Official LaMarcus Aldridge Thread

besides being the straw that stirs the team's drink on offense drawing a double team (which he passes very well out of) most every possession, he's also their top bail out option at the end of the clock, is easily their best defensive Big, a solid Rebounder, and a workhorse averaging a ton of minutes yet again while missing all of 2 games. Your personal dislike of him claiming no one has ever developed with him is completely ridiculous... so really, whatever dude

STOMP

 

Well said. Repped

 

Whatever. I'm fully aware that I'm in the minority and it'll be about another 3 years before people really start to come around. I mean, how many of you thought that Nate was a good coach 2 years ago, 3 years ago? And only became aware of his mediocrity within the past year?
I'm willing to change my opinion of LMA, I just don't think it's likely to happen. I do admit that he's gotten better, but he's certainly not the best PF in the league, nor will he ever be. If you want to call him Top 10 I'll respect your opinion much more than if you insist on saying that he's the best. But if you think he's the best then your opinion is more off-base than mine. I realize that I do undervalue him when I say he's an average starting PF (meaning roughly 15th best). When I say this I'm weighting individual skills (dribbling, passing, rebounding, etc) and coordination/strength more than I'm weighting stats/production. If I were to weight stats/production more heavily then I'd put him Top 10. I just can't get over (a) how overrated he is, and (b) how ugly, uncoordinated, and weak his game is - but for being all of those things he does contribute quite well. Though I still maintain that the PF position needs to be more than just points and rebounds, and LMA just doesn't do those "little" things that I feel a PF needs to do - his picks aren't good, his help-defense is terrible, and while his ability to kick out of the post when doubled has improved dramatically, overall he's not a good passer (or pass recipient when on the move), and of course he's not half as good a shooter as people think he is. And as a "franchise player" he's more underwhelming given his inability to contribute during crunch time, or put the effort in to anchor a defense.

 

Well if you are talking Roytoy, MM and STOMP. They've been advocating how terrible Nate was as a coach 4 years ago. So that statement doesn't apply to most of whom you are disagreeing with.

And talking about underwhelming clutch players that you put before Aldridge.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/loveke01/shooting/2013/

Love shoots 29% in the 4th quarters

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/loveke01/shooting/2012/

The year you actually think he was a better forward; he shot 20% in overtime and 46% in the 4th quarters. Thi

And you said Love was a better shooter. Well... On his all-star year, he shot 39% from 3 -9 feet, 28% from 10-15 feet, 39% from 16-3 pt. Seems all your arguments are seriously flawed. This was last season's stats btw...

Let's look at Aldridge the shooter for this season.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/aldrila01/shooting/2013/

3-9 ' 45%, 10-15 ft 41%, 16-3pt 40%. All of those outside shots, excluding the 3 pointers Aldridge wins out over Love.

NEXT....

 

You cherry pick your stats, and I'll cherry pick mine - at least when I pick mine I remain consistent with them rather than trying to search for ANY stat to try to make a point. Regarding LMA's shooting I've ALWAYS compared his "sweet spot" shot from about 18' to all other PFs who play 20+ minutes, and who take more than 1 shot attempt from that distance per game - I go to what he does MOST, which is shooting from about 18'. It's why I've never brought up his 3-point shooting - but if I used your method of searching for ANY stat to torpedo LMA I'd go for that and say we should get Anderson or Bonner or Bargnani. And I'm comparing him against the field, not against a single player and the numbers bear it out - compared to other PFs he's not THAT great a shooter from the spot on the floor from where he shoots the most.
And I do recognize that he's improved his mid-range shot this year - that 8-15' shot from the elbow is significantly better than it has ever been. He didn't use to shoot well from there though. Hopefully he'll continue to keep it up, and hopefully he'll start to shoot more from there than from the outside. But he's still a stretch 4 who doesn't shoot the "stretch 4 shot" all that well.

 

No I am replying to your banter that Aldridge is a terrible outside shooter for the PF position. Then you said Love is a better shooter. I just showed how clearly wrong you are.

 

Oh and let's look at the other PFs that you said are clearly better....

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/duncati01/shooting/2013/

Tim Duncan
3-9 ft 42%, 10-15 feet 41%, 16-3pt 44%

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/griffbl01/shooting/2013/

Blake Griffin
3-9 ft 45%, 10-15 ft 37%, 16-3 pt 36%

 

Here you go - weed out anyone shooting less than 1 shot from 16-23' and LMA is the 16th best PF at shooting from his "sweet spot" range:
http://www.hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx?team=%&type=pg&posi=PF&yr=2013&gp2=10&mins=20

 

What's maddening is that he climbs the ranks dramatically as he gets closer to the hoop (until the At Rim section) but his attempts are inverse to where he's most successful from.
7.5 attempts on a 38% shot
2.9 attempts on a 45.5% shot
2.2 attempts on a 54.1% shot
3.9 attempts on a 69.7% shot

 

I don't get the controversy? Isn't it pretty damned obvious that LMA has been shooting more poorly from the field than ever before? BFD.

 

I do believe his mid-range has actually improved quite a bit. But his typical shot, yes it's worse than ever and it was never that great to begin with.

 

with a lower assisted% than nearly all of them, context...and im sure a good chunk of those are bail out jumpers with the clock winding down

and i thought you eschewed stats for your "keen scouting eye"?

 

Hey thanks for the link... But again, you just killed your insane statement. You said he is a horrible outside shooter... According to the link....

At the rim is an NBA average of 67%... Aldridge is 69.7%
3-9 ft is an NBA average of 40%... Aldridge is 54%.
10-15 ft is an NBA average of 41.5%... Aldridge is 45.5%
16-23 ft is an NBA average of 39%... Aldridge is 38%

With him having a slow start coming off of surgery; he is still trumping all the stats, exclusing on 16-23 ft; where he is just at the NBA average. Clearly not a terrible outside shooter.

 

What's it matter? This directly measures the player's ability to put the ball through the hoop from various ranges - it measures their ability to shoot, and that's all I'm looking at here. Pretty simple.

 

Well shit man... Sucks to be SAS then cause Duncan isn't even on the top 25.

 

And looky here? I seem to remember blue9 saying how clumsy and how terrible of a passer he is out of the post.

http://www.hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=LaMarcus Aldridge

His assist/turn over ratio is 1.27 and his assists leading to 2FG is 1.3 and 3 pointers 1.1. His assist+ is 3.1. That's fucking impressive!

And I seem to remember blue9 saying his rebounding is terrible; yet this same link he provided proves that's not the case. In fact, he is 6.6 in Dreb and has a DEF rank of 2.41. Seems your arguement is falling from the wasteside.

 

I just don't why anyone would take blue9 seriously though. I mean read the game threads and see how he proclaimed that Aldridge's defense was getting abused by Lee and Griffin; when Hickson was actually defending those players 85% of the time. Then when I exposed this fact; he only replied "Well it's because LaMarcus is too weak to guard them". I don't know about you, but this seems like I am arguing with a 7 year old. They can't grasp past their own personal agenda.

 

Ugh, mags - I explained it to you already. And where did I ever say he was a "terrible outside shooter"? If I did, I was wrong - I've always said that he's not as good as people think, and that there are many players at his position who shoot better than he does, and I provided you with the stats proving JUST THAT. For his position (PF) there are many other players who shoot better than he does from the area where the majority of his offense comes from. Go head, stick your head in the sand and ignore it. Continue to think that LMA is a terrific shooter. I'm done arguing with you about this (today).

 

I agree that LMA can improve his help defense and hand/eye coordination. He is often slow to react on D and drops a lot of passes.

But hey, he isn't getting voted onto the all-star team by the coaches for no reason. He's probably still the main focus of the opposition's defensive game plan, has improved every year, is considered league-wide to be the best PF or one of the best. I'm glad he is a Blazer.

 

This isn't o-live buddy. You are accountable for all that you post...

Would you like me to dig up more?