Ric Bucher's NBA Notebook: Did the LeBron-Stewart incident light a fire under Anthony Davis?

By Ric Bucher
FOX Sports NBA Analyst

It’s difficult to imagine a more complete and dominant performance than the one Anthony Davis put on in the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ 121-116 comeback victory over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday. 

He didn’t miss a shot — from the field (5-for-5) or the free-throw line (2-for-2). He damn near singlehandedly prevented the Pistons from making a shot, with three blocks and two steals. He erased two attempts by No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham on the same play, snuffing his 3-point attempt and then tracking him to the rim to swat his attempted layup.

Davis even dished three assists with zero turnovers in the final quarter.

When will we see this super-sized version of AD again? Or was his fourth-quarter dominance simply a reaction to the bloody altercation between LeBron James and Isaiah Stewart in the third quarter?

Who knows? Rival scouts and executives are only sure that, based on Davis' nine-plus seasons, his dominant play won’t come on any sort of consistent basis.

"I do not have faith that AD can do what he did [against the Pistons] for an entire year on a great team," a Western Conference scout said. "He has yet to play an entire season, for starters. He will have his share of big games and big moments, but he is not ‘That Dude.’"

Which is exactly the kind of dude the Lakers hoped the 28-year-old Davis could be to compensate for a 37-year-old small forward (James), a 33-year-old point guard (Russell Westbrook) and a 33-year-old center (DeAndre Jordan), along with the six 30-somethings they look to off the bench.

Davis was "That Dude" on Sunday. Granted, it was against the worst offensive team in the Eastern Conference, one that lost its leading rebounder and shot-blocker, Stewart, early in the third quarter, leaving it to 6-foot-8, 210-pound Jerami Grant to guard the 6-foot-10, 253-pound Davis down the stretch.

In his overall performance this season, Davis' most productive games have been against the league’s weaker opponents. So what will he do against former Laker Julius Randle and the struggling New York Knicks on Tuesday?

Every executive and scout I asked responded with a shrug.

"AD, motivated, is one of the best 10 players in the league," an Eastern Conference GM said. "But you never know what you’re going to get. He’s always falling down. He’s always grabbing something. He’s always getting hurt."

An Eastern Conference scout sees an even wider chasm between what Davis could be and what he has been. "He could literally be the best player in the league if he wanted to," he said. "[But] AD is soft and undependable. He’s comfortable. He’s really good at being who he is, and that’s enough for him."

James wasn’t around to see Davis’ closing flourish against Detroit, having been tossed for elbowing Stewart in the head less than three minutes into the second half. But it’s undoubtedly the version of Davis that LeBron has been hoping to see since he said at the start of last season that, essentially, the Lakers will go as far as Davis takes them.

"We’re going through you," Davis says LeBron told him at the start of the 2020-21 season. But it’s hard to play through someone who isn’t on the floor. Davis played only 36 of 72 regular-season games because of a variety of ailments and then was injured again midway through the Lakers’ first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Phoenix Suns.

Westbrook identified the same formula for success when he arrived this season, promising to stay in Davis’ ear and keep him revving at his highest RPM.

Davis, for his part, said he welcomes it all. He has yet to miss a game this season, though he left because of a stomach illness after playing seven minutes in a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. "I like teammates who are going to push me," Davis said. "I’ve got numerous guys that’s always in my ear about things. You can’t ask for more as a player who wants to get better."

No, you probably can’t ask for more as a player. But what about from a player? When it comes to Davis, that seems to be the real question. And the answer will determine nothing more than the Lakers' fate this season.

DID LUKE WALTON DESERVE TO BE FIRED?

That was the question I put to a variety of GMs and scouts about the Sacramento Kings’ decision to let their coach go over the weekend after a 6-11 start. The responses were varied.

Some believe Walton was undermined by unrealistic expectations from owner Vivek Ranadivé. He expected the Kings to make the playoffs despite an oddly constructed roster that has five players listed as centers and two power forwards — Tristan Thompson and Marvin Bagley III — who are best suited to play the position in today’s pace-and-space NBA. The only listed small forward who gets any playing time is Maurice Harkless.

The Kings also have a logjam of shoot-first guards with De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Tyrese Haliburton and rookie Davion Mitchell. It didn’t help that a deal to send Hield to the Lakers for a rumored package including Montrezl Harrell and Kyle Kuzma fell through.

"Who has a team of eight centers and three point guards?" said one Eastern Conference scout, exercising a bit of hyperbole. "And wants to play fast? Someone had to be fired, and it wasn’t going to be anyone in the front office. They thought they had the Buddy trade done to the Lakers, so that did mess up some stuff. But Luke is a great guy and a good coach with vets."

A Western Conference scout disagreed. "Luke should have been fired last year," he said. "I do understand them waiting to see if this group of players would finally turn the corner under him, but his teams have not shown legitimate improvement enough to warrant him continuing to get jobs."

A second Eastern Conference scout echoed that sentiment. "He never should have got the job," he said. "There was nothing he did with the Lakers that merited it."

Merit, fit, value — those seemingly haven’t been the driving forces behind a lot of the decisions the Kings make, a methodology attributed to Ranadivé.

A former minority owner with the Warriors, Ranadivé was instrumental in putting together a large ownership group to buy the Kings and keep them from moving to Seattle. He has never quite shed his fixation with the Warriors. He hired former Warriors legend Chris Mullin as a consultant at one point, and when the team drafted Nik Stauskas, Vivek declared he "shoots like Steph [Curry], and he’s big like Klay [Thompson]." Reports were that Vivek thought Hield also had Curry’s potential.

So it wasn’t all that surprising when Ranadivé hired Walton, who served as a Warriors assistant for two seasons and filled in for head coach Steve Kerr at the start of their historic 73-9 season in 2015-16. Nor was it a surprise that Ranadivé fired Walton shortly into his third season. Since taking control of the franchise in 2013, Ranadivé has hired and fired five head coaches. Al Gentry, Walton’s interim replacement, is his sixth hire.

Several executives and scouts said Ranadivé actually wanted to promote former Kings player Doug Christie to replace Walton but was apparently talked out of it for the time being. Ranadivé was the driving force, league sources say, behind Christie joining Walton’s coaching staff as an assistant, his first coaching job of any kind. Christie had previously been a color commentator on the Kings’ TV broadcast team on NBC Sports California.

"Vivek has an affection for certain people," an Eastern Conference GM said. "It’s decisions like that that are the reason the Kings have been the way they’ve been."

Gentry is not expected to be the Kings’ long-term answer unless they have a miraculous turnaround this season. They are currently 12th in the Western Conference.

Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson is considered by league sources to be Walton’s most likely full-time successor. Atkinson served as the Brooklyn Nets’ head coach for four seasons, making the playoffs once.

"Kenny is on the short list of guys who deserve another shot," the Eastern Conference GM said. "That would be a good hire."

It would also be No. 7 for Ranadivé.

Ric Bucher is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He previously wrote for Bleacher Report, ESPN The Magazine and The Washington Post and has written two books, "Rebound," the story of NBA forward Brian Grant’s battle with young onset Parkinson’s, and "Yao: A Life In Two Worlds," the story of NBA center Yao Ming. He also has a daily podcast, "On The Ball with Ric Bucher." Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.