In the 2019 NBA offseason, one of the biggest trades in league history happened when Anthony Davis was sent to the L.A. Lakers to team up with LeBron James .
At the time, Davis was one of the best power forwards in the league, and he was teaming up with arguably the best player in NBA history to create a potentially unstoppable duo.
However, he has steadily been talked about less and less since joining the Lakers and is now at the point where fans talk more about his injuries than his performance.
This hasn’t come out of nowhere, though. There are multiple reasons why Davis has become underrated by fans and went from one of the most talked-about players in the NBA to one of the most overlooked.
Anthony Davis’ Long List of Injuries
Possibly the most injury-prone player in the NBA
One of the main reasons Davis has become underrated is that fans haven’t gotten a chance to watch him much in recent seasons.
Davis has only played 270 out of a possible 410 regular-season games during his time with the Lakers. The majority of those missed games came from the 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, which, considering his age, would have been the prime of his career.
It’s important to note that Davis has always been an injury-prone player, but it has been a much different situation for the Lakers, as he didn’t miss nearly as many games while on the New Orleans Pelicans .
These games missed have also resulted in Davis missing out on playoff runs, which has affected the Lakers heavily.
His most significant injuries came in the 2020-21 and 2021–22 seasons, as he missed over half the total games each year. His injury in the 2020-21 playoffs prevented the Lakers from advancing to the second round, as Davis was the best performer for the team before getting hurt.
Davis Hasn’t Won a Championship in 4 Years
Only one ring during his time with the Lakers
Another reason Davis has become underrated in recent seasons is that the Lakers went from a championship team to one that has been struggling in terms of success.
Much of this has to do with the injuries most of the team has suffered, but it doesn’t change the fact that it has changed fans’ perspective of Davis.
His first season with the Lakers was in 2019-20 when they won the NBA Championship. It was the first and only championship of Davis’ career, and he was expected to win many more alongside James.
That wasn’t the case.
In 2020-21, Davis got injured and missed most of the season. Since that year, he has only made one conference finals appearance.
In 2020-21, he played the first three games against the Phoenix Suns in the first round and had two great performances, allowing LA to go up 2-1 in the series. In the fourth game, however, Davis was again injured and didn’t play for the rest of the series, as the Lakers lost in six games.
He then missed over half the games in the 2021-22 season, which resulted in the Lakers not making the playoffs at all.
In 2022-23, though, Davis was healthy for that playoff run, and the Lakers were finally contending again. That season’s playoffs saw LA make it to the conference finals before being eliminated by the eventual NBA Champions, the Denver Nuggets .
Although they had a good regular season, the Lakers matched up with the Nuggets again, this time in the 2023-24 first round.
They were again eliminated by the better team, though they put up a better effort. Despite being eliminated early this past season, the Lakers made it clear that they are a team to look out for when Davis is on the court.
Other Big Men Have Improved
Players such as Joel Embiid have taken over
A major reason Davis has fallen into the underrated category is that many of the top big men surrounding him have gotten better, and he is at a point in his career where it’s not easy to improve.
Unfortunately for him, the current top big men who were not as good as he was in 2020 have overtaken his spot, which has resulted in him being talked about less despite not getting any worse.
These include Nikola Jokic , Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo , perhaps the three best players in the NBA right now. Davis was arguably better than all these players when he first joined the Lakers, with Antetokounmpo being the only conversation during that time.
Davis entered his prime much earlier in his career than most, which allowed other players in the last five years to pass him in terms of skill.
This, alongside the fact that Davis hasn’t seen much court time in recent seasons, has been a major reason why he’s become underrated since his early days with the Lakers.