Other than Detroit and Miami; every other team in NBA history for the last 20 years had a PF or Center as their #1 or #2 scoring option on the championship team.
Totally agree with you here. LMA might be a bit more of a scorer than Hickson, but the results are the same - losing. But I think my point remains - if a team so chose to pound the ball into Hickson 18+ times per game, I'm fairly certain he'd be averaging 20+ ppg and even more rebounds than whatever he's currently averaging. Just trying to illustrate that averaging 20ppg is kinda meaningless...there are lots of players that could do it.
This would be relevant if we had a chance to win it all--if Aldridge's leadership had already brought us into championship contention. But his leading us in scoring has taken us in the opposite direction.
How can you be certain when Hickson has never consistently averaged anything over 12 points a game? Aldridge has consistently averaged 20+ for 4 years. Hmmm... Out of all the NBA players in the league, at all positions, there are only 9 players in the league that is scoring over 20 points. http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/p...er-game/sort/avgPoints/year/2013/seasontype/2 Currently Aldridge is the 7th highest scoring player in the game.
Relevance is knowing what works for the majority of teams that won it all or even made the conference finals and use that knowledge in your team's model. I mean we want to win it all right?
I agree with most of what you are saying, but I don't think Chicago had much scoring from the C/PF spot either.
Every time I read here how great Aldridge is because he shoots so much that he inevitably averages 20 ppg, I think, I guess it would be impressive if our PG got a lot of blocks, or our C a lot of assists, but it's just not the best stat for that position to spend all his time pursuing. Scoring so much is why Aldridge is inferior in other areas.
He is 1st in FGM, 7th in Blocks, 8th in rebounds, 6th in assists, 2nd in FTA, 1st in FTM, and 6th in double doubles for PFs in all the NBA.
And where does he rank in minutes played? It's all tied to how much he's used, not how good he is. And back to the magic number of 20ppg - Kevin Martin, Monta Ellis, OJ Mayo, David Lee, Brook Lopez, Bargnani, Blake Griffin, Amare, Stephen Jackson, Tyreke Evans, Chris Bosh, Devin Harris, David West, Ben Gordon, Al Harrington, Richard Jefferson, Corey Maggette, Boozer, Crawford, Marion, Bibby, Mike James, Antoine Walker, Marbury, Stackhouse, Jalen Rose... those are just a fraction of the players who have averaged 20+ppg over the last 10ish years. Yes, most starters in the NBA could average 20ppg if given the opportunity. They would also mostly lead their teams to the lotto doing it.
He's not perfect (or remotely close) in ANY way. The one thing that he's suppose to be supremely good at (shooting), he's only average at.
This is a really flawed post. LMA plays so many minutes because we are worse when he is not on the court. He has to be out there. But I hate to point this out, but when most players get tired, they don't play as well. There are a few super stars like MJ who never seemed to get tired, but for the most part it holds true. JJ does hustle his ass of when he is in there, which is good because that is what he is, a hustle player. But he can't do that for 40 minutes a game. LMA is a top player in this league. He may be a little over paid and he may not be a super star, but the bottom line is replacing him would be difficult. I have watched the Blazers for 40 years and we have maybe had 3-4 PF's as good has him that whole time. Forget about this fucking bullshit leadership role you all think he has to have because how much money he makes and just focus on what he does bring most nights. Every team would love to have LMA. Not sure why some of you can't figure out that it is a team game and one player is only part of that puzzle. Hell 2-3 good players can't do it on their own. LMA is a stud. Not perfect, but none-the-less better than most PF's we have ever had. JJ Hickson is not a better option. Very few player in this league are. Just surround him with better talent.
His shooting percentage is down this year, but there's something interesting about that; while he is missing half a shot more (8.3 FGM vs 8.8 last season), he's also shooting one more shot (18.2 vs 17.1) per game. So, to get back up to his previous shooting level, he needs to make one more shot per game. If he could grab and extra Offensive Rebound every other game, that'd help too.
No, the flaw is thinking that LMA (or the PF position in general) can be built around and become a contender. Yes - he gives us points, but we'd be far better suited getting those points from other players and having a PF who focuses on the hustle element of the game, making those around him better. Hickson, while perhaps not as "skilled" (I still would like to know what specific skills LMA has that make him such a "stud"), plays the position better than LMA does. Buck Williams was not a tremendously skilled offensive player - but he sure as heck was a much better PF. LMA needs to be traded to a team where he can be a complimentary player, not the star. Examples: Chris Bosh, Pau Gasol. They both sucked as the primary option. They both won championships as ancillary players. And I'm sorry, but LMA isn't as skilled as either of them. I'm talking raw basketball skills - shooting, dribbling, passing, boxing out, setting picks, posting up, rebounding. If TOR could barely get to the POs in the East with Bosh what makes us think we're going to do better in the West with a worse player?
Yeah this seems really familiar. I remembered the same was said about another scoring pf named Zach. Now he's on a team that is in playoff contention and he is having one of the best career years of his nba career. I can't imagine how good this team would have been if management didn't listen to people like you. We would have Durant, any guard, Roy for a couple years, Zach and Aldridge. Instead we jumped the gun and are still feeling the sting from the terrible decisions we made.
So don't build the team around him. Why trade him to a team so he can be a complimentary player (and probably win a championship) when you can keep him and have him as complimentary player on this team? Unless you subscribe to the fantasy that every fan, on every team has, that you can trade one of your best players for better pieces.Rarely happens. Nice dream. We all have them. But the reality is the odds are against you. A better philosophy is when you get good players, try to keep them.
