One NBA insider is pretty skeptical that Anthony Davis will remain with the Los Angeles Lakers in the long term.
The Athletic’s Jovan Buha was recently asked to guess which players from the Lakers’ current roster will still be on the team in five years, and Davis wasn’t one of them.
“AD in 2029 would be turning — he’d already be 36, gonna be turning 37 that season,” Buha explained on Lakers mailbag. “I wonder if AD is still even playing then. I think he’s capable of still playing then and still being effective, but five years from now, 36-year-old, 37-year-old Anthony Davis, given his injury history, I do wonder — I would assume he’s still probably playing, but that’s an interesting one. My guess AD is not on the Lakers at that point, but maybe he’s the second or third guy next to a new star or a new couple of stars.”
Although Davis has a terrible injury history, he actually played in 76 games for the purple and gold during the 2023-24 regular season, which is the most he’s ever played – surpassing his 75 games played for NOLA in 2015-17.
Heading into the season, he is also tipped to be a favorite to win the Defensive Player of the Year.
ESPN ranked Davis as the fourth-most likely player to win the DPOY award, behind Victor Wembanyama, four-time DPOY Rudy Gobert, and Bam Adebayo.
He has never won the award before, so there’s no time like the present.
AD might just be aging like a fine wine, and we may see his productivity increase this coming season.
Last season, he averaged 24.7 points, 3.5 assists, 2.3 blocks, and a career-high 12.6 rebounds per game.
