Truth? Lillard is the team's engine, while Aldridge is the suspension and brakes. LMA smooths everything out and keeps it on course, but it's Lillard who is the driving force. You can always upgrade suspension components, but engine overhauls are expensive and hard to come by.
I can concede to Aldridge being the suspension and brakes. He's definitely setting the tone of the entire game, while Lillard wins the game most the time
Ooh, as someone who spent an awful lot of time on road race courses - the real magic is almost always in the suspension - and being able to put that power to good use easily. Now, for drag races - power is king, but for drag races you do not really care that much about the suspension (stiff and level) and there is a 'chute to slow you down, but for road racing, suspension is pretty much where you win and lose the race on 90% of the events. Not that I do not love me some Dame. I think that a lot of what we see nowadays is that LMA is a much more vocal leader and demonstrative player, He wants it bad and plays hard all the time - where for Dame it came naturally (as it did for Roy). I am really not going over who is more important or what have you, but I do know racing - and in most formulas, suspension is really really important and quite often much harder to get right.
I wrote a post last season describing how I thought LMA wasn't a given for being the team MVP, (cuz Lillard), and got some pretty unfavorable reviews. What's changed in ~50 games? The stats are roughly the same. The team success is roughly the same. The personnel are roughly the same...is it just that people who have liked LMA for years (nothing wrong with that) didn't want to see an upstart take his place so soon, and now it's ok to think about?
You guy's stats are all obviously stupid because they ignore the great Kobe, who is going to be an allstar this year, fools! The only stat that matters is career points scored!
Aldridge is still the best player on this team. I don't think we go anywhere without him in the line-up. Dame and Aldridge are basically 1a and 1b. Both are required for success
Aldridge's stats are about the same but Lillard's are not. His PER is up almost 5 points from last year and defense is visibly much improved. RPM has his defense up a whopping 3 points per 100 possessions. IMO Lillard is the best player on the team and maybe the second best PG in the NBA behind Curry. He is closing in on Curry too. Given his age, basketball IQ, clutchness, and facilitator of team chemistry, I wouldn't trade him for any other PG in the NBA.
Here's the current Real Plus - Minus: http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm Lillard @ #2, Wes @ #20, and LMA @ #32
