With Boozer and Amare gone East, Aldridge is primed to make the All Star team, the way he and the team are playing.
There's still plenty of other good forwards in the west, so nothing is in the bag yet, but I think he would definitely deserve to go if he keeps this up.
Still has competition from Melo, Durant, Griffin, Duncan, Gasol, West, ZBo, Scola (he's been amazing so far this year), and Millsap. I think he'll make it this year if we're top 3 in the west when the coaches pick players.
I didn't. His stats might be decent, but Minny under utilizes him, so his impact is minimal, and the team won't be winning. (I considered something similar for Griffin, but I think the Clips will be somewhat decent by midseason.)
I've said it the past few years so I might as well say it again. This will be LaMarcus's breakout season! He'll be more physical, draw more fouls, and kick some ass!
Kind of cool to see Aldridge "go Nowitzki" (expand his low post game) and "go Rasheed" (expand his range to the three point line) at the same time. My problem with Rasheed jacking all those three pointers was just that he wasn't that great at them. I mean, 35% is passable if you are a guard/sf, but if you are a big man taking that many threes it should be because you are freakin' fantastic at it.
5 blocks is very nice. That had been one thing that had been frustrating me about Aldridge. He averaged almost 2 blocks his first year. Then the next year the number went down. Then it went down again the next year to .85 blocks per game. Everybody knows a 6'11" athletic player who is really long should block more than .85 blocks per game. Maybe somebody finally got his switch turned to "on". That sure would be nice.
I think in the past Aldridge was really trying to work his way into being an elite offensive player (mostly with the midrange jumper.) Who can blame him? Guys who can score 22-25 ppg get paid the most. He never really succeeded at it, but he did do well enough at it to establish himself in the league. He's clearly no Tyrus Thomas. Now that he's got his contract sewn up and his place pretty well cemented onto the team, he seems to be forgetting about the "jump shooter" strategy and just trying to be the best true Power Forward he can be.
I wonder if some of this is also just a function of role models. You are often a product of the people who surround you. If you hang out with fat people, statistics show you are far, far more likely to be overweight. Who were the other big men on the team early in his career? Jamaal Magloire, Zach Randolph, Przybilla, Channing Frye, Raef LaFrentz. Maybe Outlaw at PF sometimes. What a group of role models for a budding young (he was only 24 last year) power forward. Sure, Przybilla was tough, but Aldridge also could see he wasn't getting paid nearly the money a scorer like Randolph was. He was "the garbage man," not exactly somebody you emulate. In the last few years you had Przybilla, Pendergraph, Oden and now Camby, with a cameo by a very gritty and grizzled Juwan Howard. It's just a different culture for big men on this team. And I think Aldridge's offseason and his performance so far is starting to reflect that new culture.
Agreed. It's like someone said, "You know, you're 6'11", have long arms and can jump. Have you ever thought about blocking some shots?"
The shot chart and the box score are definitely telling, but it was also just a different presence from him last night. The guy just played physical. In three seasons I don't think I've ever seen him play like that. Sure, he's had some decent rebounding games, or he's had some games where he's blocked shots, but this was a complete game in the post. I was extremely impressed. He looked like a totally different player last night and I loved it. I really wonder if Luke's death inspired him to play harder...
