Anthony Davis admittedly came into training camp for the Dallas Mavericks overweight. This was likely due to the eye surgery that he underwent over the offseason, which kept him off the court for multiple weeks, but concerns about his offseason work and dedication to coming into the season in shape were circulating long before he became a Maverick.
According to ClutchPoints NBA insider Brett Siegel, the Lakers were concerned with Davis’ conditioning, as he would often come into training camp out of shape and sometimes not communicate with the team during the summer. Siegel reported that Davis’ “fitness levels entering training camps were said to be ‘well below average,’” and the criticism of how he took care of his body as a Laker doesn’t stop there.
“There were moments in the preseason where we wondered if he had even worked out at all in the summer,” a Lakers source told Siegel entering last season. “He would come back, go through warmups, and then either sit out to be with the training staff or basically half-(expletive) what the team was doing.”
Anthony Davis' red flags were waving for years in Los Angeles
The source detailed that Davis went from being one of the most dedicated workers on the team who would always arrive early to the facility to being “content,” and his former determination and grit seemed to fade away.
“It was clear he was out of shape and didn't seem to care what the higher-ups were telling him. Something definitely changed,” the Lakers source briefed Siegel.
Davis’ issues of staying healthy over the years are believed to be a direct result of him not ramping up his offseason training regimen until right before the season begins, and this seems to be exactly what happened in Dallas this season.
He came into training camp overweight and suffered a calf strain in the first quarter of the fifth game of the season.
Even though the counting stats were there in some of Davis’ first few games, he did not look like himself. Mavericks fans were expecting him to at least be one of the most dominant bigs in the NBA to begin the season, but that was far from the case.
Now, the Mavericks are in a tough spot with the February 6 trade deadline approaching. The direction of the franchise is still up in the air, and this all comes down to Nico Harrison being fired.
With Harrison gone, the Mavericks have no obligation to keep Davis on the roster. Their future should be fully focused on building around Cooper Flagg, and that could lead to them moving on from Davis and getting as much value as they can for him as they enter a potential rebuild.
Despite this, many Mavericks fans will likely be displeased with the potential trade return that Dallas gets for Davis. This all comes down to his injury problems and concerns about his commitment to his body, which led to the Lakers ultimately pulling the plug and trading him to Dallas in early February.
According to Siegel, the Lakers began calling around to gauge rival teams’ interest in Davis in December of last year, and the Mavericks ended up being the highest potential bidder by a long shot due to their willingness to move on from Doncic.
The Davis-Doncic trade will always be known as one of the most controversial deals in sports history, and the fact that Dallas knowingly wanted to pursue Davis despite his conditioning and injury issues is mind-blowing.
Ironically, part of the reason that Harrison moved on from Doncic was because he didn’t believe his conditioning would improve just to bring in Davis, and the same things that he hated about Doncic are now plaguing his former prized big man in his first full season in Dallas.
All of the things that Davis is dealing with this season have been concerns for years, and Harrison seemed to ignore them to bring in his guy. Even with Harrison gone, the Mavericks are now having to deal with all of the problems that ended his time in Tinseltown.