According to Mike McGraw, Aldridge wants the Bulls

[logical_art]

http://hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx

Sort by attempts from 16-23 feet. You will find, for the entire NBA, its:
1. Lamarcus Aldridge 7.3
2. Derozan 5.8

We have been over this with Luol at great length. That's an awful shot. Its losing basketball. When Deng was doing it, he didn't lead the entire NBA in doing it by almost 20% either. That stat is nuts and its why his scoring efficiency is so low. At 41%, teams are probably begging him to take it too. 77% were assisted, meaning that he is just hanging out there waiting for a catch and shoot.

Aldridge doesn't have 3p range and he doesn't have good percentages or volumes closer to the hoop either. Its only directly at the rim where his percentage goes up.

If Aldridge plays on Chicago like he did in Portland, I'm not sure he improves the offense at all. . . . . and there are people willing to give up Noah for him !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

The grass isn't always greener.

16 to 23 feet is a huge range. I don't watch Portland enough to know, but 90% of Aldridge's shots in that range could be 16 to 18 feet, which is not a bad shot at all.

He made 41% of them, which isn't completely awful, but its certainly not good. Even if the shots were in closer, they are shots that on aggregate, weren't helping the team much.

Now, Thibodeau was smart enough to tell Rose and Deng to stop that. I suspect he would cut down on it with Aldridge, but where does Aldridge go? He doesn't have 3p range and he isn't a dominate post guy. You are just going to end up cutting down on his attempts which means that his impact on Chicago is going to be less than what people are figuring.

One side effect of this discussion is that my opinion of Love is going through the roof. That dude is a dominant rebounder, a good passer and has range out to 3p land.

Second side effect, and I hope people read this. Deng and Rose were top 6 in attempts for this length in the season before Thibs started. The Bulls were 27th in offense. Read that again.

A team lead by Derrick Rose was 27th in the NBA in offense.

The next season, Deng and Rose cut their attempts from that range down in half, the Bulls got Bogans, Brewer, Korver and Boozer and the team jumped to 11th on offense and 5th the year after that.

The next time someone tells me that Thibs doesn't know offense, I'm going to point to that #27 ranking the season before he got here.

Supporting data
http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CHI/2010.html
http://www.hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx? ... 2=0&mins=0

Yeah, sorry I dumbly overlooked that key point. See my edit.

Whats kind of concerning is that he's shooting more and more attempts from that range. He's increased his shots in that range from 5 to 6 to 7 in the last three years while the percentage has been between 41 and 43%. Not a good trend at all as it shows a guy with a reputation for being soft getting even more perimeter oriented.

On the other hand, his attempts there are similar to great PFs such as Dirk, KG and Amare. He just converts at a lower percentage.

Edit: beaten to the punch.

[LobosJordan]

Preach on, fish.

Im maybe, maybe willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that's the way Portland wanted him to play, but if that's all on LaMarcus, its not a quality shot at all, and his efficiency paints that picture.

That's exactly what it is.

07-08 - 5.4 attempts - Ranked 22
08-09 - 5.8 attempts - Ranked 12
09-10 - 5.2 attempts - Ranked 14
10-11 - 4.7 attempts - Ranked 21
11-12 - 6.2 attempts - Ranked 5
12-13 - 7.3 attempts - Ranked 1

And comparatively speaking, Derrick Rose is way higher in terms of averages year to year. Does he help our offense? Yes he does. Seeing as how Aldridge has shown he can take around 5 of these types of shots a game and still be highly productive. I don't see any reason why he couldn't go back down to that number and continue to show the offensive skills down low. So definitively speaking, yes he will help our offense.

See my post above, when Rose was taking lots of mid range shots, he was leading one of the worst offenses in the NBA.

Beyond that, there is a history of big men falling in love with the outside shot. See Rasheed Wallace. That trajectory may indicate a guy who just doesn't like to mix it up inside anymore.

I wouldn't worry about it. Like I said, the prospects of our offense with Rose at the pick and roll and Noah's interior passing will help him. He won't take 7.3 shots from the range on our team. Also Portland's offense would be partly to blame I would surmise.

[DJhitek]

http://hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx

Sort by attempts from 16-23 feet. You will find, for the entire NBA, its:
1. Lamarcus Aldridge 7.3
2. Derozan 5.8

We have been over this with Luol at great length. That's an awful shot. Its losing basketball. When Deng was doing it, he didn't lead the entire NBA in doing it by almost 20% either. That stat is nuts and its why his scoring efficiency is so low. At 41%, teams are probably begging him to take it too. 77% were assisted, meaning that he is just hanging out there waiting for a catch and shoot.

Aldridge doesn't have 3p range and he doesn't have good percentages or volumes closer to the hoop either. Its only directly at the rim where his percentage goes up.

If Aldridge plays on Chicago like he did in Portland, I'm not sure he improves the offense at all. . . . . and there are people willing to give up Noah for him !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

The grass isn't always greener.

I understand the notion for these type of statistics, but you are comparing apples and oranges. Aldridge is a guy we can dump the ball into on one side of the floor and he can generate offense on his own. Just because it's from 15-17 feet doesn't mean he is less effective.

I'm not understating Noah's impact, but we wouldn't lose that much defensively. As much credit as we give Noah, he can never stay healthy, doesn't generate enough offense for himself and that won't ever change. It's not a ridiclulous statment to say Noah for Aldridge is a even deal.

[Jimmy Forums]

http://hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx

Sort by attempts from 16-23 feet. You will find, for the entire NBA, its:
1. Lamarcus Aldridge 7.3
2. Derozan 5.8

We have been over this with Luol at great length. That's an awful shot. Its losing basketball. When Deng was doing it, he didn't lead the entire NBA in doing it by almost 20% either. That stat is nuts and its why his scoring efficiency is so low. At 41%, teams are probably begging him to take it too. 77% were assisted, meaning that he is just hanging out there waiting for a catch and shoot.

Aldridge doesn't have 3p range and he doesn't have good percentages or volumes closer to the hoop either. Its only directly at the rim where his percentage goes up.

If Aldridge plays on Chicago like he did in Portland, I'm not sure he improves the offense at all. . . . . and there are people willing to give up Noah for him !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

The grass isn't always greener.

As Lobos Jordan pointed out, this was a result of something other than LMA floating towards the perimeter. He used to spend most of his team scoring from the post, and just had that midrange as a weapon. He was very good in the post. I reckon we'd get him back to that a bit, especially since Jo is our center. Thibs will have a clear-cut multi-capable post scorer, and do what he needs to to get him good shots.

[bullsaficianado]

To me, Aldridge is Chris Bosh (at a few million dollar lower cost). Perimeter oriented. Marginal defender. Less than stellar rebounder for his height and position. That said, I'm not convinced that either of those two represents a marked improvement over Boozer, who rebounds at a higher rate than either, screens better, and passes better. Everyone keeps forgetting that the Bulls need to make no changes other than stay healthy in order to win a championship.

The Spurs couldn't even beat Miami, they almost did but how are we better than the Spurs? we need to make a few moves to beat Miami next season in the playoffs for sure. As it stands we could probably take Miami to 7 games but it would end in their favor imo. I don't like the idea of entering next season with no changes, we should have a healthy Rose time to get a serious contender ready. Aldrige would be great but not if we have to part with Noah. If we stand pat it will probably end in a loss to Miami yet again, no way should the Bulls not make any moves, unacceptable if it happens.

[DJhitek]

As an aside, I too value Kevin Love more because of his special ability to space the floor.

[Jimmy Forums]

As an aside, I too value Kevin Love more because of his special ability to space the floor.

Aldridge's advantages in mobility and defense don't mean anything? LaMarcus gives us a more formidable team to match Miami's athleticism, which is one of their most important inherent advantages night in and night out. LeBron has the ball, Bosh comes and sets a screen on Jimmy, and now LeBron is going to be 1-on-1 with either Love or Aldridge. Aldridge is much better suited for such a situation, and I think this is a particularly important one. Or take it in the post and off the ball, LMA will be able to rotate the defense more fluidly, which is going to be the diference between an easy bucket or a challenged shot on multiple occasions per night.

LMA is better for this team's prospect of winning a championship than Kevin Love; especially now that he's actually requesting a trade. At this point, we're all still stuck hoping Love would maybe wanna play for us in a year or two. LMA wants out, he wants Chicago, and he wants us now. Leggo.

[DJhitek]

As an aside, I too value Kevin Love more because of his special ability to space the floor.

Aldridge's advantages in mobility and defense don't mean anything? LaMarcus gives us a more formidable team to match Miami's athleticism, which is one of their most important inherent advantages night in and night out. LeBron has the ball, Bosh comes and sets a screen on Jimmy, and now LeBron is going to be 1-on-1 with either Love or Aldridge. Aldridge is much better suited for such a situation, and I think this is a particularly important one. Or take it in the post and off the ball, LMA will be able to rotate the defense more fluidly, which is going to be the diference between an easy bucket or a challenged shot on multiple occasions per night.

LMA is better for this team's prospect of winning a championship than Kevin Love; especially now that he's actually requesting a trade. At this point, we're all still stuck hoping Love would maybe wanna play for us in a year or two. LMA wants out, he wants Chicago, and he wants us now. Leggo.

I'll take either man, beggers like me will never be choosers.

[greenwing]

http://hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx

Sort by attempts from 16-23 feet. You will find, for the entire NBA, its:
1. Lamarcus Aldridge 7.3
2. Derozan 5.8

We have been over this with Luol at great length. That's an awful shot. Its losing basketball. When Deng was doing it, he didn't lead the entire NBA in doing it by almost 20% either. That stat is nuts and its why his scoring efficiency is so low. At 41%, teams are probably begging him to take it too. 77% were assisted, meaning that he is just hanging out there waiting for a catch and shoot.

Aldridge doesn't have 3p range and he doesn't have good percentages or volumes closer to the hoop either. Its only directly at the rim where his percentage goes up.

If Aldridge plays on Chicago like he did in Portland, I'm not sure he improves the offense at all. . . . . and there are people willing to give up Noah for him !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

The grass isn't always greener.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Great post.

Add to that that Aldridge is not a good rebounder with his best TRB% of his career was last season at 14.0% - which is bad for a big man - and he posted it on a team that was 22nd in rebounding differential in the league at -1.5. He allowed J.J. Hickson, a guy two inches shorter than him, and a guy who generally averaged around 15% for his TRB% balloon to 20.7% this season. Aldridge just can't board well.

Then there's the issue of his defense which is arguably on the same level as Boozer's and you're looking at a guy who isn't as good a rebounder as Boozer, isn't an upgrade defensively and gets a majority of his offense by taking the worse shot statistically in the NBA and only shoots it at a 41% clip.

I'm struggling to see why we would even consider giving up a large haul for this guy. I'm not even convinced he's an upgrade over Boozer and would only really be interested in him for the potential savings you would get in having him if the Bulls are able to move Boozer.

[The Force.]

As an aside, I too value Kevin Love more because of his special ability to space the floor.

Love is also one dimensional and injury-prone.

[weneeda2guard]

flip saunders and kevin love basically announced on national tv (mike and mike) that kevin love will not be traded. at that point any hopes that we can make a deal for him died.

and of course that does not mean kevin love cant choose us in 2015 but that is 2 more off seasons from now. are we really going to sit like ducks waiting on 1 player in 2 years?

i dont think we should, especially when you have a player equally as good as him in lamarcus and he wants to come to chicago. if he gets on the trade block, and we can put something together, then you do it. kevin love is not great enough to pass up on lamarcus and wait 2 seasons to obtain.

[The Force.]

The problem the bulls have right now, is one of being too good, but not great, in too many positions. Their talent is not enough to make them perennial favorites year in and year out. But there are only a few "significant" (not marginal) upgrades in talent out there.

Harden
Lebron
Kevin Love?
Blake Griffin
Dwight?

Those are the 5 players (and I'm not even sure all of them belong on that list) that represent a talent upgrade for the bulls at their respective positions that would warrant us giving up the kinds of assets being discussed in this thread. Essentially "gutting" our assets.

Lamarcus Aldridge is not in that class.

LMA is just as good as Blake Griffin and a better all around player than Kevin Love. I swear, I don't think people actually watched this guy play..

[Chitownbulls]

LMA was the main option in Portland don't forget....an Hickson did most of the rebounding because he can't shoot. They had to space the floor. I wouldn't take those numbers so serious. He'd deff play more in the post here

[Chitownbulls]

The problem the bulls have right now, is one of being too good, but not great, in too many positions. Their talent is not enough to make them perennial favorites year in and year out. But there are only a few "significant" (not marginal) upgrades in talent out there.

Harden
Lebron
Kevin Love?
Blake Griffin
Dwight?

Those are the 5 players (and I'm not even sure all of them belong on that list) that represent a talent upgrade for the bulls at their respective positions that would warrant us giving up the kinds of assets being discussed in this thread. Essentially "gutting" our assets.

Lamarcus Aldridge is not in that class.

LMA is just as good as Blake Griffin and a better all around player than Kevin Love. I swear, I don't think people actually watched this guy play..

Exactly...LMA has way more post moves than Griffin an is a lot bigger than love

[Chitownbulls]

Marcin Gortat is available next summer an is capable of doing a lot of the things Noah does. Probably cheaper too.

[Chitownbulls]

Mirotic is our big man that spreads the floor....no need for love. Give me LMA post game over Love

[dmk08]

Mirotic is our big man that spreads the floor....no need for love. Give me LMA post game over Love

Or he could come over and be Bargnani. Love is a proven NBA player.

[jmajew]

Aldridge's advantages in mobility and defense don't mean anything? LaMarcus gives us a more formidable team to match Miami's athleticism, which is one of their most important inherent advantages night in and night out. LeBron has the ball, Bosh comes and sets a screen on Jimmy, and now LeBron is going to be 1-on-1 with either Love or Aldridge. Aldridge is much better suited for such a situation, and I think this is a particularly important one. Or take it in the post and off the ball, LMA will be able to rotate the defense more fluidly, which is going to be the diference between an easy bucket or a challenged shot on multiple occasions per night.

LMA is better for this team's prospect of winning a championship than Kevin Love; especially now that he's actually requesting a trade. At this point, we're all still stuck hoping Love would maybe wanna play for us in a year or two. LMA wants out, he wants Chicago, and he wants us now. Leggo.

The bolded part is the key to all of this.

Also lets not forget that Pau Gasol was a similar player to Aldridge when he was on Memphis. As soon as he came to the Lakers his efficiency improved immediately. That was because he had Kobe Bryant. I see Aldridge making the same improvements.

Another major question I have in all of this is if we do work out a deal of that includes Deng for Aldridge what do we do with Boozer? We will not improve the team if we loose both Deng and replace him with LMA while keeping everything else in tact. Amnestying Boozer would also not improve the team if we make the trade.

[Chitownbulls]

Mirotic will be good...2 time mvp in the best euroleague....bulls know he will be good, he's not bargnani imo

[dmk08]

Mirotic will be good...2 time mvp in the best euroleague....bulls know he will be good, he's not bargnani imo

I don't think he is either I'm just saying he's not a proven NBA asset and Kevin Love is. I think its crazy so many people are so hell bent on holding onto Jimmy Butler. I love him too but if it's for a legit #2 option see ya.