Is the bolded part your projections of LA's stats this year? Last year Aldridge averaged 17.9/8.1 the year before 18.1/7.5, the year before 17.8/7.6 and in his rookie season he averaged 22 minutes and averaged 9/5. He is soft, but let's hope he doesn't regress 2 rebounds a game. My gracious, you may as well sign a broomstick in a skirt to stick out there at the 4. I agree that LMA seems to have stagnated. I am hoping that he opted out of the USA team so he could work on his body and his game. If he just gets determined about going inside a little more and puts forth a little extra effort rebounding and drawing fouls he could still improve. He is what he is a highl skilled big who is a little passive...
LMA is the best "4th-best player on his team" in the league. Usually, a team doesn't send 4 to the all-star team though.
You’re right, I grabbed the wrong stats for all of the players that made the playoffs. I meant to show last year’s season stats. I listed Zach and D. Lee first and second, and the stats next to their pictures at NBA.com are their regular season stats. I didn’t notice that those change to playoff stats for the players that made the post season. So, I listed playoff stats for all but Zach and Lee. Here are the regular season AND playoff numbers: Zach 21/12 regular season Lee 20/12 regular season Pau 18/11 regular season, 20/11 playoffs TD 18/10 regular season, 19/10 playoffs Dirk 25/8 regular season, 27/8 playoffs Melo 28/7 regular season, 31/8.5 playoffs KD 30/7 regular season, 25/8 playoffs LA 18/8 regular season, 19/6 playoffs While I did screw up the stats, it doesn’t change the point I was making at all. There are still a LOT of damned good forwards in the West. There are clearly 7-8 players as worthy, or more worthy, of the AS game than LA. I like LA, and I think he will be a big part of the Blazers winning a title, if that ever happens again. But, he doesn’t have be an all star for that to happen. Go Blazers
