Coming into Saturday night’s NBA action, New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis was already starting to look like a breakout player of the year candidate, as well as an MVP contender with his improved play in just his second year in the league.
The former Kentucky Wildcats great ranked among league leaders with a 21 points-per-game scoring average while collecting 11 rebounds and four blocks per contest. He’s also averaging two steals per game.
He came into the NBA known for his elite blocking ability, as he set a school-record at UK for blocks, but it appears Philadelphia 76ers small forward Evan Turner didn’t get the memo:
If you want to get an idea just how elite a defender Davis has become, make sure to read Adam Fromal’s article on Bleacher Report:
"Through nine games, Davis is facing five shots per game at the rim, and he’s turning away all but 33.3 percent of them. That’s an incredible number. In fact, among players going up against at least as many shots as Davis, he has the No. 4 percentage allowed:Joakim Noah, 30.6 percentTim Duncan, 31.3 percentBrook Lopez, 31.7 percentAnthony Davis, 33.3 percentRoy Hibbert, 33.8 percentThe only other players below 40 percent are Timofey Mozgov, Omer Asik, Nikola Pekovic, Ian Mahinmi, Chris Kaman and Miles Plumlee."