Davis played one season of college basketball. Kentucky won the 2012 national title, he was the national player of the year and the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, and on June 28, 2012, the New Orleans Hornets took him first overall.

He made his debut on Oct. 31, 2012, at 19, and finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting with 13.5 points and 8.2 rebounds a game.

By his third season he was an All-NBA first-teamer. In February 2016 he had 59 points and 20 rebounds in a win at Detroit, and a year later he scored 52 points in the All-Star Game in New Orleans, a record, and was named its MVP.

The team around him rarely kept up. The Pelicans made the playoffs twice in his seven seasons, and their only series win was a 2018 first-round sweep of Portland.

Points per game with New Orleans

In January 2019 he asked to be traded. The deal came that summer: on July 6, 2019, the Pelicans sent him to the Lakers for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, the No. 4 pick in that year’s draft and more future first-round picks.

His first season with LeBron James ended with a championship. In the 2020 playoffs at Walt Disney World he averaged 27.7 points on 57.1% shooting, hit a buzzer-beating three to win Game 2 of the Western Conference finals against Denver, and the Lakers beat Miami in six games in the Finals on Oct. 11, 2020.

The next three seasons were harder. He played 36 games in 2020-21 and 40 in 2021-22. The Lakers reached the conference finals again in 2023, where Denver swept them, and in 2023-24 he played a career-high 76 games and averaged 24.7 points and 12.6 rebounds.

On Feb. 2, 2025, the Lakers traded him to Dallas with Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick in the deal that sent Luka Doncic to Los Angeles.

His Mavericks debut on Feb. 8 lasted until late in the third quarter: 26 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks before a left adductor strain kept him out for more than six weeks.

1. Feb. 8, 202526 points and 16 rebounds in a 116-105 win over Houston, then the adductor strain.
2. March 24, 2025Returns at Brooklyn after more than six weeks out.
3. April 18, 202540 points and nine rebounds in a 120-106 play-in loss at Memphis that ends the Mavericks' season.
4. Jan. 8, 2026His last game for Dallas. Ligament damage in his left hand keeps him out from there.

On Feb. 5, 2026, the trade deadline, Dallas sent him to Washington with D’Angelo Russell, Jaden Hardy and Dante Exum in a three-team deal. The Mavericks got Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Marvin Bagley III, Tyus Jones from Charlotte, two first-round picks and three second-rounders.

Washington had traded for Trae Young the month before. The two never played together last season: Davis never got on the floor for the Wizards, and in April coach Brian Keefe said they had tried to ramp him up but ran out of time.

Wizards wins, last three seasons

Fifty wins in three seasons put Washington back at the top of the lottery, and in June the Wizards drafted AJ Dybantsa first overall.

Davis's games played by season

On Oct. 21, 2026, against Milwaukee, the crowd at Capital One Arena started chanting “MVP” with 4:16 left in the first quarter. He had 10 points in the quarter and 18 in the third, The Wizards trailed 93-90 going into the fourth, then went on a 21-2 run early in the quarter and won 128-116.