Aldridge Playing Center?

[MacDaddy]

he could not have co-existed with Bosh... therefore we didnt select him PERIOD... lets try and move on.

BS.

[pspot]

LMA makes Forrest Gump look like he belongs in Mensa

[MacDaddy]

This love affair with Lamarcus is quite funny. He does not play center. His game is on the perimeter. In fact, at one point the comment was made that Roy had room to drive because LMA had drawn Big Ben to the perimeter.

Last night Aldridge opened the game shooting 0 for 11, mostly jump shots.

Late in the game when he was in close and needed to power up to make a put back, he was rejected.

Then Doug Collins (former NBA all-star and coach) had this assessment of Lamarcus (paraphrase).

"He needs to finish those, but he's not strong enough to play inside. That was the knock against him in college. Too weak inside. And he struggles on the defensive end".

So there it is. Aldridge is a lanky power forward who is not strong enough to play inside and he's a weak defender. Last night I recall only one tip-in basket inside. The rest of his points were jumpshots from 15 to 18 feet out.

Now this board trashes Bargnani for his 'perimeter game', yet we're pining for Portland's guy who is also a perimeter oriented PF.

Makes no sense.

EDIT: btw, the guy I wanted pre-draft was LMA over Bargs ... I thought the Bargs thing was a smokescreen....

This is provably rubbish.

A little visit to http://www.nba.com/hotspots/ came up with this:

On the season to date Aldridge has atttempted single 3-point shot, of the remaining 395 shots, 262 were from within 12 feet (151 of them dunks, tips, layups and other 0-foot shots) compared to 133 from 12 feet out to the line.

So the percentage breakdown is:

dunks, tips, layups: 38%
short-midrange jumpers: 28%
midrange-long jumpers: 33%
3-point jumpers: 0.0025%

So 62% of his shots are from inside 12 feet. His shooting percentage underneath the basket is .583, so obviously he's finishing something.

For Bargnani the numbers are

dunks, tips, layups: 22%
short-midrange jumpers: 14%
midrange-long jumpers: 30%
3-point jumpers: 34%

The bottom line is that Aldridge is going through similar growing pains as Bosh did, both offensively and defensively, and he does overlap with some of the court space that Chris Bosh occupies, but frankly I'd rather have had 2 Chris Boshs than one Bosh and one Bargnani.

[The Letter V]

The bottom line is that Aldridge is going through similar growing pains as Bosh did, both offensively and defensively, and he does overlap with some of the court space that Chris Bosh occupies, but frankly I'd rather have had 2 Chris Boshs than one Bosh and one Bargnani.

Well you better get over it, cause it ain't happening.

[RapsVC15]

-= original quote snipped =-



BS.

Playing with Bosh would require Aldridge to play center. Bosh got eaten up a swallowed playing the 5 spot as a rookie and sophomore, is there any evidence that suggests the same wouldn't happen to Aldridge?

[MacDaddy]

-= original quote snipped =-


Well you better get over it, cause it ain't happening.

That's exactly why I can't get over it.

I like Bargnani, I think he's a talented player and I want desperately for him to succeed, and the team with him, but I don't think he is ever going to be able to do what this team needs him to do next to Chris Bosh.

Bargnani would be the perfect fit to play the 4 next to a physical center like Dwight Howard, much like Hedo Turkoglu has been this season.

[MacDaddy]

-= original quote snipped =-



Playing with Bosh would require Aldridge to play center. Bosh got eaten up a swallowed playing the 5 spot as a rookie and sophomore, is there any evidence that suggests the same wouldn't happen to Aldridge?

Who is closer to being an NBA center - Lamarcus Aldridge or Andrea Bargnani?

[The Letter V]

-= original quote snipped =-



Who is closer to being an NBA center - Lamarcus Aldridge or Andrea Bargnani?

At this point, offensively it's Aldridge. Defensively it's Bargnani. If Bargs projects out the way we hope, his offensive game in the post won't be that far behind Aldridge either- plus he can do a bunch of other things LMA can't. Same goes the other way, but it's too early into their careers to make those kind of conclusions so early.

[RapsVC15]

-= original quote snipped =-



Who is closer to being an NBA center - Lamarcus Aldridge or Andrea Bargnani?

Defensively, Bargnani by a landslide.

[Morris_Shatford]

As for Roy, I recall reading all the pre-draft reports calling him the most "NBA ready" player in the draft and many of those reports were correct but I think we are really heaping too much praise on Roy, as right now his numbers are not all that much better then Mike James season numbers as his last season as a Raptor.

I would be very surprised if in a few seasons Brandon Roy was still the best player out of his draft class. I think he just has the benefit of being the most ready for the league.

Are you seriously comparing roy to Mike James. Your talking about Mike james best season which came after six years in the league. He has not even come close to duplicating again. Maybe the most ignorant thing i have heard on realGM. If you actually had watched roy more than twice you would see how he impacts the game defensively and has essentially been the reason the blazers have put together this run.

Ill do a sig bet with you whose first to the allstar game Roy or James, anything you want

I am not comparing Roy to James as players,

I am comparing Roy's current season to James best season,
Will Roy be a much better player then he has displayed this season? I am not sure I don't have the same crystal ball that many on this forum seem to have,

Also love the insinuation that I have not watched Roy play, whereas I would assume I watch Roy play more games while he was playing collage ball in Washington then many who are clamoring that he should have been taken first overall have seen him play at an NBA level.

He is an excellent player, the point I am making is that while his season is excellent for a player in his second year in the NBA (who has four full years of NCAA experience and coaching) his numbers this season statistically are neat, but not all that much better then those that Mike James put up in his best season.

However its far to early to determine how much better he will be, and while he may make an All Star game or two in his career I wouldn't be willing to bet after a season and a half that he will play in more All Star games then say the younger players drafted in 2006.

Its still far to early to be calling him the best player out of the 2006 draft.

Would you consider Vince Carter the best player out of the 1998 draft? How about Damon Stoudamire in 1995? Brand and Francis in 1999? Mike Miller in 2000? Even Emeka Okafor in 2004?

All guys who came out of the draft very NBA ready, and won rookie of the year.

Again I cannot stress enough that its not a slag on Roy, but just because he is the most NBA ready today does not mean he will be the "should've been 1st overall pick in 2006" for the rest of his career.

The Raptors board is far to critical of players and are too quick to heap praise on players far to early in their careers.

[The_Hater]

Defensively, Bargnani by a landslide.

You're acting like Bargs is the 2nd coming of Tim Duncan or something.
You say that with such certainty but I'm guessing that you haven't seen LA play enough to make such a claim.

Without watching him day to day, I do know this: 1) Aldridge is the top big man on a Blazer team that has been outstanding defensively the past month. So he's probably can't be that bad. 2) He's a much better rebounder than Bargs and last time I checked, defensive rebounding is an important part of team defense.

[The_Hater]

Would you consider Vince Carter the best player out of the 1998 draft? How about Damon Stoudamire in 1995? Brand and Francis in 1999? Mike Miller in 2000? Even Emeka Okafor in 2004?

Excellent point. Although I would still call Brand the best player fro the 99 draft.

But the thing about Roy is that he's has shown a ton of improvement after winning his ROY award and most importantly, he's currently putting up those improved numbers in a winning environment. And most would agree that counts for something.

And while we can't assume that Roy will continue to improve, making any argument that says a 22 year old Bargs will show considerable improvement over the next few years while the 23 year old Roy has pretty much peaked can't be considered a balanced one.

[JD225]

Is Portland's bench really that good? Is there a reason why the Blazers are significantly better defensively and slightly better offensively when Aldridge is on the bench?

http://www.82games.com/0708/07POR9D.HTM

I also personally love how every Aldridge claim is counter argued with the fact that Bargnani is worse. Like we don't already know that. A front court of Bosh and Aldridge would kill this team regardless (how soft can we possibly get?). If we selected Aldridge first everyone would probably complain just as much about not selecting Roy or Gay.

[MacDaddy]

-= original quote snipped =-



Defensively, Bargnani by a landslide.

How about overall?

[dagger]

It's interesting that during Portland's 13 game winning streak, Aldridge missed five straight games and the Blazers didn't miss a beat because players like Frye and Pryzbilla made the most of his minutes. And last night during the third quarter, with Chicago seemingly in command, Aldridge was pulled and the Blazers go small and on a 12-2 run that turns the game around. This is not to say that Aldridge is bad. Far from it. He does some things very well. But he also has major flaws. He racks up decent rebounding numbers as the only big on the floor much of the time, but qualitatively, he is not much better in traffic than Bargnani. He certainly is not the rebounder Bosh was in his second season and I would bet that he disappears as a rebounder when Oden plays next season.

Also, I find it interesting that Aldridge gets to play through 0-8 starts. It's not his first bad start either. I'd say that the Blazers have been more dedicated to his development than we have to Bargnani's, simply because until two weeks ago, the Blazers didn't see making the playoffs as possible or even desirable. Now, they are looking at a first round berth as good for team-building, just as we did last year.

[AfricanSensation]

Sorry boys I was between the Bahamas and South Beach the past 2 weeks, so what in the world did Bargs do in the past 5 games to have everyone convinced that he is suddenly the best defensive Center since Bill Ruseel? Did he shut down Duncan and Yao or something like that?

Because when last 2 games I checked we were getting embarassed defensively by Seattle and Phoenix with Bargs at the 5 playing a major role. Apparently things seem to have changed since, any insight would be appreciated.

[Mr. Perfect]

We beat the Spurs, even though Duncan was good anyways. It was the rest of the team that sucked. And he had a good shooting performance against New Orleans.

Yep, that's pretty much it.

[AfricanSensation]

Lol Thx

I guess its another case of Raps fans overeaction.
Aldridge played the 5 75% of the last 16 games when is team went 15-1 with solid D and rebounding but for some reason its a given that Bargs is a better defensive 5. The Bargs who is never in the right place in any switch. And this one on one D thing is really getting out of hand, its better than is team D for sure but come on....

[MacDaddy]

It's interesting that during Portland's 13 game winning streak, Aldridge missed five straight games and the Blazers didn't miss a beat because players like Frye and Pryzbilla made the most of his minutes. And last night during the third quarter, with Chicago seemingly in command, Aldridge was pulled and the Blazers go small and on a 12-2 run that turns the game around. This is not to say that Aldridge is bad. Far from it. He does some things very well. But he also has major flaws. He racks up decent rebounding numbers as the only big on the floor much of the time, but qualitatively, he is not much better in traffic than Bargnani. He certainly is not the rebounder Bosh was in his second season and I would bet that he disappears as a rebounder when Oden plays next season.

Also, I find it interesting that Aldridge gets to play through 0-8 starts. It's not his first bad start either. I'd say that the Blazers have been more dedicated to his development than we have to Bargnani's, simply because until two weeks ago, the Blazers didn't see making the playoffs as possible or even desirable. Now, they are looking at a first round berth as good for team-building, just as we did last year.

I agree Aldridge is a below average defensive player, but Portlands most used lineups are:

Blake-Roy-Webster-Aldridge-Przybilla
Blake-Roy-Webster-Aldridge-Frye

So saying that he gets rebounds because he's the only big on the floor is just a fabrication.

I also don't understand what you mean by saying he is not much better in traffic than Bargnani. Do you mean his ballhandling? Certainly you can't mean his ability to finish around the basket.

I think the reasons McMillan lets him play through weak starts are that there are fewer expectations on the Blazers, but more importantly if you watch the games and check the shot charts from ESPN, when Aldridge is missing shots he's missing post moves and 10 foot jumpers, but usually his decision making is pretty sound, as is borne out by his shooting percentage.

When Bargnani misses a bunch of shots early it's usually a bunch of wide open 3-point set shots, and until the last few games, his reaction has not been to attack the basket or take better shots, it's been to dribble the ball off his foot or pass it like he's afraid of it.

[The_Hater]

He probably gets to player through 0-8 starts because the don't happen very often and he provides more help in other areas such as rebounding. He shoots 51% from floor this year, 51% for his career and shot 50% the month of December. By comparison, Bargs shot 29% in December.

I'm still amazed that a player can shoot that poorly while providing no rebounding and very little help in other periferral areas, and yet people are still critical of the coach for cutting his minutes back.