Raps' Davis buying in bulk

Already Davis is showing a knack for making himself large as opponents get to the basket. His rebounding and blocking skills are probably the most advanced of his skill set. He is a tenacious rebounder on the offensive boards as well earning putbacks and tip-ins on a nightly basis. Slowly but surely he’s beginning to shoot the ball with some confidence.

But in order to play in the NBA and be effective at the power forward position Davis will one day own, size and strength are a must. At

6-foot-10 and 225 pounds right now, Davis is considerably undersized at the position.

The injury — a meniscal tear in his right knee in mid September — as disheartening as it had to be given the timing of it, was, in Cuzzolin’s opinion quite possibly a good thing because it opened Davis’ eyes to what he needed to do to not just to be in the league but to excel in it.

“The injury was the key moment for him,” Cuzzolin said. “Without injuries you can’t spend so much time just thinking about yourself. He was outside the court, watching games, watching practice and seeing how the others were, comparing them to himself.”

In that time, Davis came to realize what still had to be done. The work away from the court, in the weight room and even at the dinner table in order to add the kind of good bulk he needs to be competitive with the veteran big men who dominate the league.

It’s something the entire coaching and support staff had been telling him but something that really hit home as he rehabbed that injury.

In short, Cuzzolin believes Davis developed the proper mindset in that month and a half as a spectator and he thinks it will serve him well the rest of his career. He helped and watched Andrea Bargnani go from a skinny seven-footer to a solid 250 pounds and believes Davis can do the same.

“I think it will take him a couple of years to become really competitive but with his mindset, he can reach his goals,” Cuzzolin said.

Davis said he expects to add another 10 pounds this summer.

“Since I was in the ninth grade, my summer plan was to always continue to get stronger and put on weight. But it’s not all about just seeing how much weight you can put on because I could put on 25 pounds easily if I wanted to,” Davis said. “It’s more I want to put on weight, be solid, still be able to move and jump and not put so much wear and tear on my knees. I just want to come back with low body fat, in shape, and not just get big.”