Anthony Davis has been adamant about his desire to play power forward for years, but it doesn't look like that wish will be coming true this season for the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas' primary center, Dereck Lively II, is already out for the year after having foot surgery, and Davis' on-court fit next to Daniel Gafford hasn't been the best either.
Davis has played just seven percent of his minutes at power forward this season, and this is a major difference from the end of last season. As a Maverick, he played 39 percent of his minutes at power forward. He still played most of his minutes at center, but this was a massive change after strictly playing center as a Los Angeles Laker last season.
Even after the trade last season, Jason Kidd hardly ever played Davis with Gafford. The fit was shaky at best in the 41 minutes that they tried it, and Gafford doesn't have the foot speed on the perimeter to play alongside Davis.
Anthony Davis at power forward isn't realistic this season
The Mavericks posted a 124.4 defensive rating when they shared the floor last season, and this tandem clearly wasn't as potent as Nico Harrison imagined. Dallas' wish to dominate with its size never came to fruition, and it hasn't been a major strength this year at all.
The Mavericks have several players with great paint presence and defense around the bucket, but it doesn't seem like teams fear their defense whatsoever.
Their paint defense has been among the worst in the NBA, as they're allowing 56.7 points in the paint per game. Their interior defense, even with Davis back in the lineup, is nowhere to be found. Even when Davis shares the floor with another big man.
Kidd has expressed his desire to get Davis back to the four at some point this season, but they don't seem to have the personnel to do this.
Gafford's nagging ankle injury and lack of explosiveness this season will plague his overall effectiveness alongside Davis, and they may just be an incompatible duo. Gafford and Davis can still be dominant individually, but likely not together.
Davis has been the Mavericks' starting center ever since he returned to the lineup from a calf strain, but Kidd has mixed in some lineups in which Davis plays the four as well. We briefly saw Kidd try a double-big lineup in last night's game against the New Orleans Pelicans, and fans were immediately reminded why Gafford and Davis aren't the frontcourt duo that the Mavericks need them to be.
Davis and Gafford spent less than a minute and a half on the court together last night during crunch time, and it didn't take Kidd long to pull the plug and sub out Gafford. A few possessions isn't enough time to truly evaluate how compatible a two-man duo is, but logic says that Davis should probably be the primary center for the remainder of the season.
Lively II was the only big man on the Mavericks' roster that made sense to pair with Davis, and the fact that Gafford is in trade rumors doesn't bode well for Davis' preference to play power forward either. Davis isn't set on strictly playing the four by any means, but he obviously doesn't want to only play center.
Kidd tried to give him some run at power forward last night, and we likely won't be seeing much more of that moving forward.
The spacing on offense is already a problem, and the Mavericks don't have enough shooting and floor spacing to give Davis and Gafford room to operate. They also don't have a steady point guard to set them up since Kyrie Irving is out of the lineup, and the odds are against Gafford and Davis being a strong pairing.
Depending on the matchup, we could see Kidd try this double-big lineup again later this season, but the recent game against the Pelicans wasn't a good first step.