Alvin Gentry Calls Anthony Davis The ‘Best Player In The NBA Not Named LeBron’

There’s a really long list of guys who you can probably call the second-best basketball player on earth. No. 1 is LeBron James, and if anyone disagrees with that, they’re wrong.

As for No. 2, I can think of at least five guys who probably have some claim to that title. Kevin Durant is the best scorer on the planet, Stephen Curry is the reigning MVP, James Harden had a really strong case to win the MVP this year, and Chris Paul is one of the best pure point guards in NBA history.

The fifth guy is probably the best two-way basketball player in the league other than James: New Orleans Pelicans big man Anthony Davis. The 22-year-old is undoubtedly the future of the NBA, but according to Pels coach Alvin Gentry, he’s also the second-best player in the world right now.

Via John Reid of the New Orleans Times Picayune:

With emerging star power forward Anthony Davis in the fold, Gentry said the Pelicans roster has tremendous potential and he is eager to get started.

”We got the best player in the NBA, not named LeBron James,” Gentry said. ”But I’m really excited. I look at the roster and I lot of these guys I have a special relationship with.

Davis put his name into the “who’s No. 2” argument with a monster 2014-15 campaign.

The Brow led the league in shot-blocking, was fourth in scoring, eighth in rebounding and 27th in steals. He also led the league in PER, and based on that metric, he had the 11th-best season of all time. Despite this, Gentry has said that he thinks the Pelicans didn’t utilize Davis properly last year, especially on the offensive end. If you’re a basketball fan, this is exciting news, because Gentry was the architect behind Golden State’s unreal offense last season, and now we get to see him put together an offense that revolves around a 6’10 guy with the ability to do just about anything he wants on the court.

With an offense built to play to his strengths to go along with his prodigious ability on the defensive side of the ball, maybe Davis can make an even bigger leap in 2015-16. If he does, LeBron may have some company in the “best basketball player alive” discussion.

[Via New Orleans Times Picayune]

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