Anthony Davis gives Mavericks fans bold promise amidst Luka Doncic peril

The Dallas Mavericks are coming off one of their most impressive team victories of this entire season, as Dallas beat the defending champion Boston Celtics despite being undermanned. Dallas was without the likes of P.J. Washington, Dereck Lively II, Caleb Martin, and Anthony Davis in this contest, which goes to show just how lethal Dallas' defensive frontcourt could become once everyone gets healthy.

The trajectory of this Mavericks season has more questions and unknowns than any other Mavericks team in history at this juncture of the season, as it's simply hard to calculate the potential of this current lineup with former superstar Luka Doncic being the face of the franchise and Dallas' offense for long.

Through three games without Doncic, it still hasn't fully sunk in that the Slovenian superstar will never return to the court for the Mavericks at this stage in his career. And as much as this stings and fans will covet Doncic's career going forward, true Mavericks fans are eager to see this new roster take the court. This will be an opportunity for many of Dallas' role players to get a more expansive role offensively, particularly in the case of newly acquired 21-year-old Max Christie, as Christie has flashed dynamic shot-creation ability while playing in a point-of-attack defending and spot-up shooting role off the bench through two games with the Mavericks.

However, it's blatantly obvious that Dallas needs Davis to be playing at the peak of his powers if they want this whole thing to work out, as President of Basketball Operations Nico Harrison made an all-in and win-now move with the Doncic-Davis swap.

Anthony Davis is ready to bring 'life' to the city of Dallas

This was a sentiment that Davis echoed at Dallas' introductory press conference for their new acquisitions on Friday afternoon, as Davis was upbeat and excited about his opportunity with the Mavericks. This could be evidenced by one quote in this presser in particular, as Davis was asked by ESPN's Tim MacMahon how he would cope with coming into a situation where fans have been visibly extremely upset about Doncic getting traded, and Davis handled this question with flying colors.

"I get who Luka was to this franchise, to this city," Davis said. "I'm never gonna downplay that--I'm not surprised by the fans' reaction and the city's reaction, but it's my job to come in and play basketball and do what I'm supposed to do, and give the fans hope and reassurance on why Nico brought me here...I'm gonna give the city life back."

Davis understands what Dallas fans are going through and this goes deeper than his words, as he's had an illustrious 13-year career and truly understands how harsh the business side of the NBA is. It sounds like he is bound and determined to prove to Mavericks fans that is still nearly an MVP caliber player and is excited to be the new face of an organization with a new play-style, and he is sending the perfect message to Mavericks fans in the midst of a PR crisis.

Dallas fans won't stop mourning the loss of Doncic anytime soon, but the proposition of a top-10 player and a versatile defensive chess piece in Davis being paired with Kyrie Irving as well as dynamic 3-and-D role players, is definitely an intriguing team to say the very least.

The Mavs will have unparalleled size defensively in any lineup they want to mix and match once Lively II returns from his ankle fracture, and there's a pretty decent argument to be made that Dallas' only non-elite defenders in their rotation are Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, Jaden Hardy, and Klay Thompson.

None of those players would even be considered poor defenders by any metrics, with Dinwiddie likely being the worst defender out of that whole quad, and he's considered fairly average by most defensive metrics. Davis will alleviate and clean up mistakes that not even Gafford and Lively II can get to, and Dallas could definitely make some noise in the playoffs with Davis anchoring down the four spot, though Davis will have to back his promising quotes to fans through his play on the court.