5.8 rebounds per game. How is that not a dud for a 7 footer?? And I take back Arenas. He's not better than Matthews anyway.
It's early, Eric. Last season he averaged 9 RPG and the season before that he pulled down 8 RPG. The most important stat: Do you know how many games he's averaged in his first two season? 82, he hasn't missed a game yet. *knock on wood*
Do you think Blazers fans would embrace a center who averages less than 6 rebounds per game over 11 games?? Aldridge gets almost 9 rebounds per game and everyone thinks he's soft. Brook Lopez would be crucified in here. I'd rather have Oden in street clothes over Brook Lopez. No one will win a championship with Lopez.
Do you want to know what Blazer fans don't embrace? Inconsistency. Aldridge wouldn't catch so much flack if he were more consistent.
Really? So if Aldridge always got, say, 5 rebounds per game, fans would embrace him more than if he got 5 boards some nights and 10 boards other nights? I kinda doubt it. "Inconsistency" simply means Aldridge is not talented enough to get 10 rebounds per game, but more talented than a 5 rebound per game player. Consistent excellence takes a certain level of talent. Players without that level of talent are either consistently worse or else inconsistently oscillate between excellence and mediocrity. I'm not sure why, between those two forms of lesser ability level, one is more valuable than the other.
Aldridge is way more consistently good than Brook Lopez. Lopez isn't even a top 20 center in this league.
I was thinking more in the scoring department. Not so much in the rebounding department. I think if Aldridge was a consistent scorer, people would cut him more slack. I don't think he'll ever be a consistent rebounder.
My point, though, holds for scoring. Would people embrace Aldridge more if consistently scored 10 points in each game, rather than 10-12 some nights, 20-25 other nights? Again, my guess is no. When people say they want Aldridge to be "consistent," what they mean is they want him to be consistently awesome. Which is fine and all, but amounts to little more than "I want him to be more talented than he is." I want all the Blazers to be more talented than they are.
