrive in Spain.

---

quote:

---

On the surface, this is a routine miss. But Davis is experimenting with countermoves involving two dribbles, something he rarely did last season, when 94 percent of his shots came after either one or zero dribbles, per SportVU data provided to Grantland.

That’s not a damning limitation. Davis can cover giant swatches of territory with one dribble. Picking up the rock after one bounce means Davis sometimes has to lunge really far to get into layup range, forcing him to fling up awkward floaters as he descends to the floor. But Davis has a knack for hitting those shots. “For us, it’s weird,” Williams told me in April. “But for him, it’s natural.”

The Pelicans have grand visions of Davis as an offensive hub in the mold of a springier Dirk Nowitzki, and for Davis to assume that sort of centerpiece role, he has to become more comfortable dribbling into the center of the floor, creating different shots for himself, and dishing to shooters around the floor.

Kevin Hanson, a Pelicans assistant who works most closely with Davis, told me in April he spends a ton of time running Davis through these two-dribble moves. The practice work is starting to trickle onto the court.

---