He does, it's because of him that his team's jump up to big leagues
I disagree. Yes, Davis has improved and is putting up huge numbers, but I think the main reason the Pelicans are now a potential playoff team is health. The second biggest reason is the addition of a quality center to play next to Davis. The problem is, if you look at their top 6 players, they missed a combined 175 games last season. Evans was the only one that played at least 70 games. Gordon has had injury issues ever since his rookie year. He played 64 games last year, but only 42 the year before that and only 9 the year before that. Anderson missed 60 games last year, Holiday missed 48 and Asik missed 34. If NOP had been healthy last year, even without Asik, they would have likely been in the running for the 8th seed. So far this season, their top six players have missed a total of 2 games. That's the main reason or their improved winning percentage.
they just can't finish and that's the trait of youth. Which is literally everyone on that roster. If Ryan anderson and John salmons are your team vets.. That's hard.
Disagree again, outside of Davis, their top six players are:
Omar Asik, age 28, in his 5th season
Jrue Holiday, age 24, in his 6th season
Eric Gordon, soon to be 27, in his 7th season
Tyreke Evans, age 25, in his 6th season
Ryan Anderson, age 26, in his 7th season
These are are all guys in their mid to late 20s with several years of NBA experience. They aren't first or second year players in their early 20s. They should all be in their primes. The problem isn't youth, it's a lack of a winning pedigree. Gordon, Evans and Holiday all came to NOP from losing teams.
Davis does, however, suffer from youth when it comes to closing out games. The guy has a tremendous amount of talent, but he hasn't yet figured out how to use that talent to help his team win games in the 4th quarter. You saw the perfect example of that here in Portland. Davis owned the first three quarters, but with the game on the line, the veteran Aldridge calmly stepped up and out played Davis in the 4th quarter to lead his team from 15 point deficit to a 9 point win.
But, as others have mentioned, Davis is still only 21. He will figure out how to use his tremendous talent to help his team win games. He's not there yet, but it will come with experience.
BNM