Well, he wasn't with Brandon Roy as our franchise player. Iso-heavy wing offense is stagnant and pretty much sucks in the playoffs. But if you put that same single-minded focus into getting Aldridge the ball on every possession, well, who isn't a fan of that? It's not like it sticks there--LMA passes it out willingly when teams double down and open shots and driving lanes are there to be had by other players. He's basically running the same offense the Spurs have always run under Popovich. Get it in the post, watch what the defense does, react. Limit turnovers. Control the pace. Play hard defense and rebound well. It's not Nate's fault that Batum/Matthews/Fernandez have been shaky on hitting the same open three pointers the Spurs offense always generates. It may just take a while to get the new rhythm of the game down. In the past we had an unwilling post scorer (Sheed) and then an unwilling post passer/defender (Z-bo). We've finally got the dream post player in Aldridge. I'd lost hope on Nate's system. But Aldridge's emergence and how he's changed the whole focus of the team is making me think twice.
...this! Nate would show glimpses of this in the past, getting it into Oden and/or LMA early in the games, but then he would completely abandon this strategy in lieu of B.Roy ISOs. Pound it in the paint and the rest will follow!
Interesting fact: if the blazers continue their post-Roy winning percentage (66.67%) for the rest of the season, we're on pace to win either 49 or 50 games, depending on luck. This despite our record 18 games ago (12-14).
what's a bit funny (I agree that I like the "go to LMA down low" plan right now) is that Pop's gone much more uptempo offense than in the past (they're 14th, iirc in pace) and now the highest offensive effiiency in the league. We're last in pace and 16th in OEff, btw.
We do have a lot of streaky shooters on the team, and can go minutes in a drought... that'll drop your OEff in a hurry. The old system used a guaranteed weapon (Roy) with a solid mid-range escape valve (LMA) as the backup, with another solid long-range escape valve (Blake) as the other major option. Stand around in place and shoot to get good efficiency in that system. San Antonio's a bunch of motherfucking all-world professionals who have seen it all five times over, and are playing fantastic ball because of strong chemistry and familiarity (as well as insane skills); there's no doubt that they of all the teams could play fast paced basketball while still being incredibly efficient.
Yep. Manu is playing at MVP level IMO. Just remember that folks. It wasn't that long ago he underwent the same ankle surgery that hammered Grant Hill for a large part of his career, and many thought Manu's days as a dominant player were over. Far from it.
Force feeding Aldridge is not the way to go. I like that they get the ball down to him as much as they do, but NBA defenses will be quick to stop that
