Longtime ex-Boston Celtics Hall of Fame small forward Paul Pierce believes All-NBA Los Angeles Lakers center/power forward Anthony Davis is the single-most important player on Team USA in this year’s Paris Olympics.
It’s a surprising move, considering that Davis has only started one of Team USA’s group play games thus far, although he and Bam Adebayo are clearly the best centers rostered.
Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid has started two of Team USA’s games, though he has looked slow and out-of-shape, and is not nearly the defender Davis or Adebayo are.
Phoenix Suns power forward Kevin Durant and Lakers combo forward LeBron James have been Team USA’s most important players on offense — Durant as a scorer and James as a playmaker.
Appearing on Fox Sports’ “Undisputed,” Pierce explained why he believes Davis is the most valuable piece of Team USA’s loaded attack this summer.
“To me, the most important player in all of this has to be Anthony Davis. I feel like he’s the backbone of the defense. Offensively, you can go to a different guy every night. But I feel like Anthony Davis changes the game every time he starts, comes off the bench, or plays,” Pierce said.
“You can see a major difference in the interior when guys get to the basket. I mean, he just doesn’t allow it. He doesn’t need the ball. He fits perfectly with the starting unit…. He is a utility guy.”
Pierce brings up a salient point. Although Davis is averaging relatively modest (but efficient) sums of 7.5 points, 7.5 boards, one steal, and a block, his impact resonates beyond his box score stats.
Davis is coming off perhaps his second-best season as a Laker, so it makes sense to a degree that he’s been so good in his second Olympics.
The 31-year-old appeared in a personal-best 76 regular season contests, averaging 24.7 points on 55.6 percent shooting from the floor and 81.6 percent shooting from the charity stripe. His scoring beyond the paint may have severely atrophied, but he’s compensated by doubling down on his interior game.
In addition to making the All-Star team for the first time since 2021, Davis was named to the 2024 All-Defensive First Team and the 2024 All-NBA Second Team. He finished fourth in voting for Defensive Player of the Year.
Unfortunately for Team USA, the top two finishers for that honor — Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama — both play for Team France, one of the fiercest impediments towards Team USA capturing its fifth straight Olympic gold medal.
Pierce’s Celtics twice faced off against the Kobe Bryant-Pau Gasol era Lakers in the NBA Finals, in 2008 and 2010. Boston won in 2008, Los Angeles in 2010.
