Hello Lakers nation.

My name's Trevor Lane, senior writer for lakers nation dot com And this is the Lakers nation news.

Feed your home for breaking Lakers news and analysis today.

We're gonna focus on the analysis part because I want to talk about Anthony Davis.

That's right, the Lakers newest superstar.

I want to talk about why he is going to be better than ever this season.

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All right, so the Lakers pulled off the big trade of the summer going after Anthony Davis.

They wind up getting him, bringing him in.

Finally, we've been hearing rumors forever, and now Anthony Davis is a Laker.

But there's reason to believe that he's gonna be even better than we've ever seen before.

And then is saying something because right now, no matter who you ask, Anthony Davis is, at worst, a top seven player in the n B A.

Some may say top six.

Some may say top five.

Whatever.

He is one of the best players in the game period.

He is a legitimate M V B candidate and digging into a stance.

It is amazing how consistent he is across the board.

This guy can score from just about anywhere. Defensively.

He's a monster.

He is going to be a lot of fun to watch this season.

But one weakness that I didn't find, what I was digging into a synergy stats is his pick and roll numbers.

As the roll man, he was in the 38th percentile in offensive efficiency.

Purse energy.

Not great.

It's okay.

Not terrible, but not great.

Not what you would expect from a guy like Anthony Davis.

But then you go and you look at the pelicans you look at the roster that they had set up lost last season, went back when they had Nikola Meritage to start the season out.

When they had a little bit of shooting around Davis.

They did okay, they were actually winning some games and looked like they could be a playoff contender.

But once they're shooting started, fall off.

Once Mirotic's was out, they really, really started to struggle.

And so that tells me that this was a team that just didn't have enough shooting around a D.

In fact, they finished 24th in the n B A in three point percentage.

Now I'm sure you're thinking the Lakers They were terrible last season from three.

In fact, they finished even worse than the Pelicans.

There were 29th.

True, but they've added a ton of shooting.

Now, why does that matter so much? Because if you look at this Lakers team, the one thing that I'm super excited to see her, actually, I should say one of many things that I'm super excited to see is what a LeBron James and Anthony Davis pick and roll looks like.

Elegant, no shade being thrown here drew holiday.

He's a phenomenal player, but a Drew holiday pick and roll with Anthony Davis just doesn't quite have the same kind of potential as a LeBron James.

A D pick and roll teams were gonna be reluctant to leave LeBron.

And so that's gonna open up lanes for Anthony Davis.

Open up scoring opportunities for him.

We should see him Maur efficient in the pick and roll situation just because he's gonna be running it quite a bit with LeBron James.

But then you throw in what else? The Lakers brought it last summer.

They didn't target shooting this summer.

They did Check out the numbers.

Jared Dudley, 39% career shooter from three.

Danny Green, 40% career shooter from three.

In fact, he was second in the league in three point percentage last season at 46%.

Troy Daniels, 40% from three for his career, Quinn Cook 42%.

Every Bradley, 36%.

And, of course, the holdovers KCP 35% from Deep, which is league average.

Alex Caruso outlier here.

Not expect him to do this again, but 48% from three last season and limited games.

He only played about 25 games for the Lakers last season.

Don't expect them to hit 48%.

Alex Caruso is just not gonna do that or Captain America as we call him around here, but 48% probably not sustainable.

But if Caruso hits anywhere between 37 to 80% Lakers would have to be really happy with that.

Frank Vogel. We should be doing back flips.

If Alex Crusoe can hit that, then you throw in Kyle Kuzma.

Kala Kuta Last season did not shoot well from three at all.

30% shot 37% from three.

Is a rookie, though, and we know he's spent a ton of time working this summer on his three point shot.

He knew that was an area of need.

If he can get back up that 37% then you've got another option again.

Why does all this matter? Will floor spacing is so important when Davis was running the pick and roll with the Pelicans.

A lot of times defense is we're just collapsing into the paint, collapsing on him, trying to clog things up when you have shooting around the floor, that makes that a heck of a lot more difficult to do that.

So Davis and LeBron are now surrounded by players that can really, really help them space the floor and knock down open shots, and that has historically worked tremendously well for LeBron James and has been a very, very good sign for his production as well as the production of other stars on the team.

But they've got shooters around them.

So Anthony Davis, as a Laker, now has the shooting support that he probably never had as a New Orleans pelican, at least not quite to this degree.

Look, these guys still have to hit shots, right? It's gonna take some time for the offense to come together.

But the bottom line is if these guys can hit their their normal levels of three point shooting, Anthony Davis will have more room to operate, and we should see him more efficient in those pick and roll situations.

Now, it's not without its challenges, Okay, because DeMarcus cousins would have been the perfect fit for Anthony Davis to pull that big man away from the rim and give him even more room because cousins could step out to the three point line himself.

They've replaced him with Dwight Howard.

So you're looking at a center combo of Dwight Howard and JAVALE McGee.

Neither one of them have any kind of range.

Really? Okay.

Juvenile knocked down a few threes last season, But it's not like anything anybody's gonna garden behind the three point line.

So JaVale and Dwight Howard, these guys have gravity, but it's more gravity pulling defenders into the paint, not pulling them out of the paint.

So it's gonna be interesting to see how Frank Vogel adapts there.

Do we seem more sets where Anthony Davis is running as the center so he can have enough shooting around him? Or do they come up with something else some other way to pull that big man out of the paint in order to get Anthony Davison looks at the red more.

Perhaps you leave him, and you just let JAVALE and Dwight Howard feast on the open don'ts that they'll be getting when their man rotates over all kinds of options.

Plenty of things to to dive into here.

I can only imagine what Frank Vogel on Jason Kidd and the rest of the Lakers coaching staff are dreaming up, this point being building run things around LeBron James and Anthony Davis again, two of the top players in the league on the same team.

I can't wait to see how much better they make each other.

LeBron is certainly the best player that Anthony Davis has ever played with.

And you could even argue that Anthony Davis is the best player that LeBron has ever played with.

I'm sure, yes, Kyrie will probably have something to say about that.

Dwayne Wade probably would have a lot to say about that, but lot of mine is.

You could make that argument, and that is going to make for a really exciting Lakers season.

For more on Anthony Davis, LeBron James and all the rest of the Lakers.

Make sure you head over to lakers nation dot com Your home for everything Lakers And, of course, follow us on.

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My name's Trevor Lane.