New Orleans Hornets rookie Anthony Davis remains upbeat

• Hornets rookie Anthony Davis isn't letting a stress reaction in his left ankle discourage him.
• Davis says his time on the sideline has let him see the game from a coach's perspective.
• Davis says he looks forward to seeing what a fully healthy Hornets roster can do.

Entering this season, top overall pick Anthony Davis was considered the frontrunner to win the Rookie of the Year award and expected to turn around the New Orleans Hornets. However, Davis has been sidelined for all but six games with a stress reaction in his sprained left ankle. On Friday, he'll miss his tenth consecutive game, but it's looking like he'll return to the court pretty soon.

Davis hasn't been medically cleared to practice yet, but he has been with the team and remained active. The Hornets have him on a rehab program as well as a developmental program. The 19-year-old believes he'll be even better when he returns since he's been observing and learning from the bench.

"Now, I'm starting to see the game from a coach's point of view," Davis said. "I'm sitting on the bench, watching, looking at guy's tendencies and seeing what they like to do. I'm seeing the flow of the game and what to do in certain situations. It's helping me learn a lot. The coaches are helping me a lot and I'm watching a lot of film of myself and what I can do better. It just gives me time to rest and I'm just trying to learn from this and hopefully stay healthy when I come back."

While Davis has only played in six games, he has been exceptional every time he has taken the court. Davis currently has the fourth-highest Player Efficiency Rating in the NBA at 26.36, which trails only LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Tim Duncan. While Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard has emerged as the early frontrunner to win Rookie of the Year, his PER is just 18.49.

If Davis maintains this PER for the rest of the season, he'll have had one of the best rookie seasons of all-time. Davis' 26.36 PER would be the higher than just about every modern superstar during their rookie campaign including Michael Jordan (25.8), Shaquille O'Neal (22.9), Tim Duncan (22.6), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (22.5), Magic Johnson (20.6), Larry Bird (20.5), LeBron James (18.3) and Kevin Garnett (15.8).

"It's been great so far," Davis said of his rookie experience. "Besides some of the injuries that I've had, everything has been going good so far and I'm just having fun with it. I definitely love being a rookie and I definitely love playing on this stage. It's a great experience and what I always dreamed of from day one. Now that it's finally here, I'm just going out there and having fun with it."

Davis insists he isn't paying attention to this year's Rookie of the Year race.

"Not really, I'm just out here trying to have fun," Davis said when asked if he's paying attention to the R.O.Y. race. "Damian Lillard is a great player and there are other rookies out there who great players as well, but I'm just out here having fun. If I win, I win. If I don't, I don't. I'm just out here having fun and I'm just happy to be in the league. Most guys don't get that opportunity and God blessed me with it so I'm just out here trying to have fun and enjoy it."

Davis has been learning alongside fellow rookies Austin Rivers, Brian Roberts and Darius Miller. The group is close and together they've been able to go through the ups and downs that come with being a rookie.

"We're all rookies and we're just glad to be here to be honest with you," Davis said. "To experience all of this with these guys throughout the course of the year, it's going to be fun for us."

The Hornets are expecting to get Davis back in the next few weeks and Eric Gordon back before the end of the month. That will be the first time that New Orleans has been at full strength all season. Davis thinks this team has a lot of potential and could surprise some people this season.

"We can be very good," Davis said of the Hornets. "We just have to defend and play hard. That's what New Orleans basketball is and that's what teams are used to seeing from us. We're going to go out there and play hard. We kind of fell off from that for a couple of games, but we're going to get right back to it. We started getting back after it in practice and we just have to have that dog in us and defend for the whole 48 minutes of the game instead of in spurts."

While Davis hasn't been able to do much physically while injured, he has been working a lot individually with Hornets head coach Monty Williams. They study game film and work on post moves after practices. Williams has made it clear that he'll play Davis as soon as he's healthy enough to go, even if it means bringing him off of the bench and gradually working him back into the rotation.

"I'm learning the little things that can definitely make me better and make the team better," Davis said of his work with Coach Williams. "It's as simple as keeping your foot down when you're spinning, little things like that. He teaches that a lot, just the little things that can help make the team better. You know, boxing someone out because giving up that rebound can hurt us in the end when we're going up against a veteran team. We're always working on the little things and we'll try to go from there."

Davis couldn't be happier in New Orleans and he's hoping to experience success with the Hornets, or Pelicans, for years to come.

"It has embraced me well – the city of New Orleans really loves me and I love the city of New Orleans," Davis said with a smile. "Hopefully we can have this relationship for a long time. Hopefully we can turn some things around, and maybe win a championship later on down the line."

Alex Kennedy writes for HOOPSWORLD, a USA TODAY Sports Media Group affiliate.