Getty Lakers big man Anthony Davis
Anthony Davis talked about his future with the Los Angeles Lakers with Dave McMenamin of ESPN after the team was eliminated from play-in tournament contention.
An eight-time All-Star, Davis doesn’t concern himself with hypothetical trade scenarios that involve him.
“I can’t control those things,” Davis said. “That’s an upstairs thing. A Klutch, Rich Paul thing. My agency. I mean, my job is to go out and play basketball. Obviously, I love it in L.A. If that’s something that they’re considering, then we’ll have a conversation about it. I don’t know what they’re talking about, what’s the plan.”
The Lakers had the second-best odds in the preseason to win the championship this season. Their Big Three of Davis, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook was projected to make some serious noise. However, the purple and gold were a walking disaster all season and major changes are anticipated to be made this summer.
Davis, though, doesn’t think he’ll get traded.
Davis Talks Future with Lakers
Davis has no indication that the Lakers will trade him this offseason. However, he’s been in the NBA long enough to know that things can change quickly.
“I mean, I don’t think they’re planning on doing anything [with me],” Davis told McMenamin. “I don’t know, man. Fu**, I don’t know.”
Davis appeared in only 40 games this season due to injuries. He averaged 23.2 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists while shooting 53.2% from the field, 18.6% from beyond the arc and 71.3% from the free-throw line. The Chicago native knows that people make fun of his injury history and don’t trust him to play in all 82 games.
“My job is to be on the basketball floor and play games,” Davis told McMenamin. “When I’m healthy, I’m a motherfu****. But I got to stay healthy. Unfortunately, it was two injuries I couldn’t control this year but I’ll be back at it next year and see what happens.”
Davis suffered two severe injuries this season. He sprained his MCL in his left knee in December against the Minnesota Timberwolves and missed 17 consecutive games and sustained a right mid-foot sprain in February versus the Utah Jazz, costing him another 18 games.
AD suffered his knee injury after LeBron accidentally knocked Timberwolves small forward Jaden McDaniels into the side of his leg. Meanwhile, the All-Star big man injured his foot after stepping on the foot of Jazz center Rudy Gobert. Both injuries stemmed from unfortunate circumstances, so Davis doesn’t understand why people are bashing him.
Davis on His 2 Injuries This Season: ‘I Can’t Control That’
The two injuries Davis suffered this season were out of his control, so he’s not going to re-evaluate his training methods this offseason.
“No,” Davis told McMenamin. “To be honest, my training methods were top tier. I can’t control stepping on someone’s foot and I can’t control someone falling into my leg. It’s not like I’m out of shape and I fu***** did some crazy sh*t or it was anything I could control. The good thing is, what people don’t know, is that the doctors actually told me that you’re lucky. Our team doctor said if you weren’t doing the work that you were supposed to be doing this summer, both could have been worse.
“I could have one, fu**** up my foot way more. Or I could have torn some sh*t in my knee. So it’s a positive for me, knowing that I put in a lot of work this summer and I prevented catastrophic injuries from happening to my body. So, people can say what they want to say, but I know what I do every summer to get ready for an 82-game season.”
The Lakers are widely expected to try to trade Westbrook this summer since he was a poor fit next to LeBron and Davis. While anything can happen in the NBA, LeBron and Davis should be back in LA next season.