http://ayoungsabonis.com/does-lamarcus-aldridge-need-to-improve-his-rebounding/ This was an article last season about Aldridge and rebounding. It's pretty interesting how he has been the blunt of many "he is soft" banter. This article explains why his rebounding isn't as bad as you think. Although I disagree with offense vs rebounding concept, I think Aldridge still could improve. I've seen him fight for boards with effect in crunch time. What he needs to do is have that same motor for at least the first quarter. Set the tone, then allow your teammates to muscle trough quarters 2 and 3. Only concentrate on quarters 1 and 4. A common complaint among Blazers fans has been that LaMarcus Aldridge doesn’t rebound enough for his size. Recently, an column at Rip City Project was published remarking that Aldridge had room for improvement in the rebounding department. The argument, in part: …with his 6 feet 11 inch size and long arms, Aldridge should be a better rebounder. Aldridge has improved his rebounding every year in the league and averaged 9.1 rebounds a game in the 2012-13 season but he still ranked 16th in total rebounds a game. Ranking 16th in the league is very good at first glance, but I wanted to take a closer look at how Aldridge gets his rebounds. I watched a sizable sample of video from Aldridge’s 670 rebounds last year and paid attention to positioning, effort, and play type. I put them into three categories that made the most sense for this exercise: Boxouts and effort positions where he clearly boxed out a defender, held a position, or moved to the ball with effort to rebound. Open rebounds, which simply plopped into his hands when teams were out of position (ex. when teams simply rushed back on defense after a shot). Other which accounts for transition plays, tips, and on plays like free throws. From the viewing sample (about 12% of his total rebounds from multiple games throughout the year) it resulted in the following numbers: Percentages of rebounds by boxout, uncontested, and other (misc.) plays. Roughly half of Aldridge’s rebounds came from open opportunities with little effort. The other half were from set half-court situations (Boxout) and miscellaneous effort plays (Other). So what’s there to glean from this data? Well, that depends on the context. If Aldridge was lackadaisical on defense, slow to rotate, fickle in effort, and lacking production outside of another key statistic, it would be easy to say his rebounding numbers should improve. However, Aldridge is the star player on an otherwise slightly-under performing team. He’s their lead offensive weapon, and he’s no slouch on defense. Due to the Blazers’ lack of a true center, Aldridge has often been left exerting effort on the defensive end against the opponent’s best post player. He played in one of the only positions for the Blazers last year that had positive differentials in advanced statistical areas. He produced more rebounds on a +/- basis for his position than did JJ Hickson, who finished tied for 7th in the NBA last year (which should tell you the value of defensive ability). Put simply, Aldridge doesn’t need to improve his rebounding. No player is complete, which is why coaching, schemes, and teammates matter. Aldridge isn’t a star rebounder the way Kevin Love or Zach Randolph is, but he brings so much more to the table it’s a misunderstanding of who he is as a basketball player to do so. Neil Olshey went out and beefed up the Blazers’ front line with Robin Lopez and Thomas Robinson. Aldridge asked for a true center to play with this summer not only to help guard the post, but to help box out on the league’s best big men. Olshey knows that. Aldridge knows that. Lopez knows that. Asking Aldridge to battle even more for position on rebounds is going to wear him down, and reduce his effectiveness on the offensive end. Aldridge is a unique player, an above-average post defender who can shoot long and has post moves inside. He can’t dribble or shoot threes like Dirk, and he is a better post defender than Carlos Boozer. And yes, he is an average rebounder. But there’s nothing within Terry Stotts’ scheme that insists that Aldridge needs to become a better rebounder for the Blazers to succeed.
That's true, but his career average is a better sample size. I would rather use that, than a game where the refs allowed Phoenix to hack Aldridge down low without a foul. Also, the same game when he wasn't the only player that had rebounding woes.
Ya know mags it's actually OK to call things as you see them from time to time. He did a piss poor job rebounding in the Phoenix game, no "ifs," "ands" or "buts."
If Aldridge averages 9.9 rebounds a game people will still bitch he doesn't average 10, because there is just something so magical about double-digits. Considering all the things Aldridge brings to the team, I think averaging 9+ rebounds a game is acceptable. Of course, we could tell him to stop playing defense and just focus on rebounding, like Hickson and Love. Would that make people happy?
Yes and I openly said he did as well. I was also pissed that he wasn't on the block most games. Just wanted to throw this article out there since I didn't remember it was ever posted.
That's actually really exciting!!! Also, coaches can use this feature to try new things, maybe having different rebounding tactics and test the proficiency. Also, team mates will be held more accountable when their star passes them a wide open J and they brick the shot.
...and if the opponent can't make a free throw to save is life, a center or forward standing there scooping in the miss can pad their stats. I think it was Norm Van Lier who used to chase down every desperation shot rebound at the end of quarters, then use his inflated rebound stats in contract negotiations.
I didn't say that. I am curious though why it's so hard for some people to describe what they observe in straightforward terms. Sometimes a player has a shitty game or they do something poorly and it should be permissible to make note of that without making excuses or going to the other extreme and make sweeping generalizations.
Every time I read a thread criticizing Aldridge, I go back and look at the other players taken in that draft. Would you rather have Andrea Bargnani, the worst rebounding 7-footer in NBA history? Would you rather have Adam Morrison? Many here wanted to draft the 'stache. He's out of the league. Would you rather have Tyrus Thomas, who was amnestied by Charlotte in July - how bad do you have to suck to be amnestied by Charlotte? Is he even on a current NBA roster? Would you rather have Shelden Williams? His wife may actually be better than he is. Also out of the league. BBert is right. If Aldridge averaged 1 more RPG, everyone would shut up about his rebounding. He averaged 9.1 RPG last season and was 16th in the league in rebounding with Hickson hogging all the easy rebounds. Think about that. There are 60 starting centers and power forwards in the league an Aldridge was in the top 1/3 in rebounding - and that's his supposed big weakness? He's the best player on our team and the best player from his draft class. Is he perfect? No, but few players are. Even LeBron and Kobe get criticized. I'm just glad we have one of the best big men in the league on our team. BNM
To be fair, the refs allowing PHX to hack on Aldridge was when he already had the ball. It didn't affect his actual rebounding ineptitude on Wednesday.
I forget the sequence of events, but didn't we actually draft Thomas and then trade him for LMA? I may be wrong on this.
Yeah, but you weren't the only ones that screwed up big time that day. Toronto took Bargnani with the No. 1 pick thinking he'd be the next Dirk - and then they fucked up again by giving him a ridiculous extension trying to justify their first fuck up. Charlotte actually drafted the 'stache. Atlanta - WTF? They already had a bunch of 6'9 tweeners named Smith and Williams. Guess they wanted to complete the set, when what they really needed was a PG. Minnesota actually preferred Randy Foye over Brandon Roy, etc. So many bad decisions that day... BNM
I've said many many times it seem like Lillard should have a lot more assists and by no fault of his own and this proves it. I know its just one game but look at how many opportunities he had and how few assists he got. http://stats.nba.com/playerTracking...owsPerPage=25&sortField=AST_POT&sortOrder=DES FYI I am going to love these stats, very cool and big reps to BFW (You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to BrianFromWA again.)
I understand that, but when a team knows they will get murdered inside and no foul, then why wouldn't Aldridge shoot from where he was money that night? And since most of his shots were past 15 feet, that puts him in the worst possible place for a rebound.
