Frank Vogel thinks Anthony Davis may be better for the Lakers this season

Before the Lakers entered the regular season, head coach Frank Vogel was asked a fairly simple question: Do you think Anthony Davis has another level that he can reach this year?

“I think so. Obviously, he played at a pretty high level last year, but he’s a guy who’s never satisfied,” Vogel said. “(He) continues to work to improve and grow his game.”

What form will that take for the Lakers? Well, Vogel has continued to push Davis to shoot more triples, even if in four games (Davis missed out on one of the Lakers’ five games) he is shooting almost one minus three per game (2.3) than last season ( 3.5), although granted that it is still early. And we know Vogel is probably not referring to Davis playing more in his most effective position (center) for the Lakers, because the team wants to see what Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell can do there, and save Davis’ body for the playoffs.

So what can Davis do to take his game up a notch, and will he push so hard in the regular season? That remains to be seen, but so far it’s certainly not forcing things. After scoring just 13 points in the Lakers’ loss to the Portland Trail Blazers earlier this week, Davis criticized himself for not being aggressive enough, but only took one more shot in the team’s next game against the Los Angeles. San Antonio Spurs, although he was still much more effective at that one. He’s also averaging 2.7 fewer shots per game this season than he was last year, though again, he’s only played in four games, so the sample size is small so far.

But with all of that context, it seems clear that there is one area where Davis seems to be trying to increase his effectiveness, and it is a place where he was successful in the playoffs last season:

For context, Davis took 17 shots from mid-range during the first four games last year (3.5 per game), so while the sample is small, it appears to be an area he’s putting more emphasis on so far. And while the mid-range game is something that has come into vogue to criticize, as the Lakers saw in the playoffs last year, when defenses lock in, it’s often a necessary rescue option.

This is all part of Vogel’s work ethic references, and something I’ve been thinking about for a while. There are a lot of people who say that the regular season doesn’t matter, and if you look at it from the perspective that basketball doesn’t have the same caliber as in the playoffs, that’s certainly a conclusion that could be reached. But that would be like hearing “Avengers: Endgame” is the best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, whether you agree or not, stay with me, and then skip all the other films in the anthology to see just that one. Much of what made “Endgame” great – the process of getting to know those characters so that even those with smaller roles could have an emotionally shocking arc – wouldn’t be the same for someone who skipped all of their solos and teams. films that served as preambles.

The same goes for regular season basketball. It’s not quite as bombastic as the playoffs, certainly, and there aren’t a lot of crazy, unforgettable moments, but it can’t be skipped either. The regular season is where one can see a player’s season arc begin to take shape. Last year, Davis’ postseason success in the playoffs was obvious, but you can’t appreciate his effectiveness there so much if you didn’t see the Lakers force-feed him post-season possessions all season to Get It Live, Replays of the game to improve, as well as to film and make adjustments based on so that he could make the counterattacks he used to destroy defenses in the playoffs.

The same can be said for his biggest mid-range attempts this year. While they have the added benefit of preserving his body, they are also part of the game within the game: They are not settling, they are setting Davis up to have to make the toughest attempts when those shots are the only thing available. . Watching Davis learn from LeBron James that the regular season can be used as a laboratory to work on small granular elements of his playoff game has made me see regular season basketball differently and as a result still appreciate the postseason. plus.

And Vogel has seen all of that up close, and knows that Davis is one of the true workers of the game, leaving no stone unturned in the search for the best version of himself.

“I think a second year on the core system and what we put in place last year should benefit him, but he will always want to keep improving his game,” Vogel said.

Davis did it last year, and at just 27 years old, there’s no reason to doubt he can do it again.

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