Last season, Anthony Davis played almost exclusively at the center position, and he had a whale of a season. Although he missed about five weeks in December and January because of a right foot stress injury, he averaged 25.9 points and 12.5 rebounds a game while shooting 56.3 percent from the field.
He has stated multiple times that he doesn’t like playing at the 5. In order to try to give him a bit of a respite, the team went out and signed free agents Jaxson Hayes and Christian Wood to play center and allow Davis to slide over to the 4.
Buy Lakers TicketsDavis says that sliding over to the 4 spot has been a bit of an adjustment during practice.
Via Lakers Nation:
“Me and Jaxson were on the same team for the first couple of days. I think me and C-Wood were on the same team today for a stint. They were doing a good job, I was confused a lot. Just sliding back to the four during some possessions and it’s like ‘AD grab corner!’ Oh, I forgot.
“So it was good, just figuring some things out. I’m talking with the coaches and Jaxson and C-Wood about some things that I did with DeMarcus [Cousins], Julius [Randle] in New Orleans. So it’s been good. It feels good to stay out of 100 pick-and-rolls a game. Still got a lot to learn from it, still got a lot to explore. But it’s been good the first couple days.”
Sorting out different lineups and combinations will likely be a priority for Lakers head coach Darvin Ham during the team’s six-game exhibition schedule.
