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To say the Los Angeles Lakers shocked the NBA world with their bombshell trade of Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis is a major understatement. This was arguably the biggest trade in the NBA in the last 15-20 years, if not longer. But with Anthony Davis gone to the Mavericks, the next question for the Lakers becomes whether or not they choose to retire his jersey number.
Based on resume alone, it’s highly likely that Anthony Davis is a future Hall of Famer, and that would likely mean some team would ultimately retire his jersey, with the Lakers being the obvious answer.
Did Davis do enough for the Lakers to eventually retire his jersey? Here’s a look back at Davis’ career with the Lakers and an answer as to whether or not he should see his number hanging in the rafters one day.
Should Lakers retire Anthony Davis’ jersey number?
The trade the brought Davis to the Lakers was a blockbuster at the time. He was widely considered among the best, if not the best big man in the league and a perfect compliment to LeBron James.
Sure enough, the Lakers clicked right away during the 2019-2020 season and looked like title contenders early prior to the shutdown amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the season resumed in the bubble, the Lakers rolled through the playoffs on their way to winning a title in the first year of the James and Davis duo. But in the four years since of the James/Davis pairing, the Lakers have only managed to get out of the first round of the playoffs once.
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A lot of that though has to do with roster construction and moving away from what worked, which was a secondary big man to play alongside Davis, something he was very vocal about before the Mavericks trade.
During his tenure with the Lakers, Davis was named to two All-NBA teams, was a two-time All-Star and finished in the top-four of the Defensive Player of the Year voting twice.
Across 312 games, Davis averaged 24.8 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.2 steal and 2.2 blocked shots with splits of 53.2 percent shooting from the field, 28.2 percent shooting from the three-point line and 79.4 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
Most of the Lakers’ shortcomings the past few seasons have been due to roster construction and not anything to do with Davis’ play on the court. He’s been the Lakers defensive anchor and has arguably been their best overall player even with James. And for all the flak Davis has taken for supposedly being injury prone, he’s been healthy in recent seasons.
The Lakers retired Pau Gasol’s jersey, and Davis has arguably been better during his Lakers stint than Gasol was during his time with the franchise. While Gasol’s tenure resulted in back-to-back championships, Davis helped bring a title in his first year, and snapped a ten-year championship drought.
Overall, Davis has done enough to one day see his jersey hanging from the rafters at Crypto.com Arena. For an organization like the Lakers, who have been known to take care of their star players, it’s only right. James will no doubt have his jersey retired by the Lakers, and it’s the right thing to do to have his running mate for the past six seasons share in that honor as well.
