The top dogs are taking the underdog mentality. The Lakers have been more accustomed to losing than winning since their 2020 bubble championship, and Anthony Davis has had enough of it.
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Russell Westbrook has locked in with new head coach Darvin Ham, LeBron cut his hair and is ready to give it all he’s got in his 20th season, and Davis is proclaiming that the Lakers are underdogs.
That’s their mentality, and they will try to ride that wave all the way to a championship, turning their team’s fortune around in the process as well.
“We’re treating this season like we have a chip on our shoulder. We’re the underdogs,” Anthony Davis told ESPN during the Lakers’ media day. “Obviously, the world is looking to see what we do. But … they’re not talking about us, and that’s fine. You know, we’d rather be under the radar,” via ESPN.
He’s not wrong. LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and Anthony Davis have been some of the most talked-about and criticized players since they missed the play-in tournament last season. The Lakers as a whole have been analyzed up and down and scrutinized in every way possible. Nobody is scared of them, and everyone is counting them out.
Davis doesn’t mind being counted out, after all, he was arguably the biggest asterisk on the Lakers’ roster last season. AD missed 42 games last season, over half of the season, with ankle and knee injuries. He’s always had a body made of glass, and that is the biggest knock on him, though even when he was healthy, he was a little shaky and couldn’t get in a rhythm. While there were rumors that Davis was being shopped around the league by Los Angeles and even had a few enticing offers, but LeBron and the Lakers ultimately wanted to keep The Brow in LA.
Whether that turns out to be a smart decision or not, is solely reliant on Davis’ ability to stay healthy and produce like the No. 1 option he’s meant to be.
Fortunately for Davis and the company, GM Rob Pelinka has done some good work in acquiring some quality talent for cheap over the offseason. Starting, of course, with rebuffing the depth chart at the point guard position.
The Lakers traded with the Utah Jazz and received scrappy defensive-minded guard Patrick Beverly (who will be temporarily setting his beef with Russell Westbrook aside for the greater good) and got a steal of a signing in former Laker and major bag fumbler Dennis Schröder, whom they signed for the veterans minimum. Not to mention Kendrick Nunn should be ready to play this year too.
Along with those additions at guard, Los Angeles also picked up young athletic guard Lonnie Walker. To top off their mission of adding some youth to their locker room and depth, they grabbed key Golden State Warriors role player Juan Toscano-Anderson, Troy Brown Jr., and Damien Jones.
The Lakers have injected some youth into a squad that last season had the oldest average age in the league at 30. That is literally the definition of improving your team for a long season ahead of you.
AD knows that the Lakers’ makeshift rebuild is going to have to start with him, and he clearly embraces that fact, since he is the one billing the Lakers as underdogs. So if AD is going to put in the work, and stay true to his comments, there will be a vintage Anthony Davis season loading, and he will finally be able to do what he was bought to L.A. to do, officially make LeBron James the second option.
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There’s still going to be a lot of doubt for the Lakers, but because they still have some of the best players in the league, and are considered “underdogs” by AD, a successful season will make them underrated, right?
Can’t wait.
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