Baffled and Confounded by the "Hickson Situation"

At least Hickson Trys & puts in an effort on defense.
Watch Aldridge - he hardly ever leaves his feet on defense, preferring to swipe at players down low like a guard. This negates his length advantage.

Hickson, at least, puts forth a respectable effort. Whereas Aldridge is atrocious mentally & physically on defense to go along with a girl scout type 'motor'.

 

Crap this thread has Aldridge-bashing now!

 

I play pickup a lot with a guy who can score on just about anybody. He's an older guy so (predictably) he's referred to as "Old School" by everyone. He never misses at the three and he flips in the most ridiculous bank shots you ever saw.

But he's a total defensive sieve. I love the guy, so I'll pick him on my team, but my heart sinks because he makes everything so much harder for everyone else.

Now, with Old School it's partly that he doesn't try and partly that he's old (even more than me). Actually Hickson reminds me of the younger guys who are just chickens with their heads cut off. They ball-watch and have no concept of help defense or defensive spacing. Playing with people like that is just exhausting for everyone else. Hickson might actually be okay at defense if he was playing one-on-one, but in a team game you have to understand team defense, and that something players like Batum and Aldridge (and even slow-footed players like Larry Bird back in the day) understand while JJ seems just too spacey to get.

He's loveable because he hustles, rebounds and gets nice dunks, but our defense is atrocious with him in.

 

It's a requirement for this board these days.

 

"Mark Twain quote: He uses statistics like a drunk uses lamp posts, for support not for illumination"

 

I made the case for Hickson on this board just a few days ago. I think the guy is great, and I hope we keep him. Double-double guys are not that common, and as you point out, he's young with many years ahead of him.

 

JJ might not have had very much value at trade trade line but I can pretty much guarantee he will have plenty of value come when he hits the free agent market. The Blazers are not going to be able to afford JJ. If JJ does not have big time value when he hits the free agent market putting up these kinds of numbers and outplaying centers\PF I don't even know if I want him on my team next year. That would pretty much mean there is something wrong with JJ's motor, maybe meaning his motor that we don't know it may only works when he's due for a big contract kinda like Bobby Simmons. Remember Simmons he was a real bad ass when he was going for a contract also. So don't get to attached.

 

"Leak" - that's our D.

 

Here's the Blazers' +/- stats for this season:

Code:

Player 1 	Team 		+ 	- 	+/- 	Min 	 	G
J. Jeffries 	Trail Blazers 	642 	-636 	6 	326:19 		36
E. Maynor 	Trail Blazers 	20 	-16 	4 	14:49 		1
S. Pavlovic 	Trail Blazers 	846 	-846 	0 	420:39 		33
L. Babbitt 	Trail Blazers 	1,136 	-1,149 	-13 	570:38 		46
V. Claver 	Trail Blazers 	857 	-872 	-15 	436:50 		32
N. Smith 	Trail Blazers 	473 	-493 	-20 	255:27 		31
L. Aldridge 	Trail Blazers 	4,138 	-4,166 	-28 	2045:04 	54
W. Matthews 	Trail Blazers 	3,430 	-3,469 	-39 	1675:58 	48
J. Freeland 	Trail Blazers 	512 	-564 	-52 	288:22 		32
D. Lillard 	Trail Blazers 	4,400 	-4,452 	-52 	2157:04 	56
R. Price 	Trail Blazers 	945 	-1,019 	-74 	509:50 		39
M. Leonard 	Trail Blazers 	1,209 	-1,318 	-109 	642:07 		44
W. Barton 	Trail Blazers 	949 	-1,079 	-130 	520:37 		48
N. Batum 	Trail Blazers 	4,306 	-4,443 	-137 	2130:33 	55
[B]J. Hickson [/B]	Trail Blazers 	3,217 	-3,363 	-146 	1620:36 	55

I know I'm about the only one who doesn't think this stat is worthless, but it is interesting that Hickson plays the least of any starter but we've been outscored the most while he's been on the court.

 

It would be interesting to see that normalized for minutes played.

 

The total min. Lillard has played so far is absurd.

 

Gee, I watch most of the games and I don't see a big improvement in our defense when Hickson goes to the bench. I think our team defense is the problem, not Hickson.

 

Really watch him sometime, he's a total ball-watcher on D. I get that you like him and his hustle -- it's the one thing that doesn't make me scream "bench him!" at the TV when he's in -- but he's a big problem defensively and not just because he's undersized to play center.

 

[video=youtube;nEcjyzurazs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nEcjyzurazs[/video]

 

Will Ferrell's got a little Andy Kaufman in him ...

 

Hickson isn't our answer at Center for the future and as much as half this board seems to love to bash LA, he isn't nearly as good as LA either. So the question that must be asked is how much is JJ worth as a backup 4/5 that is going to get 24m a game. Depending on the other moves that are made (I'd rank getting a starting C and a backup guard to run the offense and play alongside Lillard a higher priority then anything else) i'd offer Hickson a 4/16-20m offer and if he excepts it great, if not then work out a S&T.

 

The board loves to bash Aldridge because Aldridge rarely leaves his feet. He loves to watch effort players go after the ball, while he waits for it to bounce off them onto him. A good fan, he should bring a colorful towel onto the floor so he can wave it and whoop it up while others move around.

Aldridge is why I love Hickson. What a contrast. Aldridge is worried about being in position for things to happen to himself. Hickson is worried about getting into position to make things happen to help followers like Aldridge.

So Aldridge fans say he's always in perfect position and Hickson's not. Hickson is an active leader and Aldridge is a passive parasite.

 

That's fairly accurate. I think Aldridge is a little more involved than you give him credit for, but there's no doubt that Hickson is more aggressive about going after rebounds and loose balls. That's why I love the guy. I'm going to start focusing on him just to see if he's as bad defensively as everyone is saying, but I have my doubts.

 

Funny that you mention that. I have been focusing on Hickson a lot since the whole "he doesn't play a lick of defense" going on in this board. I will tell you, they were 100% accurate then. But in the last 5-6 games; I've seen Hickson really step up defensively. He seems to really get up on his man now.

There are those times were he is only watching the ball and not his man though. That's extremely frustrating to me. Almost as frustrating as watching Aldridge play average D and lackluster rebounding until the second half.

 

I have. I have also watched LMA completely screw up rotations. The game against Boston, there were several times LMA was the lone guy playing "zone" defense while everyone else was D-ing up their man.