Official LaMarcus Aldridge Thread

Duncan is on that list man, and he shoots better in every category except 3-9 feet.

 

lma isnt as good as duncan! trade him!!

 

I don't see him?

http://www.hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx?team=%&type=pg&posi=PF&yr=2013&gp2=10&mins=20

 

Yeah, I stand by all of those statements. I may have drawn in a little hyperbole by saying he's the least coordinated PF in the league, but he IS quite uncoordinated for a starting PF. And he has never been a good shooter - it's right there in the numbers: ~42% from where he shoots the most. You can't disprove the fact that he's not a great shooter because you can't.
Keep digging, perhaps you'll find a post where I slipped up and called him a terrible shooter...

 

Maybe you don't have comprehension of "good". A good player is someone that is better than the average. Someone being good is getting a B over the majority of C averaged students. But you can strawman all you like.

And I never said he was a great shooter. I said he is a good shooter; which is pretty damn accurate.

 

That link is listed in alphabetical order based on 1st name, Duncan is the 2nd name on the 2nd page of results. Sort the columns by FG% for any of the areas listed and Duncan is higher on the list than Aldridge everywhere but in the 3-9ft category.

 

Oh thanks for the clarification... I didn't see the page 2 on the link. My bad

 

http://www.basketball-reference.com...tat=&c5comp=gt&c6mult=1.0&c6stat=&order_by=ws

6th most valuable big since he became a starter

 

Well then there was one season (last season, when shooting percentages for most players were down) where he was a "good" shooter. Again, let's compare apples to apples - PFs to PFs. We're talking about whether LMA is a good shooter for his position. Last season he shot better than the average PF from 16-23'. In all other seasons he has shot worse than the average PF from that range.

 

Oh are we talking past or present? What Aldridge has done and is doing now? What is more valuable? What means more to the future success?

I mean if we are talking past, then one could argue that Batum is a terrible player for all those past years of mediocre production. But that's not the case. Batum is playing out of his mind now; which is more valuable now and for the future of the franchise.

Stop cherry picking!

 

Seems he's not as clumsy as some think. He is 4th best among big men for least amount of turn-overs; bettering Dirk, Gasol, Duncan, West, Bosh, Lee, Stoudemire and Howard.

And he's 5th best among C-F for total blocks.

4th Best in scoring.

 

Talking career. For his career there was one season (last season) where he shot better than the average PF. This season he's shooting a career low from that spot.
But I really must get some work done today. Maybe I'll be back this afternoon.

 

Well with your statement that Batum is a more valuable player than Aldridge (using this career strawman); you are dead wrong.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/batumni01.html - Batum's Career PER of 15.8 and WS of 23

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/aldrila01.html - Aldridge's Career PER of 19.6 and WS of 39 with the same 5 years in the league as Batum.

Got any other strawman gems?

 

The funny thing is Aldridge isn't even my favorite player right now. It's Lillard. Batum is my second favorite. Aldridge is my third. Why I am so aggressively defending Aldridge is that blue9's comments are completely insane. Aldridge is still the best player on this team and without him this team would be lucky to have 12 wins this season. And for that, I want him on this team. I think acknowledgement that Aldridge is needed for success is due.

 

What level of success? Borderline playoffs? Then yes, he is absolutely essential. I just don't think he's the sort of player you can build around and create a contender. I also think that both Lillard and Nic have more to do with the success we've seen this season. I feel that we would have the same record - or a better record - if we had JJ playing PF and a real C (be it Monroe, Cousins, Noah, that guy in PHX who I'm blanking on...whoever).
The unfortunate thing is that on the surface it would appear that it'd be great to have LMA as our #3 guy. However, because he's such a poor help-defender and can't do the "little things" I don't think he's well suited to that role. I feel that that #3 guy needs to be able to contribute all those little things that make the team better than the sum of its parts - be able to quickly make the right read in order to make the right pass, set the solid picks that get guys open for shots or streaking towards the hoop for dunks, play tough-nosed defense against the ball not just the player they're assigned to. Bosh is now doing those things - I use to hate Bosh, just thought he was a slightly better version of LMA. But he's playing the #3 man role well. Haslem before him.
I guess it boils down to whether you think LMA can learn to do those little things that make a team go from good to great. I haven't seen anything that makes me think he can do that. He's certainly improved this year. His rebounding IS better (not just numbers, but technique), but I still don't think he's a force on the glass. His ability to recognize and pass out of the double team has improved a lot, but he was SO bad at it previously that it's really not saying a lot - he's still not a great passer and struggles passing into traffic to a player on the move. He still rarely reads and reacts quickly, which creates a hitch to the offense and allows the opponent's defense to set if it was previously scrambling. Given that he's 27 and has been in the league for 6 (?) years I don't think we can expect a whole lot of development from him - to this point he's shown zero ability to be even an adequate help-defender.
He looks good on paper, but what I see on the floor doesn't look like a guy who can be a Top 3 player on a contender. Perhaps all that's needed is a terrific defensive C to go next to him. I'm suspect of that though, for the reasons above. It would definitely make us a Playoff team that could possibly threaten to get to the WCF in a couple years, but I don't know that just a C and a bench would make this team a contender.
And as I've said before, much of my vitriol is a reaction to the overvaluation of his skills. If you say he's the BEST PF I'm going to go equally as far in the other direction. So definitely take my valuation of him with a grain of salt - but also really take a look at him and see him for what he is, not just what the popular opinion of him is. Because as we saw with Nate, popular opinion can be VERY wrong.

 

NBA players with 36 mpg (3/4 of a game for those who may not know this for some reason) and a PER of >= 19.

http://www.basketball-reference.com...5comp=gt&c6mult=1.0&c6stat=&order_by=mp_per_g

12 players on the list. 9 are All-Stars, Curry should have been over Parker looking at the stats, Deron Williams will probably get Rondo's spot, and Varejao has only played 25 games this year.

But LMA sucks...

 

LMA sucks because he's not a top five player ... and that's what's really going on here. It's not acceptable for a player to be just "really good." Unless they are great or a generational talent fuck 'em.

 

Stupid nba coaches voting in lma. Lma sucks! He does nothing right . The nba must be full of nba coaches that know nothing!

Did i do that right?

 

Not really. Its not just black and white like that. Aldridge is good, but he shouldn't be some untouchable guy, especially when there's so many holes on this roster. He's good no doubt. But, he's like a glorified Abdur-Rahim. He'll never carry a team anywhere of note as the main option.

 

I didn't say that, but that's sort of my point. Aldridge is a very good player ... not a great player, but the debate around here always seems to devolve into a player either being trash or completely awesome with almost no middle ground. I'd be cool if more people could be rational about this kind of stuff without getting so emotional.

Anyway, I think he's a little bit better than Shareef and I tend to agree that he's unlikely to be the linchpin for a championship team, but for as long as he's here I'm happy to have him and if he is traded I hope it's for a truly transformational player or for enough assets that the team has a reasonable shot of getting such a player through the draft or development.