Yes, the New Orleans Pelicans have made the playoffs. If you're like most people, you didn't see this coming. Literally. Excluding NBA TV, the Pelicans played just twice this season in front of a national audience, so you may have missed your chance to see the Anthony Davis show.
Before the juggernaut top-seeded Golden State Warriors tip off against Davis and the Pelicans on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC), let's get up to speed.
Here is your 11-step primer on the NBA's least known superstar.
There's a reason the Pelicans mailed MVP voters a stuffed Davis doll with the tagline "Davis, the stat-stuffer." The Pelicans big man averaged 24.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and an NBA-high 2.9 blocks this season. Impressive, right? Only seven NBA players have matched those gaudy numbers before, and they're all Hall of Famers or destined to be: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob McAdoo, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson.
Davis shot 53.5 percent from the floor and an impressive 80.5 percent from the line. Of those seven players, none shot over 80 percent from the charity stripe in those stat-stuffed seasons. Davis is the only big man to pull it off while averaging at least 24.4/10.2/2.9. The guy's got skills.
Like, he might already be the best player in the NBA. Davis had a 30.9 player efficiency rating (PER) this season, which was higher than that of every other player in the league. Yes, better than his first-round opponent Stephen Curry, who is favored to win MVP.
According to the Basketball-Reference database, that 30.9 PER is the eighth-highest rate in the 3-point era. Michael Jordan and LeBron James are the only players to top it in a season in the modern era.
But PER -- which factors in rebounds but otherwise largely ignores defense -- isn't the only metric that loves Davis. ESPN's real plus-minus, which estimates a player's impact on the court every 100 possessions, places Davis in the top five on its leaderboard this season. This is important because it tells us that Davis isn't putting up hollow numbers that don't really affect that scoreboard. He's a stat-stuffer, not a stat-padder. Furthermore, of the six favorites for MVP, Davis checks in as the best defender of the group, posting a plus-3.7 defensive RPM.
3. Davis is just getting started
All those names I've already mentioned in the same breath as Davis? None of them were putting up those numbers at Davis' current age. He tallied his 500th career block on Wednesday. He turned 22 in March.
If he didn't jump to the NBA after his freshman season, Davis would be finishing up his senior year at University of Kentucky right now. He and Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky were born a month apart. Davis is younger than Bulls rookies Nikola Mirotic (by two years) and Doug McDermott (by 14 months). Davis is younger than Heat rookie Shabazz Napier and second-year guys Kelly Olynyk and Michael Carter-Williams.
Did you enjoy the Hannah Storm-directed documentary "Shaq and Dale" that premiered on Thursday night? I did, too. Turns out Davis wasn't even born yet when Shaq played at LSU and made his NBA debut in 1992.
4. Davis was the most clutch player in the NBA this season
When Davis hit the backbreaking buzzer-beater against the Oklahoma City Thunder back in February, no one knew it would eventually punch the Pelicans' playoff ticket. But it gave them the edge over Oklahoma City. As far as regular season goes, it doesn't get any more clutch than that.
According to win probability tracker Inpredictable.com, Davis raised the Pelicans' chances of winning so much this season that he single-handedly delivered 9.4 wins to New Orleans with timely shot-making and lack of late turnovers. No other player added more than six wins. His clutch rating lapped the field.
Davis made four baskets to take the lead in the final 24 seconds of the game this season, tying him for the league lead with Kemba Walker. But Walker also missed six such shots. Davis missed one.
5. Davis has an elite midrange jumper
Davis is known as a high-flying, catch-all finisher, but his jumper is quickly becoming one of the most deadly weapons in the game. According to Vorped.com shot tracking, Davis has shot 50.8 percent (30-for-59) on the right elbow and 41.3 percent (43-for-104) at the top of the key (his sweet spot).
Overall, Davis has shot 41.9 percent on jumpers between 16 and 23 feet, which is above league average and superior to midrange mavens LaMarcus Aldridge (41.5 percent) and Blake Griffin (40.3 percent). Though he's not quite at the level of David West, Al Horford and Dirk Nowitzki in the midrange, Davis is better than most. If you're looking for his weakness, it's on the right baseline, where he's just shooting 28.2 percent this season.
6. Davis blocks but doesn't always protect
Davis is a physical freak, but he's still learning the rhythms and choreography of the NBA game. He leads the NBA in blocked shots (2.9 per game), but he occasionally finds himself out of position to protect the rim, which is part of the reason the New Orleans defense ranks a disappointing 22nd in the league.
It's not that Davis selfishly swats the ball out of bounds or blocks shots right back to the other team. According to SportVU player-tracking data, the Pelicans have obtained 65 percent of Davis' blocks this season, which is well above the league average of 58 percent. Instead, he's often late on rotations and slow to help from the weak side. He defends just 7.1 field goal attempts at the rim per game, which is 35th in the league and the same number as notoriously absent Kevin Love. The Warriors would be smart to attack when he's on the weak side.
7. Davis has been a bit fragile
What makes the Pelicans' season so remarkable is that they reached the playoffs despite losing their MVP candidate for 14 games. That's become a worrisome trend that has nagged Davis so far in his three-year career. And he's not out of the woods quite yet; he reportedly played through a dislocated finger in the regular-season finale against the Spurs and still managed to deliver 31 points and 13 rebounds.
For reference, here's a list of injuries that he's sustained in his NBA career: concussion, stress reaction in left ankle, sprained left shoulder, sprained MCL and bone bruise in left knee, fractured left hand, finger injury, upper respiratory infection, left ankle injury, back spasms, chest injury, sprained left toe, strained right groin, sprained right shoulder and sprained left ankle (again).
8. Davis has played the Warriors to a virtual dead heat
The Warriors were 3-1 in the regular-season series against the Pelicans, but that's a bit misleading. Two of those games came with Davis on the sideline. In fact, the Warriors enjoyed just a four-point edge in the 78 minutes that Davis was on the floor (171-167), underlining how pivotal Davis' health is in the overall picture.
Davis' defensive impact was felt on the scoreboard. With Davis on the floor, the Warriors mustered just 103.4 points per 100 possessions, well below their 115.6 mark with Davis riding pine in the regular-season series. For the Pelicans to have a chance, Davis needs to be on the floor as much as possible.
9. Davis loves playing with Jrue Holiday and Ryan Anderson
To get the most out of Davis this series, coach Monty Williams must make sure he's paired with Jrue Holiday and Ryan Anderson, a stretch-4. With Holiday on the floor, Davis has shot 57.3 percent from the floor. With backup Norris Cole on the floor, Davis shoots 51.9 percent. With Tyreke Evans? Just 53.2 percent, which is below his season average. Holiday is key.
In the big man department, Davis has fared much better alongside Anderson than he has Omer Asik, who takes up the middle. Next to the sharpshooting Anderson, Davis has hit 59 percent from the floor, but next to Asik that plummets to 50.8 percent. Space is king.
10. He loves to iso on the left block
One of Davis' many gifts is he can handle the rock like a guard despite standing almost 7 feet tall. He averages 3.4 isolations per game, according to STATS LLC's SportVU player-tracking data provided to ESPN Insider, which ranks in the 92nd percentile. He loves that left block (from the perspective of the point guard) as you can see in the chart below that illustrates where he begins his isolation plays.
However, he's not finding as much success as others. He's shooting just 38.9 percent off of isolations, which is below average, and the team scores only 102 points every 100 Davis isolation plays, which is merely average among all players. We'll see if he can take Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut off the dribble in this series, but those are two of the smartest defenders in the league.
11. Davis has a wonderful unibrow.
But you already knew that.
