Question: did Olshey promise LaMarcus not to trade him?

Cousins is a center as well. I would almost bet anything that if Olshey offered up LA straight across for all but Davis, Griffin, Love and maybe Monroe every team would say yes before he had a chance to change him mind

 

Ha ha - yeah, forgot Love. He IS better...better shooter, rebounder, passer, etc. But yeah, no winning (yet). Also, add Bargnani...pretty similar to LMA. Alright, really gotta go!

 

Just waiting for the gay pics is all

 

Overhyped player in the league that you said we should trade for Evans AND Cousins

 

I wonder if the back problems that kept LA out of the last game are connected to his hip problems. Cuz, y'know, the hip bone's connected to the...BACK bone...

If not, then he's got a messed up back, and that's NOT good.

 

No offense but it really seems like your just hating here. Everything you said about LMA can be more easily attributed to love.

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I found that hard to believe, so I added the column numbers on your site.

Range...Aldridge FGA / Blazers FGA = % of team's FGA which are Aldridge's

3-9...1.4 / 6.2 = 23%
10-15...2.7 / 6.3 = 43%
16-23...10 / 13.4 = 75%
Total of above:
3-23...14.1 / 25.9 = 54%

Aldridge takes 54% of all Blazer shots which are between 3 feet to the 3-point line.

Conclusion: You understated it. Aldridge takes more of ANY jumpers than the rest of the team, except for 3-point shots. If you see a Blazer shooting a field goal, and it's neither a layup nor a 3, there's a 54% chance it's Aldridge.

 

if a Portland isn't winning all it's games, then some of the "fans" turn to trade possibilities involving the best/longest tenured player. It doesn't matter how often these fans have been shown that the grass on the other side of the fence isn't necessarily greener, change is whats alluring... same song and dance every year

LA is off to a slowish start, but as you noted he is working his way back from offseason surgery and through an injury to the wrist of his shooting hand. He's just entering the prime of his career and (when healthy/right) is one of the top players in the league. They've him wrapped up in a very reasonable contract for 2 seasons after this... pretty sure he's going to be staying put despite the usual suspects and their various trade machine efforts

STOMP

 

I wont deny it - I hate LMA (as a player). I always have - this isn't a recent "hate the longest-tenured player because we're losing" thing like STOMP suggested. I went into this season expecting us to lose, and lose A LOT - we're actually winning far more than I thought we would. I've got no problem with us losing A LOT of games over the next two seasons. I just have a problem building around a player like LMA.
I simply don't see anything that LMA does exceedingly well. He's a horrible rebounder - you can't attribute that to Love. He's a horrible passer - can't contribute that to Love, either. He sets terrible picks, and doesn't understand how to roll. He has next to zero ability to face up, put down one or two strong dribbles and get to the hoop. He's a slightly-above-average post-defender - better than Love. But he's one of the worst team-defenders I've ever seen - equal to Love, at best...at least Love will crash the boards which is part of team-defense. He is uncoordinated, can't maintain low-post position, has poor hands when it comes to catching anything but the easiest of entry passes, and absolutely can't maintain upright body position with the ball above his head through the slightest contact when attempting a lay-up/dunk.

His supposed strength is his jump shot - but he continually ranks as roughly the 15th best jump shooting PF. Given that there are 30 teams, I'd say he's an average jump shooting PF.

Add to all of this his inability to "rise to the occasion" and I see a player who just doesn't match his reputation. He can put up a lot of points...on a lot of shots...generally in a losing effort. He's very similar to Bosh, but Bosh has better skills (rebounding, passing, dribbling...and shooting). I've never liked Bosh either, but now that he's the 3rd banana and actually embracing his role I'm beginning to like him (if only he'd stop flexing/yelling like he's "the man"). Maybe I'm a traditionalist, but the PF position is suppose to be a player who protects the hoop, rebounds, sets the picks, and gets their points off of hard play, put-backs, and high percentage shots, stretching out to 15' occasionally to help space the floor. LMA just doesn't offer anything other than scoring. I think we'd be better off with a "work horse" PF (Hickson?) who maybe only average 14-16ppg, but who rebounds, plays defense and sets good picks to help the rest of the team score more efficiently. I think Haslem was a far better PF during the Shaq/Wade championship than LMA will ever be.

 

STRONG CO-SIGN.

If I weren't a rec Scrooge, you'd be the luckiest person on Earth right now.

 

Hey Blue, what do you think of the moralist Oregonian forcing the team to trade Sheed becuse it hates loud angry black men like Muhammad Ali used to be?

 

Scola was amnestied and got a very small claim. No way LA would have been bid that low.
If it were LA on the Knicks, no one would be crying about his contract.
Boozer is likely to me amnestied this offseason.
As a Pacer fan I would take LA over an aging West

You only listed 16 and I can keep going.

I saw the same thing with Rasheed. Instead of being thankful for what a player is, fans cry about what they are not.

 

LMA isnt the best player in the league! I HATE HIM

 

Oh man, don't get me started on that - it's lunchtime and I'm hungry! But yes, I fully blame the Oregonian for swaying public opinion on Sheed. All the team needed to do was embrace him early on the way DET did and they could have brought the fan base around to seeing the value in a guy like Sheed and built an identity around the idea of tough-guy basketball. Instead they were weak puritanical pansies and bought into the demonization of Sheed. Sometimes I laugh at the idea of Portland/Oregon being this bastion of liberalness.

 

You're confusing value with skill. I never said all of those guys have equal value. I certainly wouldn't want Scola, Garnett, Amare, West, Pau, etc instead of LMA - but they ARE equal to (or near enough) or better than LMA.

 

*EDIT*

Wrong thread.

 

Good info. I think a huge reason for LMA taking almost twice as many long non-3's is Terry Stotts. Look at the numbers for Dirk historically. Also look at LMA's numbers historically as they have almost doubled his other seasons. He is trying to do the same thing with LMA as he did with Dirk, just with someone that shoots at a 10% lower success rate.

The point that LMA is 80% likely to shoot the ball for the team if it is not a layup or 3 says alot about the lack of mid range game for any of our players.

 

Good point.