Me thinks LA, aka "Mr. Passive", is content stepping aside and watching Lillard get all the press....touches.....etc., etc. As noted above, it's affecting his D (or lack thereof), as well.
I like that idea. - Hickson is playing like the best true Power Forward on the team, so you might as well use him there. - It probably opens up more perimeter scoring opportunities for Batum. - You would think with all that length it'd clear up a lot of our interior defensive problems. - Gives us scoring off the bench. Matthews is the kind of guy you can sell on a Microwave/Ginobili kind of role. - These hybrid 3/4's like Dirk, Mello, LeBron and Durant seem to be all the rage. It's all about creating mismatches. Put a SF on them and they overpower you. Put a PF on them and they out-quick/shoot you. Aldridge fits that prototype pretty well, even if he is going the other direction of PF->SF instead of SF->PF.
The guys is probably the best post scorer in the game. He can drive and finish with either hand, has the strength to overpower other teams' centers, and has the quickness to score on anybody. He can get guys in foul trouble every night. Such a waste with him playing the Dirk role.
It didn't help that twice he drove and the referees bailed out the defense with phantom charging calls. That's not exactly encouraging his power moves.
I thought yesterday's game was easily the most Aldridge tried to go inside, thanks to be guarded at times by Toliver. His perimeter shot selection isn't what bothers me the most though, it's his effort on defense. Between him and JJ we have no interior defense, at all. Atlanta would drive and no one helped out, they probably had more resistance during warmups. I remember one play when Teague drove to the basket and went right over Aldridge who didn't even attempt to raise his arms. No, he just stood there, practically under the basket, arms at his chest, staring at Teague's bellybutton. I've honestly seen better defense at the high-school level. I know he was in foul trouble but you can still raise your arms straight up. If you're just going to stand there and watch you might as well just get off the court. In the 4th quarter some on our team actually showed some effort on defense, but doing so 10 minutes a game isn't going to get it done. Even with expectations at zero, this kind of effort is tough to watch.
He'd play in the low post more if we had someone even remotely capable of passing from the high post (coughMarcusCambyBeforeHeQuitcough)...
Yes, he was. An offensive foul, a terrible choice of a shot, two missed free throws . . . am I forgetting anything?
The value of a scrappy effort player like Hickson is that he sets an example for lazy players. He shames them into trying harder, which Aldridge is finally doing in the Stotts system. But Aldridge still doesn't get it about rebounding.
I actually like that idea really. Lillard, Batum, Aldridge, Hickson and Leanard. I actually think Aldridge is quick enough to play small forward and he definitely has range. Then Hickson could play the post and you can have Aldridge back down other Small Forwards and punish the shit out of them.
If Aldridge had a decent enough handle (a la Dirk) I could see this, but talk about encouraging the return of "LaMarshmallow". I'd love to see it just for fun, but I'd expect it to be a disaster. Which is to say, another thing to shrug about this year.
Thats the pretty much his problem right there. He has shown flashes of changing. Months and weeks were he has taken more shots at the rim then away from it, and when he does that he is a beast and shows up on both sides of the court and rebounds with more authority. Unfourantly wev barely seen that LMA since the team quit on McMillian and we only saw that side of him consistently for half a year before that. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
This says that Aldridge is taking twice as many shots from at least 16 feet as he has historically. He is taking way, way more than anyone else in the league. http://www.blazersedge.com/2012/11/...arcus-aldridge-is-transforming-into-glorified
Post moves? You mean he had more than one? When he's near the post you'll find him approximately 85% of time on the left block. Then he tries to back down to the hoop and realizes he can't do shit with his left hand. So he rotates towards the key where the help defender is waiting. Now, LA has to make a choice and he's pretty slow at that on the block. He'll either pass it back to an outlet near the 3 pt line or he'll attempt an ill-advised fadeaway. That's the extent of his post moves without getting the easy basket opportunities with Dre. Well, Dre is long gone and we now have a player going back to his natural tendencies, outside shooting and soft rebounding.
Me and you must have been watching different games the last few years. He gets the ball and backs his defender down, when he gets doubled he kicks the ball out. When he doesn't he can spin to the basket, he can take off for the running hook, back his defender completely into the basket and shoot whatever way he wants including that fade away. The only weak part of LA's close game is he doesn't really shoot it in the defenders face that much even when the defender is smaller then him. There is a reason that their was lots of talk in the media about LA's post game and why teams doubled him constantly when he would get close to the paint and its because he has a damn good post game.
One thing that I've noticed with Aldridge this season is his toughness and size. Yes, he's not rebounding great, sure, but he looks tougher and has a tougher demeanor on the court. He used to be smiling whether we were winning or losing (!) but he's not smiling this year. He's serious and I like it. Will he be an All Star. Can't decide that this early in the season. To me, his best season (where he truly deserved to be an All Star) was two seasons ago when he didn't make the All Star team. I have high hopes for him still this year. His passing, as you said, has been awesome. And no, we shouldn't have traded him for Harden, natebishop. Have you seen how badly he's been playing lately? He's common. The Thunder made the right choice. And you don't trade a big for a small. We'd have regretted it forever. By the way, how's Tyrus Thomas doing?
