In 20 year-old big man Anthony Davis, the New Orleans Pelicans just might have such a force.
Based on hype and scouting reports leading up to the 2012 NBA Draft, thats not exactly surprising. Davis was the surefire top choice of (what was considered at the time, of course) a solid crop of top-level prospects, and was a member of the 2012 Olympic Team. But then his rookie season quietly came and went; a rash of minor injuries and lack of team success made Davis easy to overlook. And while what we missed was definitely impressive in a vacuum, it wasnt anything close to the All-Star level impact optimists forecasted for the teenagers inaugural NBA campaign.
But none of that matters now. Just three games into Davis sophomore season, its clear hes made the proverbial leap to stardom that so many anticipated.
Its the last weeks offensive strides that will make headlines. Davis has flashed a much-improved mid-range jumper, nearly doubled his free-throw rate, and for the most part successfully served as the scoring linchpin some doubted hed ever become. But there are growing pains here, obviously, and talk of his apparent growth as a primary option or something close to it, at least requires the small sample-size caveat. Davis, we can definitively say, has made progress as a scorer; we just wont safely know its full extent for another month or so.
