Anthony Davis says his goal is to play all 82 games this season
Regarding the discussion of MVP, Anthony Davis said, “This year I want to come out and build on what I did last year.” And if everything goes according to plan, I’ll hopefully be a part of those dialogues.”
Since the Lakers won the 2020 championship, Anthony Davis hasn’t been the same player he used to be. Because of a condensed offseason following the Orlando bubble and some lingering ailments, he has not only seen a decline in his statistics over the previous two years but has also spent the majority of that time away from the court. Since winning the championship, he has participated in a total of 76 regular-season games, but for this year’s campaign, he has established a lofty objective in the expectation that it would propel the Lakers back to the promised land of the NBA playoffs. Davis stated that “my personal goal is just, one, as much as I can, play all 82 [games],” during an interview with Spectrum SportsNet at the Lakers’ media day. “My personal goal is just, one, as much as I can, play all 82 games”
Davis is unlikely to play in all 82 games for a number of reasons that are self-evident. Even putting aside the fact that he hasn’t come close to reaching that number in the entirety of either of the past two seasons, very few players in today’s NBA ever reach the milestone of playing 82 games. Even when players are at full health, load management often caps their starts at around 75. A player like Davis, who has endured multiple injuries throughout his career, should normally anticipate playing fewer games than they did in the past.
The Lakers very certainly have a very different objective in mind. Even though the team certainly wouldn’t mind if Davis missed 15 games over the course of the season, it is undoubtedly their top concern to keep him healthy in March and April, which is when their games start to count the most. If the Lakers are going to have any chance of returning to the postseason, it is imperative that Davis be in good condition. It is more likely that the version of him that plays 65 games will be fit and well rested in April than the version of him that plays 82 games.
The state of Davis’s health will, in the end, be the deciding factor in whether or not he has a successful season. Nothing else that the team does will be significant if he is unable to maintain his presence on the court. But the organization appears to have a different conception of what constitutes health, and it will be Darvin Ham and the rest of the team’s medical staff’s responsibility to manage Davis throughout the season.
