a much higher % of his shots come in the low post... where both Greg and Joel reside. Checking out some advanced stats, I was surprised to see that Al's J was about as effective as LA's congrats on being redundant. He entered the league in the same class as Greg and Durant so he's on the tail end of his rookie deal... or, apples and oranges. The way the market has gone since LA resigned, Al's next contract will likely leapfrog LA's by a good amount (see David Lee). Regardless of how large that turns out to be, it's not my money STOMP
Aldridge had 42% eFG last season on jump shots. Horford was at 43%. That said, I do agree that Horford was more efficient on offense. I just don't see him having a huge advantage over Alridge in the outside game. Plus, and this is my observation only, Aldridge tends to take the 19' jumper, while Horford takes a 15' jumper, and they basically hit the same percentage. If Oden is healthy, I'd rather have the guy who can spread the court, which is Aldridge. http://www.82games.com/0910/09POR13.HTM http://www.82games.com/0910/09ATL11.HTM
I was too, but I do think that Aldridge has more range, although I don't have a statistic to add to that point.
You might want to watch Horford play a little bit more before stating he does not have a post game, because he does. All of his buckets come in the paint, and he does have a few go to moves. Is getting a rebound and scoring off of it better than not getting the rebound at all? Even on the NBATV preview all of the announcers were dogging on Aldridge rebounding and dirty work. All 3. The problem is, Lamarcus doesn't recognize there is a problem. You can have your offense and have your dirty work get done too. You don't have to settle just for one. It cracks me up every year he is like "I want to make the all star team" and then he is disappointed when he doesn't make it. Yet at the same time, he comes in year after year, the same game, no improvement. No more rebounds. You either firgure it out or you don't. If he doesn't figure it out by this year, nothing will ever change for the rest of his career.
Same. That's not to say LMA is a hot plate of garbage, but Horford is the superior all-around talent irrespective of how either might fit in with Oden ... and frankly any approach from here on out that attempts to make Oden the keystone is deeply flawed.
He has no post moves, he may score in the paint, but it's all hustle and putback! Nothing wrong with that, but it demands no double team which in turn helps out other players. I like Horford, but just not more then LA. And as far as $$$$$ goes, isn't he still on his rookie contract?
He may not be a polished low post scorer, but he has a helluva face-up game and can put the ball on the floor and drive a little bit, which makes him a much more dangerous threat than Aldridge ... unless of course the new and improved LMA has also added this part of the game to his aresenal (hence the 12 FTAs against Utah the last game).
If his teammates would feed him the dam ball early and often he could average that ^^^ I was furious at the Utah game because how slow the ball movement was and how they didn't look to LMA first
wait, did you really just intimate that the teammates over the last two years haven't fed LMA the ball early and often?
We get it. What we're saying is that Horford is a post player, while LaMarcus is a mid-range player. With Oden, LMA fits like a glove.
I'm having a hard time understanding your question. ( due to spelling and possible sarcasm ) But yes they need to feed it to him quicker we he's low, if he gets pushed out, he needs to pass the ball out and get it moving again, then back into position again. LMA is so quick I think he can be an effective post player, maybe not traditional, but effective. I blame his teammates for not giving him the ball earlier when he's in good position.
I was using this definition: And no sarcasm, I was actually asking if you really were saying that "if his teammates fed him the dam (sic) ball early and often" he would have better averages...because I think that a large portion of our team's success or failures hinges on how many of the jumpers he takes in the first 8-10 minutes of the game go in. I don't know that I've seen many Blazers games where I think "man, I wish they'd try to get LMA some shots early!". It's generally the opposite.
What I'm implying is that I believe all his FTA, drives, and good shots come when the ball is fed to him low and early. And the bad jumpers come when the ball arrives late.
I think Horford is significantly better than Aldridge. Mark me down as agreeing with Nik's posts in this thread.
I don't agree with the premise that two frontcourt players can't share the paint. Pau and Bynum do it in LA.
Horford plays center for Atlanta ( http://www.82games.com/0910/09ATL11.HTM ), and Josh Smith plays the bulk of his minutes at PF. Aldridge plays PF for the Blazers. The question is whether you'd rather have Oden or Horford, since they were both in the same draft class.
The few times Horford actually gets double teamed (because there rarely is the need) he does't look too good either. His contract is half of LMA's now becasue he has not signed his next contract yet. I assume if he is good as you all say, he will get a bump in pay.
Everyone says Horford's natural position is PF, and I agree. The question is not whether I would have Oden or Horford, since no one asked that.
Wrong. LMA's woes have a ton more to do with the fact that he has poor footwork, doesn't do a very good job of establishing good post position and tends to fall away on turn around jumpers and has very few counter moves (like a drop step) so defenders usually have greater latitude to crowd him and contest his shots ... which, to his credit he still hits fairly routinely.
