Anthony Davis spending offseason working on back-to-the-basket game
Anthony Davis was terrifying enough as it was - he posted the 11th-best PER in NBA history last season - but he had to fill his summer somehow.
So, on top of getting acclimated to the center position and trying to add a viable 3-point shot to his offensive arsenal, Davis is working with New Orleans Pelicans assistant coach Kevin Hanson on honing his low-post, back-to-the-basket game.
The post game, you might have heard, is a tad outmoded, slowly dying out as the league becomes more perimeter-oriented. There's a reason Davis is being asked to develop a 3-pointer, after all. But Hanson points out that the way defenses have responded - going super small and using traditional wings to guard bigs - is creating opportunities the 6-foot-10 Davis should be able to exploit consistently.
"There is no way (shorter small forwards) should be able to guard him," Hanson told Jim Eichenhofer of Pelicans.com. "It's just a matter of him getting more comfortable with his back to the basket. We've worked on him punishing guys with his back to the basket, and working on his footwork to create shots for himself."
A big part of Davis' development in the post will also come down to how he responds to double-teams (and probably more than a few triple-teams), given that no player alive could reasonably be considered a good one-on-one defensive option against him.
"I've definitely been working on passing, reading defenses better," Davis said. "I've kind of just been doing some basic drills out of the post, playing against double-teams … That's definitely going to be helpful once I figure out what plays we're going to run, what sets we're going to run, and try to incorporate my passing out of double-teams a lot easier."
Despite the emphasis on expanding his shooting range, Hanson is confident that it's the post where Davis will have made the most meaningful strides once the 2015-16 season rolls around.
"His back-to-the-basket game, I think we'll see serious improvement going into next season," Hanson said. "That's the one area I hope stands out. His natural development in the post will probably be the most noticeable (to fans), how much more comfortable he is down there.
"I think teams are trying to figure out how to guard him best, but he's still effective pretty much against everybody. I mean, he was first-team All-NBA. He's a matchup nightmare."