Anthony Davis to miss rest of season

[Andrew]

Anthony Davis to miss 4-5 months, Rio Olympics after surgeries

The New Orleans Pelicans' snakebitten season now will have an appropriate ending. The team announced Sunday that Anthony Davis will miss the rest of the regular season as he deals with nagging knee and shoulder injuries, and the star big man confirmed Monday that addressing those maladies will keep him from suiting up for Team USA at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It's definitely been a disappointing season for Davis and the Pelicans, even if his numbers have still been pretty good across the board. If he's been dealing with these nagging injuries for a while though, certainly a good idea to call it a year towards the end of a lost season, so that he can be back in time for a fresh start next year.

[Stress Fracture]

There goes his $24 Million.

[mp3]

Great player but he is seriously made of glass so far in his young career and to loss that type of money personally just sums up the Pelicans season on the whole.

[Jeffx]

Great player but he is seriously made of glass.......

....and that will hamper the rest of his career.

[Kevin]

He missed 69 games in his 4-year career and never played above 70 and up games in his whole career. Also heard the shoulder injury that he has has been bothering him for 3 years. wow.

[Andrew]

If his shoulder has been bothering him for that long, he's been playing pretty well despite it. That suggests a bit of toughness.

The amount of games he's missed so far is a bit concerning. Of course, another star big who once played in Louisiana missed a lot of games through the years, and still ended up having a pretty good career. I'm of course referring to Shaquille O'Neal. After playing in 81 games in both of his first two seasons, and 79 in his third, Shaq played in just 54 in his fourth. From there on, he missed big chunks of a lot of his prime. Beginning with that fourth season...

1996: 54 games
1997: 51 games
1998: 60 games
1999: 49 games (out of 50 in this case, since it was the lockout season; 49 games was healthy this year)
2000: 79 games
2001: 74 games
2002: 67 games
2003: 67 games
2004: 67 games
2005: 73 games
2006: 59 games

It's a lofty comparison, and I'm not saying Davis has reached Shaq's level, but the point is, Shaq had some seasons where he was a lot more banged up than Davis, when he was around the same age. In his prime, and through the championship years, he was usually missing up to 15 games per season; again, comparable to Davis. When Shaq was on the floor, he was putting up great numbers, and regardless of whether he missed time in the regular season, he was around for the Playoffs, where he continued to dominate.

If Davis can play at a high level for 68-75 games during the regular season, be available for the Playoffs, and keep being a top performer, then that's not such a bad scenario. The Pelicans will need a better roster to compensate for the lack of a star for stretches here and there during the regular season, but it doesn't mean they can't depend at all on The Brow. Also, if he's been dealing with nagging injuries that have required surgery, then perhaps finally getting said surgery will bode well for his health moving forward. Again, it shows some toughness if he's been playing through the shoulder problems for some time, and cause for optimism seeing how he's performed so well despite them.

[air gordon]

shaq as the comparison? he's a genetic freak. no one that size should have possessed the amount of agility and flexibility as him.

the lakers had the luxury of letting shaq rest/miss games. the toe injury he endured towards the end of his laker days was probably the beginning of the end

if i were a pelicans fan, i want to see the franchise player in all the games. if the pelicans can get to the point where they are like the spurs and and rest him randomnly, i'll be on board. until then, i'd be worried about davis missing all these games this early in his career.

[Kevin]

Andrew, we're talking about within his 4 years. Shaq missed a combined 23 games in his first 4 seasons, 3 times of that number is how many games Davis missed. If you put it in perspective, at least Shaq showed that he can at least be healthy in his younger years compared to Davis. This is just alarming for me since we're talking about a big man who's struggling to stay healthy for one season in his early 20s.

[Andrew]

Point taken, though from the age of 23 to 25, Shaq did miss 81 games over the course of three seasons.

As I said though, if Davis has been playing through a nagging shoulder injury that ultimately requires surgery, then that's a factor that needs to be taken into consideration. He hasn't been doing too badly, if that's the case.

[air gordon]

a professional ballclub's medical/training staff let a player on the court with a torn labrum for 3 years?!

[Andrew]

"I did my shoulder my rookie year, and I've always just played through it," he said. "They told me eventually it has to happen, and gradually it's just been getting worse. It's something I've got to take care of now [...] That's why I would always wear that shirt underneath [my jersey]. It helped stabilize it. I just want to play, you know what I mean? When you want to play, you find ways."

So yeah, apparently so.

[air gordon]

General Soreness could learn a thing or 2 from him