Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant praises Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans, and predicts Davis to be the 2016 NBA scoring champion. Durant made the prediction after Davis' impressive performance scoring a sum of 95 points in the first two games of the season. Nonetheless, Davis and the Pelicans lost both games.
Durant, a four-time NBA scoring champion himself, claims that Davis will "easily" lead the league in scoring this season. Durant added that defending Davis is a very difficult task, stating that Davis is the "quickest" power forward/center he has ever seen in a while.
Kevin Durant on Anthony Davis:
"He can score from any area on the floor, and he's probably going to lead the league in scoring easily". pic.twitter.com/Yq25zyXk97— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) October 28, 2016
According to CBS Sports' Ananth Pandian, it would not be a surprise to see Davis continue putting on shows like the past two games because of the way the Pelicans is structured. Davis will have to bear with most of the burden in all the upcoming games.
Sportsrageous describes Davis' recent performance as "Jordan-esque," but despite his incredible display, the Pelicans ended up losing to the Denver Nuggets by five points, and to the Warriors by eight. Davis dropped 50 points against the Nuggets, and 45 points against the Warriors.
In the same report by Sportsrageous, it is predicted that the Pelicans still will not make it to the postseason if they fail to find support for Davis. The Pelicans finished 12th in the Western Conference last season with a record of 30-52.
In addition to the lack of players to back Davis up, there are concerns regarding his health which has caused problems for Davis in the past. Davis finished fifth in the MVP race in the 2014-15 NBA season despite having missed 14 games.
Davis will have to score more or less 30 points per game for Durant's prediction to come to being. Davis has a career-high season average of 24.4 points which he established in the 2014-15 NBA season. Davis averaged 24.3 points last season, but was sidelined by knee and shoulder injuries in March.
