#1. He needs to learn how to draw fouls. This cat is averaging 23 points with hardly any free-throw attempts. If he could draw more fouls, he could easily be a 25+ scorer a night. #2. Learn rebounding positioning. He needs to really figure out ways to box out and get the defensive boards. He's fine on the offensive end, but needs to improve his defensive rebounding game. #3. Get better at setting picks. He is absolutely awful at setting picks. If he just worked hard; he could roll to the basket more and almost guarantee a trip to the line. Maybe he should watch some Karl Malone ball. Look at his timing and after the pick, see just how fast he goes to the rim. Malone had many trips to the line, and he became relevant in the 4th because of it. If Aldridge just gains a little more muscle and work on those 3 things; he could very well be a super star. He has the tools; he just needs a coach to bring out these tools.
Agree with all. He needs to stop settling for the outside fade away jumper and take it hard to the rim.
Aldridge spent a full season with Marcus Camby and picked up the volleyball tip rebound. Who else could we get to teach him better positioning? I'd think Kurt Thomas should be teaching him, but maybe Hickson is better fit to learn from KT.
Clearly he can improve here, but to be fair, he is averaging 5 FTA/g, which is 29th in the league. Just 2 more per game (which seems like it would be satisfactory to you) would put him in the top 10 in the league in FTA. I wonder how much team defensive philosophy impacts this. If he's constantly switching out to cover perimeter players on PnR's, his positioning will naturally suffer. This should be #1, IMO, especially since it could lead to an improvement in your #1. When executed properly, the PnR is arguably the most effective tool in a team's offensive toolbox. I would be very pleased to see improvement here.
Even though he drove me nuts as a player has anyone ever heard of whether John Stockton would be interested in coaching? Not as a head coach but I cant think of a better PnR expert than him.
I'm sure Aldridge will continue to make some minor adjustments to his game, but until/unless he ever develops much of a handle, the free throws are going to be tough to improve substantially and as far as his rebounding goes, it's probably always going to be slightly below average because at this point he pretty much is what he is ...
But that's what I want. I want him to be the top 10 player in the game. We need a superstar, and if he could improve his FTA and Rebounding, he will definitely be a superstar. Also, he should take to heart that asshole Love and how he's stealing his thunder. If he improves rebounding and FTA, then there is no question he is a better player than Love.
Free Throws are up to the Refs as well. The more clutch plays LMA makes, the more star treatment he'll get. He has the potential to become as good as Dirk.
This one is easy and he's done it before: Get the ball deep in the paint. For the entire season he's been getting the ball on the elbow and Caleb primarily gets him the ball there. He's playing like the jumpshooting PF before his breakout when he played like a center.
Shawn Kemp was fantastic when young, but aged badly because he hadn't had to learn the right way of playing the game. In the face of his success, Karl wasn't strong enough to make him do it. It appears the same will happen to Aldridge. He's so old that the next coach will be the last one with a chance, so I want a former forward (Silas would be adequate). It's probably too late. His habits are set in cement.
