Anthony Davis has wasted no time putting up star-level production in Washington, but the numbers haven’t changed the bigger question hanging over the Wizards: can he really be the guy at the top of a contender?
The early answer, at least from the way this season has unfolded, looks a lot like the one the Lakers reached before trading him for Luka Doncic. Davis is delivering the kind of stat line any team would take in a heartbeat - 25.6 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.0 block in 34.1 minutes per game, while shooting 52.4 percent from the field. But Washington has dropped six straight and sits at 4-9, with a 4-7 record in the 11 games Davis has played.
That’s the difference between putting up numbers and actually driving a team somewhere meaningful. The Wizards brought in Davis and Trae Young hoping to push back toward relevance, but they still haven’t had a true 1-A option since missing the playoffs in 2021.
Davis is the most accomplished player on the roster. That still doesn’t make him the kind of alpha a serious title team is built around.
The Lakers knew what they had after five and a half seasons with Davis. They understood that his preferred spot wasn’t necessarily the one that best fit him, and that his lack of shooting made center the cleaner answer. More than that, they saw him as a second option on a championship-level team, not the engine of one.
His track record backs that up. In New Orleans, Davis was the centerpiece and the Pelicans made the playoffs twice in seven years, winning just one series.
In Los Angeles, he won a title next to LeBron James and helped the Lakers reach the playoffs four times in five years, including two conference finals. LeBron has long said Davis was the best player, but James is one of the two best players in NBA history.
Davis also had a short run as Dallas’ lead option after the Luka Doncic trade, and it didn’t look like a franchise-changing stretch. He played 29 games for the Mavericks, who went 16-13 with him as their number one.
That was nowhere near the level Dallas had reached when Doncic carried that same roster to the NBA Finals in 2024. Kyrie Irving was injured for the 2025-26 season, and Cooper Flagg was added to the mix, but Davis still didn’t get the Mavericks close to the heights expected before he was shipped to Washington.
Now the Wizards have a different kind of problem to solve. Davis is 33 and can decline his player option to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2027. Washington has to decide whether he’s part of the long-term plan or just a stopgap.
That decision gets even trickier because the Wizards already handed Trae Young a four-year, $212.8 million extension. Young is not an alpha, and the source material points to his final two full seasons in Atlanta - both playoff misses - as proof. Washington can’t commit that kind of money to both Davis and Ice Trae if neither is the player who can truly lead the franchise.
That leaves one obvious path for this roster to work.
The Wizards drafted AJ Dybantsa number one overall because they believe he can become that kind of star. At 19, he’s still a work in progress, and this season is expected to be about adjustment and learning the NBA game.
But the upside is clear enough that Washington is already looking at him as the player who could eventually become the alpha. The source material even suggests he could be ready to be an All-Star in year two.
For now, Davis remains Washington’s best player. But his age and injury history make the fit uneasy. He turns 34 in March, and he has played more than 65 games in a season only once since 2019.
So the verdict is pretty blunt: Davis can still produce like a star, and he can still help a good team win. But the Lakers were right about the bigger role. He’s the kind of player you want next to your alpha, not the one carrying the entire load himself.
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