Anthony Davis key for USA Basketball at FIBA World Cup
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Before he ever played a regular season NBA game, Anthony Davis had an Olympic gold medal.
Yet as unlikely as it's possible for a 6-foot-10, No. 1 overall pick to get lost in a crowd, the former University of Kentucky player did just that at the 2012 London Games. He earned valuable experience but averaged just 7.4 minutes per game of playing time in the USA Men's National Team's gold-medal run two summers ago.
It won't be hard to spot Davis this time around.
The New Orleans Pelicans star, who dominated the U.S. team's 95-78 win vs. Brazil Sunday with 20 points and four blocks, will be one of the squad's major assets during the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, which starts August 30 in Spain. The first of three remaining exhibitions before the tournament tips off Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden against the Dominican Republic.
A serious injury to Paul George and the recent withdrawal of Kevin Durant from the team have made Davis, who averaged 20.8 points and 10 rebounds per game last season for the Pelicans, an even more crucial player for the 2014 U.S. team.
He would have had a key part regardless, but the All-Star forward/center has now potentially become the team's marquee player, especially with point guard Derrick Rose still feeling his way back from a serious knee injury.
"Anthony would have had a huge role no matter what," U.S. head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Anthony's one of the best players in the NBA. Scoringwise, he'll get more opportunities. If you have Durant, you're going to put things in for him. When he's not there those things aren't in so for everybody it becomes a little more available. Anthony played a great game against Brazil, not a good game. He had an influence on every exchange offensively or defensively while he was in there."
Still the second-youngest player on the current roster, the 21-year-old Davis' international experience has become even more crucial, as the team completed just its fourth total practice with its updated lineup Tuesday. While Krzyzewski has only seen Davis sporadically over the past two seasons, one of the U.S. team's assistant coaches has the opposite vantage.
Monty Williams, who also serves as Davis' head coach with the Pelicans, is an assistant for USA Basketball and worked with his protégé during practice Tuesday, noting afterwards that he's seen an improvement in Davis' shooting and his overall understanding of defenses over the past year. While some NBA coaches would be understandably petrified of their franchise player suffering a major injury in international play, Williams is excited for what it could mean for Davis as he enters his third professional season.
"If you look at the history of guys who've played in this, a lot of them have come away with great confidence and gone on to have better seasons," Williams said. "This is a different atmosphere. Every meeting, every film session is like a playoff situation. Guys grow from that."
With Davis having not yet experienced the NBA postseason, Williams sees this opportunity as his chance to take an alpha-dog role on this team and incorporate it when he returns to New Orleans in the fall.
"Mentally I think the biggest jump he's making right now is understanding how to be the man on the team night in and night out," Williams said.
While Davis is content to defer any questions about his playing time or his role in the upcoming tournament to his head coach, he's vocal when it comes to the team's plans for the first two weeks of September, regardless of who's on the final roster.
"We've gotta play," Davis said. "We can't sit around and mope because [Durant] dropped out. We still have a goal and that's to win gold. We can't [say] 'Oh Kevin dropped out, Paul got hurt so that's gonna be tough for us.' We hear everybody saying that and we're just trying to prove guys wrong."