If your glass is half-full: There's no reason for the Los Angeles Lakers to be concerned about Anthony Davis' prognosis.
However, if you feel like you need to re-fill your beverage of choice as a Lakers fan, you might be a bit uneasy about the recent updates and corresponding buzz surrounding Davis that has emerged over the last couple of days.
Let's work through this situation.
On Easter Sunday, before the Lakers were rocked by the Los Angeles Clippers, head coach Frank Vogel revealed that Davis — who has been out since Feb. 14 with a right calf strain — and LeBron James (high ankle sprain) would accompany the team on their five-game East Coast road swing, which begins on Tuesday vs. the Toronto Raptors of Tampa.
“Yeah, they’ll both be on the road with us. AD continues to ramp-up, but still a ways away,” Vogel said. “LeBron is still out indefinitely.”
Vogel made sure to re-iterate that Davis has not suffered any complications in his rehab with the Lakers.
“No setback, it’s just being cautious. Making sure the build-up is happening at the right pace and this thing is fully behind him.”
On Monday, the Lakers held their post-practice media availability from the gym at Tampa Prep High School. Over the shoulder of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the Zoom, Davis could be seen meandering around the court as Montrezl Harrell and Devontae Cakok engaging in some light 1-on-1 and shooting.
“He’s making great progress,” Caldwell-Pope said when asked if he had any first-hand knowledge of AD's status. “We were just joking a little bit that he could give us like five minutes tomorrow. But we don’t know nothing about his timetable, or when he’s coming back. He didn’t participate in the practice today, but he did shoot a little bit, and he says he’s feeling good. So we’re just waiting on him and whenever he’s ready.”
To speculate for a second: KCP's acknowledgment of the joke about Davis playing in Tampa might indicate an internal understanding that Davis could play if he really needed. It may also reveal the Lakers' low-key desperation to get their Big Bird back as they struggle to scrap for victories. Or, none of the above.
“To have everybody back again is going to feel good,” Dennis Schröder said Monday. “To have everybody on the road trip, that’s a good sign. To see AD shooting again, it’s just great. We’re trying to hold it down until they come back and try to play a little better, but when they come back, we’re going to be fine.”
Davis' recovery timetable for the Lakers has been repeatedly prolonged since he went down on a drive against Nikola Jokic on Valentine's Day.
On Feb. 15, following the MRI, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that AD would be re-evaluated in two to three weeks and was “unlikely” to play before the All-Star break — which took place nearly a month ago.
“For me, all I care about is health,” James said on the night his Space Jam co-star went down. “I want him to be healthy. Our team needs him to be healthy. He's got to make sure that he takes all the precautionary reasons, everything, do his due diligence on what is going on with his injury and be right when he comes back.”
On Feb. 18, Vogel told the media that Davis would be out “four weeks,” though that was later deemed an estimate by the team. Either way, the head coach of the Lakers preached patience.
“We want to try to put this fully behind him and be conservative with it just to make sure that it's fully healed before he's back.”
On March 12, the Lakers announced that Davis had been cleared to enter the next phase of his recovery, and would be re-evaluated two weeks later. On March 26, the team said that Davis “continues to progress in his recovery and has been cleared to advance his on court work” — meaning dribbling and shooting drills, not live scrimmaging.
During a SportsCenter hit this past weekend, ESPN's Dave McMenamin predicted that Davis would be out for at least one more week, as he was yet to play 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 and still needed time to ramp-up his conditioning.
The Lakers' offense has plummeted to 29th in efficiency rating since James sprained his ankle on March 20.
After the Raptors matchup, the Lakers will face four more playoff teams on the East Coast, followed by five total games against Boston, the Utah Jazz, and Dallas Mavericks. Ooph.
#Lakers schedule:
Tonight: Bucks (H)
Fri: @ Kings
Sun: @ ClipsEast swing:
4/6: @ Raps
4/8: @ Heat
4/10: @ Nets
4/12: @ Knicks
4/13: @ Hornets4/15: Celts (H)
4/17, 4/19: Jazz4-game trip:
4/22, 4/24: @ Mavs
4/26: @ Magic
4/28: @ WizardsLA is 30-17, 5 gms up on 7-seed (DAL)
— Michael Corvo (@michaelcorvoNBA) March 31, 2021
In his latest newsletter, The New York Times' Marc Stein reported on Tuesday that the Lakers are hopeful Davis could return after the current road trip.
“Davis has missed the past 22 games because of persistent Achilles’ tendon discomfort and an adjacent calf strain. There is some hope within the organization that he will return to the lineup after the Lakers’ five-game Eastern Conference swing underway, but any injury that involves the Achilles’ tendon, no matter how purportedly mild, is going to spook people until Davis gets back on the floor. Achilles’ tendon injuries remain the most feared in the sport.”
All of which is to say: It's fair to expect AD's tenure as interim assistant coach to continue for at least a week, and possibly two or three.
Notably, on April 15, the Staples Center will welcome back fans, just in time for a showdown with their longtime rival, the Boston Celtics. The Lakers may raise their 2020 championship banner that night and celebrate the title that tied the franchise with Boston for most championships in NBA history. It's natural to wonder if that marquee occasion could celebrate the return of Davis, too.
“The only certainty that I can give you is that we’ll have fans there,” Vogel said on Sunday. “I can’t give you anything past that. I know it’s still uncertain when he’ll return.”
April 15 would mark two months since he landed back on the injury list — far exceeding the initial estimate.
Lakers Nation is angsty, and #LakersTwitter is growing increasingly impatient as they watch their B-Team claw for buckets and gradually slip in the standings.
Yet, in the words of the esteemed poet laureate French Montana: Don't panic.
The Lakers are being extra-careful with Davis, as they said they would from Day 1. Considering their irresponsibly lax approach after AD first felt soreness in his calf/Achilles area prior to the re-aggravation, I'd call this a different kind of progress.
For now, though, the waiting game, painfully, continues. We'll see how many losses mount.
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