Felt it deserved its own thread: LMA, now THAT's how you play basketball

[Driew]

royverson
!

Love the nickname haha.

 

[bodyman5001]

Kicked ass again tonight.
That dunk on Bogut was NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASTY!

Just saw that one, nasty indeed. Love it.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Attacking the rim is something I've always wanted him to do. He's a totally different player when he stays in the paint.

 

[illmatic99]

LaMonster:

[video=youtube;2F1ZVFbjNSc]

 

[bodyman5001]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Awesome. I don't know if he or someone he knows ever reads this stuff but if he does man, keep it up. That interview is awesome. He wants to rebound and score in the paint? FUCK YEAH!

 

[THE HCP]

Do you think the fact that his rebounding #'s are up is because all our top rebounders are out? Everybody has always cracked on him for his lack of rebounds......

 

[BlazerBeav]

Do you think the fact that his rebounding #'s are up is because all our top rebounders are out? Everybody has always cracked on him for his lack of rebounds......

That's certainly part of it - but the fact that he's now taken it upon himself to go out and get the rebounds is such a huge leap in his effectiveness.

 

[BrianFromWA]

Do you think the fact that his rebounding #'s are up is because all our top rebounders are out? Everybody has always cracked on him for his lack of rebounds......

I don't think so. Look at where he's been shooting/playing from recently. It's MUCH easier to get a rebound when you're not standing 20' from the hoop after a long J or a fadeaway. On D, maybe there's something to that.

 

[mgb]

Do you think the fact that his rebounding #'s are up is because all our top rebounders are out? Everybody has always cracked on him for his lack of rebounds......

I do think that instead of just keeping his man off the board so our center can get the rebound, he's making more of a effort to get the ball himself. He's our center a lot of the times. It is great that he's playing more inside though and that is I think in part because we are lacking inside, but I think he's going to make a effor to do it all the time now at least on O. I also think he's learn as others have suggested from Camby to tip the ball out.

 

[Mediocre Man]

I do think that instead of just keeping his man off the board so our center can get the rebound, he's making more of a effort to get the ball himself. He's our center a lot of the times. It is great that he's playing more inside though and that is I think in part because we are lacking inside, but I think he's going to make a effor to do it all the time now at least on O. I also think he's learn as others have suggested from Camby to tip the ball out.

I think this is a good post. Aldridge always seemed to defer. he deferred rebounds to centers, and deferred scoring to Brandon. With the people out that have been out, he can't do that. Aldridge has the talent, and seems to have the drive. What his problem is, IMO, is that he is too passive around other good players. Hopefully someone gets aholed of him and lets him know that no one on this roster has as much talent as he does.

 

[hasoos]

Great game tonight. I don't know what has got into Lamarcus Cheerios, but I hope he keeps eating them anyhow.

 

[BBert]

I do think that instead of just keeping his man off the board so our center can get the rebound, he's making more of a effort to get the ball himself. He's our center a lot of the times. It is great that he's playing more inside though and that is I think in part because we are lacking inside, but I think he's going to make a effor to do it all the time now at least on O. I also think he's learn as others have suggested from Camby to tip the ball out.

This.

 

[BBert]

I think this is a good post. Aldridge always seemed to defer. he deferred rebounds to centers, and deferred scoring to Brandon. With the people out that have been out, he can't do that. Aldridge has the talent, and seems to have the drive. What his problem is, IMO, is that he is too passive around other good players. Hopefully someone gets aholed of him and lets him know that no one on this roster has as much talent as he does.

And this.

 

[e_blazer]

I think this is a good post. Aldridge always seemed to defer. he deferred rebounds to centers, and deferred scoring to Brandon. With the people out that have been out, he can't do that. Aldridge has the talent, and seems to have the drive. What his problem is, IMO, is that he is too passive around other good players. Hopefully someone gets aholed of him and lets him know that no one on this roster has as much talent as he does.

LOL. Don't know that LaMarcus has to get "a-holed" to do it, but hopefully he'll see that being the dominant player he's been the past week is really fun and good for the team.

 

[Mediocre Man]

LOL. Don't know that LaMarcus has to get "a-holed" to do it, but hopefully he'll see that being the dominant player he's been the past week is really fun and good for the team.

LOL stupid quick typing

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Another great game, and once again, his advanced stats improve dramatically; he went from an 18.0 PER to an 18.9 PER, and his WS/48 went from 0.117 to 0.133. His ORtg improved to 110 from 109, and his DRtg stayed solid at 107.

Basically, in four or five great games, he's gone from career lows to nearly his best.

To tell you how good his last game was, take his PER after 28 (18.0), and multiply it by games played: 504. Now take his PER after 29 games (18.9), and multiply it by 29: 548. Subtract 504 from 548: 44. That was his PER last night.

 

[bluefrog]

1st All Star appearance this year?

 

[illmatic99]

Still think there's too much competition.

Durant and Dirk will probably start. Then there's Melo, Gasol, Duncan, Griffin, Love, Scola, and Millsap. Unless LA continues this hot streak for the next month or so, I don't see him getting in.

 

[e_blazer]

Still think there's too much competition.

Durant and Dirk will probably start. Then there's Melo, Gasol, Duncan, Griffin, Love, Scola, and Millsap. Unless LA continues this hot streak for the next month or so, I don't see him getting in.

Duncan will probably get in as a center, since the West is pretty anemic at that position. I think any objective coach would rate LA as better than Millsap and Scola, and I think he'd get the nod over Love and Griffin as the more complete player. Still, you're right that LA's going to have to keep putting up big numbers in order to get in.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Finally found the LMA stat that correlates with Blazer Wins: Free Throw Attempts. It's obvious when you think about it: If LMA is playing down low, beasting it up, he's getting fouled. If he gets 5 or more FTA's (has happened in 13 games), the Blazers are 9-4. In his last 4 "LaMonster" games, and 6 of our last 7 wins, he's done this (the only exception being against LAC).

 

[Mediocre Man]

1st All Star appearance this year?

I don't think so. He is still an 18/8 player, and his numbers are worse than that when Brandon plays. We also have to remember that teams haven't had a chance to scout the "new" Blazers.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

19.1 / 8.5 now, btw.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Finally found the LMA stat that correlates with Blazer Wins: Free Throw Attempts. It's obvious when you think about it: If LMA is playing down low, beasting it up, he's getting fouled. If he gets 5 or more FTA's (has happened in 13 games), the Blazers are 9-4. In his last 4 "LaMonster" games, and 6 of our last 7 wins, he's done this (the only exception being against LAC).

I think i did this a few years ago with the team as well. I seem to remember that teams that had a lot of FTA's were the better teams. It's why our offense has been bad this whole time because it's been built around getting guys jump shots and not attacking the rim. It's why I was and am upset that they traded Bayless

 

[maxiep]

LMA's play has been the culmination of a few things. First, he clearly did a lot of lifting this offseason. He's noticably stronger. That allows him to bang more than previous years. Second, with Brandon gone we're doing a lot more pick and rolling vs. pick and popping. Third, because we're playing at a faster tempo these past few games, Aldridge is able to exploit his quickness more and is outrunning every other big man down the court. Fourth, playing inside has led to better offensive rebound positioning. Finally, teams are fronting him because they're trying to deny him the ball and we have players that are excellent at passing over those fronting techniques. It's lead to a lot of easy baskets for him.

 

[THE HCP]

It's MUCH easier to get a rebound when you're not standing 20' from the hoop after a long J or a fadeaway. .

Or when there aren't 3 other 7 footers getting all the boards.

 

[Minstrel]

I don't think so. Look at where he's been shooting/playing from recently. It's MUCH easier to get a rebound when you're not standing 20' from the hoop after a long J or a fadeaway.

The question is how much of that was by design, considering McMillan and the Blazers knew they had other strong rebounders who couldn't do what Aldridge is able to do....shoot jumpers and score out of the high post.

 

[mook]

LMA's play has been the culmination of a few things. First, he clearly did a lot of lifting this offseason. He's noticably stronger. That allows him to bang more than previous years. Second, with Brandon gone we're doing a lot more pick and rolling vs. pick and popping. Third, because we're playing at a faster tempo these past few games, Aldridge is able to exploit his quickness more and is outrunning every other big man down the court. Fourth, playing inside has led to better offensive rebound positioning. Finally, teams are fronting him because they're trying to deny him the ball and we have players that are excellent at passing over those fronting techniques. It's lead to a lot of easy baskets for him.

Perfect summary of what's going on. Repped.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Nate's offense only suites one player: Brandon Roy.

Wesley can finish at the rim on a full sprint. LaMarcus is a totally different player when he's attacking rather than running a slow-it-up ISO for him.

This roster was built for an uptempo system but that memo missed Nate apparently.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

If anyone is interested, Jason Quick will be on the John Lund show @ 2pm to talk about LMA's emergence and how Roy should adapt to him.

 

[Mediocre Man]

If anyone is interested, Jason Quick will be on the John Lund show @ 2pm to talk about LMA's emergence and how Roy should adapt to him.

I love how Quick is stating what a lot of fans have been saying all year