Anthony Davis boldly shuts down brutal Mavericks doubts over biggest signing

After a couple of days of training camp in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Dallas Mavericks have already fallen victim to the injury curse that plagued them last season, as Daniel Gafford and Brandon Williams have already suffered injuries before any preseason action can even kick off.

While it seems like both players will be healthy by the start of the season, this increases the workload on players such as Anthony Davis and D'Angelo Russell in the meantime, but Davis thinks Russell is poised to take what's in front of him this season for the Mavericks. At Dallas' media day on Monday, Davis spoke glowingly of his former teammate, knocking the notion that Russell isn't a winning player.

"D-Lo's going to push the pace, obviously, we all know he can score," Davis said at media day. "He's an elite scorer in this league. He's very vocal, he wants to win." Davis went on to elaborate that he talked to Russell earlier in the summer when he decided to sign with Dallas, mentioning Russell turned down more lucrative offers for a chance to start (until Kyrie Irving comes back) and be in a winning situation, which tracks well considering Russell only signed for the Taxpayer's MLE.

Davis thinks Russell can contribute to winning basketball in Dallas

Russell has undoubtedly struggled from a defensive perspective throughout his career, and there's still a chance Williams could overtake his spot in the rotation if he finishes camp and the preseason in strong fashion, but Russell is also probably the best pure point guard/playmaker Dallas currently has available, so Davis isn't saying these things from a pure bias perspective by any means, even if him and Russell were former teamates and already have a pre-existing relationship.

Davis and Russell will already have a great on-court relationship when it comes to understanding each other's tendencies and operating in the pick-and-roll together, so it's great to see Davis boldly backing Russell's ability and leadership, given the skepticism amongst some fans and members of the national media in regard to Russell's ability to be Dallas' starting point guard.

Russell had the worst shooting season of his career last year for the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers, but as aforementioned, he has every reason to perform at his best this season given he's practically in the middle of his prime at 29 years old, is in a contract year, and has seen his league-wide perception dip amongst most critics over the last handful of seasons.

Davis repeatedly mentioned the situation being a deterring factor as to why Russell may not have reached his peak as a player in recent seasons, and given the Nets' losing situation last year, as well as there already being a plethora of shot creators on the Lakers, it makes sense why he may have had trouble finding his role in recent seasons.

However, while the Mavericks aren't expecting Russell to return to the same level of production as his All-Star season in 2018-19, they need him to be an efficient three-level scorer who can set guys up and run the offense at an efficient enough rate until Irving comes back. Head coach Jason Kidd won't hesitate to play guys like Williams or Dante Exum ahead of Russell if he can't live up to expectations, but it's clear that won't be the case if Davis' assumptions about Russell are correct.