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The big things that came to mind when I sat down to analyze Anthony Davis were negatives: he misses a lot of games, and he’s aging — he’ll turn 34 in March.
As Southern Utah University sports economist and author of Wages of Wins David Berri has written, NBA players age like milk.
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A few other things stand out about Davis, though — mainly how frigging terrific he is when he does play. For example, Davis has six seasons with a PPA of 200 or higher. That’s six more than the Washington Wizards/Bullets franchise has posted since 1977-78.
Can Anthony Davis stay healthy long enough to help the Wizards this season? | Getty Images
Reminder: PPA is my all-around statistical production metric, which accounts for rule, pace, and defense. In PPA, average is 100 and higher is better. A score of 200+ for a full season in PPA would typically merit All-NBA honors and make the individual an MVP candidate. Davis, by the way, is five-time All-NBA, five-time All-Defense, and likely would have another of each if he’d been healthier in his final season with New Orleans.
Has Davis been great? You bet. Will he continue to be? That’s a tougher question. Athletes at Davis’ age tend to do two things reliably: get worse and get hurt. Davis got the jump on the whole “getting hurt” thing. And, he has been getting worse too — his last 200+ PPA season was 2019-20, though he did get close in 2022-23 (195) and 2023-24 (188).
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Last season, his PPA was 157, which is very good. He managed just 20 games and 626 minutes, though he likely would have returned to the court if he’d been with a team that had any inclination to attempt winning. Which was not the Wizards, of course.
The Wizards want to compete this season, and their hope is that Davis will be able to show The Way to Alex Sarr. And it might work if Davis is healthy and motivated enough to practice, play in most of the games, and travel with the team regularly.
When I ran Davis’ 2025-26 season through the Statistical Doppelganger Machine, I confess that I hoped to get a few throwbacks. I wanted Robert Parish, who posted a 170 PPA at age 39 and didn’t play fewer than…
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Publish date : 2026-09-26 11:00:00
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