NBA New Orleans Pelicans

Anthony Davis’ All-Out Effort Could Lead To Costly Injury For New Orleans Pelicans

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By @KellanMiller

Layne Murdoch- Getty Images

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I’ll phrase this as euphemistically as possible — if you haven’t had the chance of watching Anthony Davis play this season you are messing up.

The man is simply phenomenal, and on entertainment value alone he more than makes up for the $200 you’ll have to shell out to get something like League Pass — unfortunately, I make no money off League Pass purchases, so this is no plug. Even though the New Orleans Pelicans suffered a heartbreaking 102-93 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers last night, Davis had another MVP performance: 31 points, three blocks, three steals, 11 rebounds, three assists and zero turnovers.

In other words, Davis does pretty much everything. He has been so consistently efficient this season that his numbers are more expected than impressive at this point. Fresh into only his third NBA season, Davis is far and away the most dominant power forward in the league.

When recruiters scout players, they pray for a player like Davis to come along, unibrow and all. The guys who make it to the NBA are so freakishly athletic that they look like gods to us mortals. But repeatedly, players fail to utilize their immortal gifts in lieu of just getting by and collecting their millions. Michael Beasley immediately comes to mind as a guy who had all the talent in the world to reach superstar status but failed to put in the time to develop his game. That isn’t the case with Davis. He impressed in his rookie season and has remarkably improved in each ensuing season.

Which leads to my million dollar, exploitation-free question. Recently, various media pundits have speculated that Davis’ superhuman performance will be impossible to sustain. Regardless of whether the Pelicans are battling for their lives or up by a comfortable margin, Davis never lets up. He runs after loose balls, dives after guards shooting on the perimeter, leaps for every rebound, contests every shot and is constantly moving at maximum speed. He has the tenacious hustle of Dennis Rodman or Russell Westbrook with more natural talent and a higher basketball IQ.

As I mentioned earlier, usually the opposite is the problem. James Harden was criticized severely this summer after videos surfaced of him deliberately taking defensive plays off. While I’m not giving Harden a pass for literally standing by as players rush past him, what many don’t stop and realize is exactly how much energy it takes to be Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant or Kobe Bryant on offense. Most of the time, the prime scorer on a team is not asked to defend the opposing star for 40 minutes a game. Not only does expelling so much energy on both sides of the ball make it difficult for these superstars to put points on the board, but fatigue and injury become a real concern.

While it seems frivolous, the critics do have a point. As talented as the Pelicans are, a serious injury to Davis would cause havoc for the team. Even though it’s a great problem to have, it’s difficult to imagine Davis’ insane output not to physically catch up with him at some point. We know what guys like Westbrook, Durant and Derrick Rose are going through. Having 82 regular season games is nothing to sneeze at, and a player who gives 110 percent effort on each and every play is bound to get burned out after awhile.

Obviously there is no real solution to this conundrum, and hopefully Davis will defy the precedent players of his breed have set. He already appears to be superhuman, so hopefully all this talk about mortal challenges is all for naught.

Kellan Miller is a writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @KellanMiller, “like” him on Facebook, or add him on Google Plus

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