Got to earn respect.

[stevemadden504]

With AD paying his best ball you'd figure he'd get much more respect around the media. With the pelicans being 4th in the West in a conference so tough after losing cousins, deserves more respect. But instead Harden and Lebron are the topics of today. Pels just played 3 games back to back with W's, but meh. This should be used as fuel going into Saturday against the rockets. AD and company really need to beat the rockets to get the chatter focused on AD and the Pels. I think this is the game Davis need to sway MVP talks his way.

[N.O.Bronco]

With AD paying his best ball you'd figure he'd get much more respect around the media. With the pelicans being 4th in the West in a conference so tough after losing cousins, deserves more respect. But instead Harden and Lebron are the topics of today. Pels just played 3 games back to back with W's, but meh. This should be used as fuel going into Saturday against the rockets. AD and company really need to beat the rockets to get the chatter focused on AD and the Pels. I think this is the game Davis need to sway MVP talks his way.

IDK, Lowe was fawning over him today.

1. Anthony Davis, crossing you up
Four years ago, Kevin Hanson, the New Orleans Pelicans' assistant coach who has gone deepest into the player development weeds with Davis, told me about their next big challenge: coaxing Davis toward two-dribble moves.

The younger Davis was comfortable dribbling only once. He covered so much ground, he sometimes didn't need a second. But to reach his ceiling as a do-it-all force, the Pelicans knew he would have to grow as a ball-handler.

Progress has come slowly. Davis still averages less than one dribble per touch -- not unusual for a big man finisher. But when he needs to, Davis busts out stuff like this:

Holy crap -- a double-crossover. We often hear how these unicorn big men dribble like guards, and it is usually an exaggeration. This clip is literally Anthony Davis handling like a guard. I'm scared, too.



One quarter later, Davis absolutely dusted Al Horford -- the rare big man who can at least approach Davis' foot speed -- with another crossover. It was filthy. If Davis is going to start roasting guys from the arc to the basket, we might as well fold the league and earmark an MVP or three for him.

Davis has seamlessly absorbed more ball-handling responsibility since DeMarcus Cousins' season-ending injury. He has averaged about seven drives per 100 possessions in that stretch, up from about four before then, per Second Spectrum tracking data.

Davis isn't going to win MVP, and he shouldn't. This is James Harden's season. But he deserves serious consideration for both MVP runner-up and Defensive Player of the Year.