A recurring topic ever since the Lakers got Anthony Davis was which hairstyle does he play his best at. I decided to check all his games as a Laker to finally answer this question. I used basketball-reference.com for the stats and used highlights and official Laker photosets of each game to determine his hairstyle. Since I manually did this in around 2 hours, I doubt I didn’t make any mistakes. I’m fairly sure it’s 90% accurate though.
| Hairstyle | W-L Record | Games | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3PT% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drop Fade | 67-26 | 93 | 24.5 | 8.8 | 3.1 | 1.4 | 2.1 | 0.502 | 0.310 | 0.813 |
| Afro | 6-8 | 14 | 22.9 | 12.7 | 3.4 | 0.8 | 2.1 | 0.517 | 0.111 | 0.768 |
| Braids | 39-27 | 76 | 24.4 | 10.6 | 3.2 | 1.1 | 2.0 | 0.541 | 0.279 | 0.764 |
| Tied-up Braids | 38-26 | 64 | 25.2 | 11.7 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 2.4 | 0.548 | 0.295 | 0.828 |
Complete stats: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KYZi8jylxkq1Sn3oRx5H4Rjs1VLjW6UOgEsrogPvflo/edit?usp=sharing
Thoughts and insights:
- I’m very surprised that Afro AD only made 14 appearances as of now.
- Afro AD is 2/18 from three.
- He played with the drop fade in every game pre-Covid which explains the high W-L record.
- It seems that the tied-up braids is his best hairstyle. Highest PPG and BPG, second-highest RPG, best overall shooting splits.
I didn’t get why people were so hyped when afro AD came back, last season it felt like that was far and away the worst version of him. Glad it’s turning around though.