Serious Lamarcus Question Confusion

You missed the point. When Aldridge carries himself like that, he generally doesn't refocus. Duncan obviously does, and his mannerism on the bench doesn't seem to affect how he plays the rest of the game. When Aldridge checks out, he truly checks out.

An equally big part of focus is being able to relax that focus when possible, otherwise you get wound too tight (see: Bayless) to perform.

 

Well hopefully those guys can learn to find that balance ... how they get there I have no idea; mostly I think that's an innate quality, but I'm guessing it can become a learned to a degree if you have the right teacher or coach.

 

That point wasn't clear, IMO. You said that Duncan always "stays into the game, even when he's not in the game" and used Aldridge laughing on the bench as an example of not doing that. So your point seemed to be their manner on the bench as an indication of their focus.

I don't agree with you, though, on your clarified point. I haven't seen any correlation with Aldridge joking on the bench and his play quality falling off. His play is up and down, but that's the case with almost all non-great players. I don't think it has much to do with checking out of the game. His capabilities are the average of his ups and downs...it would take significantly greater talent to always play at that "up" level.

 

It would require some statistical analysis to prove it one way or the other, but my impression has been that he plays his best ball up to the point he first goes to the bench. When he appears unfocused on the bench (hit or miss what the camera catches), I can only recall being surprised once or twice when he came back in and performed well. It just seems to be part of his mental makeup to have those lapses, fitting with Nik's mention of him being not a high motor type, and he's often flat footed watching rebounds in the paint. Get to the root of the problem and I think you'll find that LMA's shortcomings are not actually skill set related.