Guess who's leading the league in mid-range jumpers?

LaMonster had Camby and Andre Miller feeding him passes for easy looks. We don't have anyone with those passing abilities any more. I'd like to see Aldridge in the post but to do that he probably needs to play fewer minutes and have other big men assisting him on defense. The LaMonster year he was totally worn out before the playoffs even started. I suspect he realized he pushed himself too hard during that season.

 

It was nice to see Batum feed LA last game for a monster jam. Can't remember if it was a fast break or in the half court, but you are right..... he needs more.

 

Are you talking about that alley oop? If yes, that was a sick play. I'm actually liking this point forward nic. I maybe wrong with how I responded to Nate's comment about nick averaging 10 points, 8 boards and 10 assists.

 

http://stats.nba.com/playerTracking...Field=EFG_PCT&sortOrder=DES&filters=MIN*GE*30

Seems like Aldridge is 11th in the entire league for players with +30 min per game at eFG%.

Most above him are other bigs, but most of them are scoring 0-10ft from the basket. I think if Aldridge works down low more, that number will increase. Hopefully that happens soon.

 

LOL at people arguing with BFW's fact-based assertion that LMA (a) take the highest number of inefficient shots in the league and (b) isn't as good at them as his reputation would suggest. We've both gone over this several times over the years, and yet people still would rather not believe facts.
I'm glad that he's currently playing well, but I expect that he'll regress to his averages as the season plays out. Currently he's averaging ~25ppg, but only ~5 points in the paint. That sort of play will never get us close to a championship.

 

So based on Brian's analysis, I think that the Blazers should just shoot layups. They can probably hit them at a better than 90% rate. Pretty damned efficient if you ask me.

Seems to me that an effective offense works well if it has a combination of points in the paint, 3-pointers, and mid-range shots. When you've got all three, a defense can't possibly cover all of them. LaMarcus is the Blazers best player in the mid-range game, so it make sense that he's the guy who fills that role. Do you think that Lopez scores 12 points or that Damian, Nic & Wes all get to the hoop as often if LA is camped under the basket because that's the most efficient shot for him? Right now, 3 games into the season, LA is hitting the mid-range shot better than at any point in his career. Could be because he's fresh at the start of the season and his legs aren't fatigued. Could be because he's just on a hot streak. Could also be because he's now got enough quality scorers around him at all points in the game that opposing teams pay a price if they try to double him. Whatever the reason, he's hitting them at better than a 50% clip and he shouldn't change a damned thing until he stops hitting at that pace.

Geez, the Blazers just beat the defending Western Conference champs and the Nuggets in Denver, where we never fricking win. Seems like we could leave a little bit of the carping until they lose a couple?

 

LMA also has 6.3 passes for scoring opportunities per game. The efficiency for this opportunity is over 50%, since he is averaging 3.3 assists per game. That means when he passes out of the double, he is usually finding the "wide open" man.

 

If Aldridge hits them at a 45% rate by season's end, it will be a dangerous weapon. He is passing very well out of the doubles too; which gives him the 3 point shooters and cutters to the basket for easy scores.

 

LOL at a bunch of random fans on the internet thinking they have some blatantly simple solution to make LA more effective. The coach and player are paid millions of dollars a year and have a team of assistants plus video replay and statistical analysts working full time to find ways to improve the team. If all they had to do was have LaMarcus get closer to the hoop for the team to be vastly superior they’d do it.

Do you really think Stotts and LA are that stupid or incompetent?

 

If you haven't been paying attention, he has… blue9 has it out for Aldridge. He is basically the Roytoy (vs. Batum) of LMA.

 

Through the first three games, that's true. But historically it's not. Last season he was our 3rd best shooter from that range, behind Lillard and...wait for it...Hickson: http://www.hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx?team=POR&type=pg&posi=%&yr=2013&gp2=0&mins=0
He is an okay shooter from that range. But aside from it being an ineffective shot, it also hurts because he's not drawing fouls on the opposition. By not drawing fouls we as a team aren't shooting as many foul shots as we could be, and defenses can play tighter defense throughout the entire games because they're not in the penalty.

He shouldn't go away from the shot entirely - but he shouldn't be making his living out there either. Back in the summer I remember having this conversation and the consensus seemed to be that he should redistribute his shot selection so that 2 more were in the paint and 1-2 were one step back behind the 3-point line. This was based on him taking 7+ shots from that range the previous season. And now we're seeing the exact opposite of what many of us thought he should do - more than doubling his shot attempts from the least effective spot on the floor!

 

Aldridge needs to shoot less jumpers. History has shown his shooting % will go down significantly as the season goes on. it's great that he has the ability to make that shot, but going down low for a higher % shot that may also result in FTA's is much better for the team.

 

STFU, mags. There is reason and stats to back up my opinions, not pure emotion.

 

As much as I agree with you, I don't think we will see as much of a drop in production as the season progresses this year. He looks healthy (knock on wood), has a bench (less minutes), and Lillard is demanding even more attention (Not as much pressure on him to score). Regardless, I do believe he needs to be in the paint more. I would like him to demand that the refs give him respect and force them to call fouls. If he's only down there 1/4 of the time, the refs can't always see them. If he's down there 60% of the time, they will see more action and learn how teams are fouling him.

 

Well, we are using this season's stats. Try and follow along.

If you really want to jump on the "past season's stats" you should look at win/share. When Aldridge isn't in the game, they are a terrible team. That's a fact.

 

I think it’s more important to reduce Aldridges minutes than worry about where he is taking shots right now. When any player gets fatigued they doesn’t shoot the jumper as well. When he conserves his energy his defense suffers, his rebounding suffers, and he can’t play as much in the low post. Getting a high percentage shot close to the hoop requires a lot more effort than taking a 20 foot jumper. I’m pretty concerned about TRob, he has not been an acceptable backup PF thus far and if we don’t find a decent options Stotts might not be able to get LA the rest that would keep him fresh.

 

I think T. Rob will come around. Remember in practice, he will be facing Aldridge. The more he keeps playing against one of the best PF's in the game, the more polished his game will become.

 

Aldridge shoots to many jump shots this is true but an open shot is a good shot especially if it is coming in the bottom third of the shot clock. I don't like LA taking that mid range shot, that seems to be always open, at the beginning of the shot clock but when its getting to 8s and lower then the likelihood of finding someone else open drops significantly and at that time you want to just find a good look and as "inefficient" as that shot is its an open shot and if you pass up open shots late in the shot clock then your going to be taking contested jumpers which are a worse shot then an open mid-range jumper.
I'm wondering if someone can pull up LA's mid-range shot chart that is sorted by how much time was left on the shot clock when he took the shot. I'd like to see what % of his Mid-range shots came within the last 3 seconds of the shot clock the last two years. I'm thinking a decent percentage, 20% maybe, came from a desperate shot at the end of the clock.

 

I might experiment giving Meyers Leonard time as LaMarcus’ backup. Let TRob and Freeland get time as Lopez backup. Meyers is the only big that has similar shooting skills to LaMarcus. The offense could be ran the same.

 

I wouldn't mind that either, but I really want Leonard to be a true center. I want him to strive to be that inside presence. Possibly sitting on the bench will drive him to work on that facet of his game.