Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis typically flies under the radar when it comes to NBA awards with him never winning Defensive Player of the Year despite being among the best defenders in the league for the last decade being a prime example.
New Lakers head coach JJ Redick is partly responsible for that as a former media member that voted on those awards. He notably left Davis off his All-Defensive ballot completely, which definitely could have bothered the 31-year-old.
But in an appearance on the Lowe Post podcast with ESPN’s Zach Lowe, Redick revealed that Davis didn’t even know the head coach didn’t have him on his All-Defensive ballot and that he wants to empower the star big man to win all the awards this season if he wants:
“Yeah, he had no idea what I was talking about. He’s like, ‘I didn’t’ even know that.’ … Spent some time with him, went to a lovely dinner in Santa Monica a few weeks back. We’re going to empower him as much as he wants to be empowered. If he wants to be First Team All-NBA and wants to be in the MVP conversation all year long, we’re going to empower him to do that.”
If Davis is gonna be in the mix for the big awards then it would help if he could find his jumper that has essentially gone missing since winning the 2020 Championship. Redick says he has a theory about what happened to it but would not divulge anything else:
“I have a theory around that. I have a theory around that. Not one I’m willing to share publicly…I have a theory around that. And you know what, if my theory proves correct, I’ll share it with you later in the season.”
Davis is coming off arguably the best season of his entire career and should be able to build on that in 2024-25 with Redick as his head coach.
The key for Davis is always health though as he will need to play at least 65 regular season games in order to qualify for all of the major awards. But if he is able to do that, maintain last season’s level of play and the Lakers remain in the playoff mix, then Davis should finally get some love from the awards voters.
JJ Redick reveals Lakers’ starting lineup
The good news for Anthony Davis is he won’t have to get used to playing with a new starting group. JJ Redick has already revealed that last year’s lineup of D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Rui Hachimura alongside Davis will continue into this season, citing their 23-10 record together.