Alridge should be our center

[magnifier661]

He has the bulk and size to be one now and Hickson is starting to get into the offensive flow being a PF type player. I think keep Aldridge around the basket is much better for us because he is pretty damn good at offensive boards. And when Aldridge gets the offensive board, there is a damn good chance he's getting fouled or score. Aldridge has gotten so much better passing out of doubles too; which frees up a lot of players.

Other teams are using their centers to defend Aldridge anyway, so why not just position him at center? He should be setting up the pick and rolls. Also, I think there needs to be more plays drawn like the one in the 4th. When Aldridge had the ball on the elbow and passed to a cutting Lillard for the score. I remember Shaq doing that a lot in his prime. Sabas was doing that as well. Maybe show some film to Aldridge of those players and really make him a superstar.

 

[tester551]

I completely agree. Blazers are better with Aldridge at C. Unfortuantely they seem to be resigned to give Hickson the more challenging post player to defend while giving Aldridge a "rest" on the defensive side of the ball.

 

[DaLincolnJones]

I completely agree. Blazers are better with Aldridge at C. Unfortuantely they seem to be resigned to give Hickson the more challenging post player to defend while giving Aldridge a "rest" on the defensive side of the ball.

yep

We need to keep LMA able to push on the O, and not have to over play both ways..

 

[mook]

I completely agree. Blazers are better with Aldridge at C. Unfortuantely they seem to be resigned to give Hickson the more challenging post player to defend while giving Aldridge a "rest" on the defensive side of the ball.

That strategy made a lot of sense when we had Roy/Aldridge and then even more so with just Aldridge and a bunch of role players. You ran so much through him that you had to keep conserve how much you used him on the defensive end.

I'm not so sure now. Hickson's proving to be a much better scorer, and the offense is really running through Batum and Lillard, with Aldridge/Hickson/Matthews scoring on their creativity. How much energy does Aldridge need to "conserve" to hit open 14 foot jumpshots? How much more irreplaceable is Aldridge's scoring vs Hickson's elite levels of rebounding?

I think you start putting Aldridge on the other team's best big man and tell him "If Batum can do it with the smalls, so can you with the bigs." Rasheed Wallace always took the toughest front court defensive assignment, except for Shaq. And there's no Shaq in this current league.