We are very good at winning close games on the road and a big reason is that in almost every game, Aldridge has had a clutch offensive rebound in the final minutes. I want people to take note of plays like this when they talk about how they value Aldridge. He is so undervalued around here. Hickson is great but when people start saying that we don't need Aldridge because we have Hickson, they are really under appreciating our All Star big man. Let's be glad we have both. Props to Aldridge's 14 rebounds, the 14th of which saved the game for us.
He is learning how to scrap from Hickson. Last night he drove to the basket a couple of times out of control, threw up a wild air ball, and got fouled in a flying flurry of feathers. He had no chance at completing the drive, but don't tell the defender, so he can get fouled. This is good, and I hope Hickson takes him under his wing and teaches him agility and good hands.
You may be right. I love Hickson's game. In my opinion, he is probably the MVP of this team so far. Without Hickson, we probably have 5 less wins this season.
LMA has really stepped up his rebounding this season. I'm really happy that he has taken his rebounding seriously.
I'll say that yes, I have seen him grab some contested rebounds. I haven't seen it consistently and he still gives up a lot of rebounds without putting any effort into an attempt. But I've already seen him grab more contested rebounds in this short season than in any past season. I'm still not sold on him, but I've noticed some incremental improvement this season. (I've also seen him put the ball on the floor and get around his man for a dunk! Again, it's not pretty or coordinated and I'm doubtful that it'll become a regular part of his game, but it's something!)
I think this has more to do with confidence. I think Aldridge and Hickson really got close. You can see them joking around alot with each other. I think Hickson's effort is really rubbing off on Aldridge and Aldridge is showing Hickson the offensive ability. They have been really Ying and Yang right now and I don't want to lose it. I think next year, if Hickson is still a Blazer, they will dominate.
I still don't think they're a good pairing on defense. Hickson sure tries hard but doesn't have the physical ability. When both of them are out there we've got nobody who can really protect the rim. It's fine now since there are no expectations. But as we start putting together a Playoff team, and then hopefully a contender, we need a big guy who can truly protect the hoop and patrol the paint. We get absolutely killed by teams scoring in the paint.
See I disagree if you put Aldridge at center. Aldridge is pretty good at weakside help D. Hickson and Aldridge are starting to really click on snatching the boards too. Aldridge is a much better one on one defender than Hickson and if Aldridge defended the centers; I think Hickson would do well against the same sized PFs. The only real reason why Hickson isn't doing as well defensively is he's matched up against other centers that are much taller. Once he's matched up against PFs, I think he will do a much better job.
I agree that Hickson would be far better off if he were guarding PFs. I'd actually like to see it to know whether he or LMA is the better defender at that position - I think with Hickson's energy and tenacity he may actually be the better defender at that position. But that's one area where I don't hate LMA - his man-defense is adequate. However, I completely disagree that LMA is a good weakside defender. Yes, he occasionally comes from the weakside for a block. But more often than not he doesn't do anything and just lets the other team score an uncontested lay-up. He's abysmally bad at protect the hoop and patrolling the paint. Those weaksided blocked shots - while fun to watch - are not really indicative of good defense. There's SO much more to help-defense than weaksided blocks.
