I agree Aldridge isn't used as well as he could be. I wish we had Adelman as our coach, or Poppovich, or a fountain of youth Jack Ramsey or a few other names one could throw out. I still don't get why we went away from LMA rolling hook across the middle. During the 2008/09 season that was by far our most deadly play.
That is specifically one area that I hope he is working on this summer. 1000 hooks a day. That hook shot needs to be "money". He seems to flick it up instead of confidently shooting it. It always seems to bounce around the rim and either rolls in or out. If he can just master that this summer I would be thrilled. He gets it off very easily. He just needs to perfect it!
I saw that rolling hook quite often last season. I don't think we went away from it. More than likely, other teams realised if he was making a move, that was the only one he had, and gameplanned to deny it.
I think we stopped feeding him the ball after he missed one, or even forgot about him when he was hot
Well, if he's hurt, then I'd want him declining, sure. If he fakes an inury, he's likely to get a fine. S o now, you're asking him to pay to skip an event. Totally different. And, he'd still have to show up and take part in the festivities, just not play.
That's not an option, though, so why even enter it into the discussion? What if he was allowed to collect his check, but never show up to any regular season games? Should he? Pointless. He can decline the Team USA invite. He did. I'm happy, because he plays for my team, and as a season ticket holder, I pay to see Blazers games. If he gets hurt playing for team USA, I don't get some money back, and I also don't get tickets to see him play for Team USA.
All-star game doesn't matter, can't get injured doing this... [video=youtube;kmbh7pqYFDw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmbh7pqYFDw[/video]
My understanding is that the All-Star game, like pre-season games, are part of his contractual obligation...part of what he's being paid for. If he made a non-NBA All-Star game, I'd be perfectly fine with him declining to reduce the amount of competitive basketball he plays for the sake of staying in good health for his professional career.
After reading through all of these responses I have to ask it. Am I the only one who sees this as neither a positive or negative story? I mean I literally have no reaction to this news.
After the season we just had I can totally understand people being so uptight about him maybe getting injured, but c'mon. These guys are athletes, the risk of injury is there no matter where they're training/playing. We can't treat them all like bubble-boy. Playing for their countries didn't hurt Kobe, Pau, or Dwight in 2008. They all made it to the gold medal game then made it to the NBA finals the very next season. Batum vastly improved his game due to the time he spent on his national team. I just think it would be a great experience and it is a great opportunity. I guess I'm just wired differently than Aldridge and some of you, since I see playing for the United States quite a privledge. But maybe he does have a good reason.
