Anthony Davis reveals the 268 lbs Lakers experiment that wrecked his shot

Anthony Davis admitted the weight he packed on while playing center for the Lakers messed with his shot, according to www.basketballnetwork.net. When asked directly if the added bulk affected his jumper, Davis answered, “It does, man.”

The big man didn't sugarcoat how the experiment felt. “Bro, I didn’t like it. I feel heavy,” he said, per the source.

Davis revealed he ballooned to 268 pounds that year, a significant jump from his usual playing weight of 250-255. The extra mass was meant to help him battle the NBA's elite bigs, but it came at a cost to his mobility and comfort on the floor.

The source states Davis told the team he preferred playing alongside another big man and sliding back to his natural power forward spot. The exact season in which Davis weighed 268 is not explicitly confirmed in the source, though it is placed around the 2024-25 campaign.

FROM POWER FORWARD TO CENTER

Davis entered the NBA as a reed-thin 230-pound power forward out of Kentucky, per www.basketballnetwork.net. His mobility was one of his biggest advantages, a pogo-stick vertical paired with a defensive willingness that few players his age exhibited.

He was the 2012 first-overall pick and spent seven seasons in New Orleans before being traded to the Lakers, according to the source. The specific details of that trade are not confirmed beyond the report that he was dealt "for a haul."

The Lakers needed him to patrol the middle, so by the 2021-22 season, Davis played center full-time, per the source. He had spent much of his career at power forward, where his ability to move and switch onto perimeter scorers made him a nightmare matchup.

But the team wanted him to battle big men every night. That meant banging bodies with the likes of Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic, and Davis decided he needed to bulk up to withstand it, according to the source.