Aldridge is a good team defender....his job on defense is to roam and get deflections. Like someone mentioned before, he's got great hands and slaps a lot of balls away on the way up. I wish there was a site that had the stats for deflections, as I have a hunch Aldridge would lead or at least be top 2 on the team. According to Synergysports, Aldridge is the ranked 136 in the league in terms of points per possession on defense. That's the highest for any of the starters. Of course, stats aren't the only measure you can use to judge a players defense, but it is at least curious that you seem to think he's a terrible defender when all the stats seem to point in the opposite direction.
The most simple example of what I'm talking about: Part of the reason LA has more success at containing his man than Robin is that Robin comes to help on defense if a player tries to take Aldridge one-on-one. If someone tries to go one-on-one against Robin LaMarcus doesn't come for help.
He slaps many balls but he doesn't keep his arms up, if he can't slap the ball the opposing big gets an open look at the basket.
You did watch Howard destroy poor RoLo in the first round ... right? How about Freeland picking up 3 fouls in literally 45 seconds against Howard? LMA actually played much better defense against Howard, but would have had to expend too much energy on both ends of the court. So, RoLo was pretty much thrown into a mismatch so LMA could dominate on the other end of the court. Lucky for Portland, it paid off, but RoLo isn't an elite defensive center. He's a great hustle/banger, and has great size, but he's no All-NBA defender.
I've said Aldridge is a good one-on-one defender, I thought we should have used him on Howard as much as possible but part of his success was having Rolo behind him, when RoLo guarded Howard or Cousins he had no help whatsoever.
I think it's equivalent to RoLo's offense. He's not nearly as naturally talented as Aldridge but when he finds ways to be effective offensively we're that much better. I also think he got better at it as the season went on. I would like to see the same improvement in Aldridge's defense.
This is just one of the reasons the Blazers need another star/player that can be counted on to score every game Aldridge is getting up there in age and won't be playing at this level much longer. Without another option to go with Lillard the Blazers are done. They probably need another option anyways. Nic/Wes doesn't cut it.
He's only 29, he's ancient compared to our players but he's not really old. Still has maybe his best basketball ahead of him and probably many years of being effective. Dirk is 35. LA needs to improve his defense, this could actually benefit from him being older and wiser, it'll also very much benefit his value in the future.
Dirk is a great shooter. Aldridge isn't. Prime Dirk >>>>> prime Aldridge anyways. Aldridge is at his best when he's playing with physicality and going towards the basket. When he just shoots we see the drop off in play.
When The Mavs won Dirk was older than Lamarcus now. Dirk is a great, great player but Lamarcus is also a great offensive player that IMO could be used even more effectively.
I'm quite sure it wasn't SlyPokerDog who thought to edit that post first. Most likely a PM from some aggrieved party, and then the moderation of the post...
Strictly talking age here, isn't Lebron the same age as Aldridge? (again, not talking skill level)... so, is Lebron getting up there in age and is only going to decline? Because he's still doing pretty damn good. All that being said, I do agree that he probably isn't going to magically turn into an amazing defender. I think that ship has sailed.
lmao They've got to do what they've to do Pops! If it was offensive, I'm sure it was. Wasn't the intent.
Come on sly that post is off topic and is meant to get a response out of MM that is the epitome of trolling. You're better than that.
