Anthony Davis: Top Pick's Offensive Struggles Will Keep Hornets out of Playoffs

Anthony Davis is a fantastic prospect, but his offensive struggles will be one of the main reasons the New Orleans Hornets miss out on the postseason.

Davis is an elite shot-blocker and he will continue to excel in this area as a professional, but his offensive skill set is still improving. 

The power forward averaged 14.2 points on 62.3 percent shooting last season. However, his impressive field goal percentage was largely due to the huge advantage he had over his competition due to his size and athleticism. 

In the NBA, he will face players who are strong enough to bump him out of position in the post, and quick enough to bother him on the perimeter. 

At Kentucky, he showed flashes of decent post moves and a semi-reliable jump shot. Still, he was not a dominant offensive player by any means.

He was also not an aggressive offensive player. Even though he emerged as the best player in the country, he still took the fourth-most shots on his team. Doron Lamb, Marquis Teague, and Terrence Jones all jacked up more attempts than Davis. 

Now that the power forward will be playing with Eric Gordon and Austin Rivers, he will have to aggressively fight for position in the post and demand the ball. These are things he did not do at Kentucky. 

Neither Gordon nor Rivers excel as distributors. Gordon has averaged 3.3 assists in his career compared to 2.7 turnovers, while Rivers averaged more turnovers (2.3) than assists (2.1) in his freshman season at Duke. 

Davis prefers to impact the game in other ways besides scoring to help his team win. He showed this in the national championship game against Kansas in which he only managed to score six points, but recorded 16 rebounds, six blocks, five assists and three steals. 

His willingness to do the dirty work is by no means a negative quality, but the Hornets will need him to be an impact player on both ends of the floor if they have any chance to sneak into the playoffs. 

Ultimately, New Orleans has made vast improvements to its roster in the draft, but is still a seriously flawed team. The team will rely heavily on Gordon and both rookies. 

Davis is a fantastic defensive prospect, but will struggle offensively in the NBA. The Hornets need an all-around dominant player on their roster if they are going to avoid picking in the lottery for a second consecutive season.

Davis will not be that player as a rookie and it will take a few years before the young Hornets can compete with the better teams in the Western Conference.