LA=All-Star?

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I think LA has a shot at the game if Roy stays out of the line up. I think it is helping that Camby and Joel are out as well
 
Not really. LeBron posted a PER of 50 last year and averaged 72.2 PTS/48 when he played center in Cleveland. Unfortunately, his opposing center also had a PER of 50 and scored 65 PTS/48. So, not much of an advantage to playing LeBron at the 5. Ha ha, just kidding small sample size and all that.

Point is, center is not Love's primary position, power forward is and the numbers he puts up while playing power forward are much closer to his total aggregate numbers.

BNM

Then why post his center numbers in the first place if they're next to meaningless? :devilwink:
 
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I think LA has a shot at the game if Roy stays out of the line up. I think it is helping that Camby and Joel are out as well

Legitimately, LMA plays well at center. These games are proving that much. If we had three more good pieces (say a backup SF, a backup PG, and a starting PF) we'd be in a lot better shape than we are now.

This version of LMA with Channing Frye at PF would be fun to watch, imho.
 
Then why post his center numbers in the first place if they're next to meaningless? :devilwink:

I assume you're referring to Love and not LeBron...

Love's number at center are not next to meaningless. He plays about 10.5 MPG at center and 24.5 MPG at PF. Due to the difference in playing time, his overall numbers are closer to his production at power forward, but the minutes he plays at center are not insignificant.

For simplicity sake, I just used his numbers at PF (as well as the numbers for the other 4 Minnesota starters at their primary positions) in my original post. I did not mention Love's numbers at center until you wrote:

It could also be a symptom of Rambis sticking Beasley on any player who blows past Love more than twice.

To show that Love/Beasley don't swap men on defense (i.e. Love guard SFs while Beasley guards PFs). The fact is Beasley is horrible at guarding SFs, and both Beasley and Love play up one position, and do so effectively, a significant amount of the time.

BNM
 
it looks like LMA now has a higher PER than love over the last 7 games. too bad he didn't start this earlier.
 
Legitimately, LMA plays well at center.

Legitimately, LMA plays well at center.

Yes, most definitely. He gets a lot more rebounds and blocks more shots when playing center, and he scores just as much, if not more, and draws more fouls.

However, this is not new. During his rookie year, he played almost all of his minutes at center next to Zach at power forward. First, when Joel was injured after getting kneed in the balls, and then later when the trade deadline passed and the team finally gave up on showcasing Jamaal Magloire and made Aldridge the full time starting center. That March, Aldridge had some huge games (30 points on March 1 in his first game as a full time starring center, and games of 24/17 with 10 ORB and 4 BLK and 27/14 with 9 ORB and 3 BLK), and statistically was having a better month than Brandon Roy - until the very last day of the month when Aldridge only had 2 points and 4 rebounds in 7 minutes and had his rookie season ended when he was dianosed with Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome.

BTW, that was the season I posted my weekly Rookie EFF reports, and that March was Roy's best month as a rookie - and Aldridge was having the better month right up until the very last day. He ended up second in Rookie of the Month voting to Roy.

After the Blazers drafted Oden and traded Zach, Aldridge has played almost all of his minutes at power forward, and his rebounding and blocks have both decreased - until very recently. But, now that he is playing more minutes at center, his ORB%, TRB% and BLK% are all the highest they have been since his rookie season (when he played center almost exclusively).

BNM
 
Great points... I'd forgotten about that rookie season. Has he really been playing out of position all this time, you think?
 
it looks like LMA now has a higher PER than love over the last 7 games. too bad he didn't start this earlier.

He's averaging 25/11 with 2.5 BLK over the last seven games - that's some pretty serious production.

BNM
 
Great points... I'd forgotten about that rookie season. Has he really been playing out of position all this time, you think?

Not necessarily. It all depends on who he's playing next to. Playing center, he spends a lot more time in the paint on both offense and defense, and that means more rebounds and more blocks. He's versatile enough to play either position - it all depends on what the team needs. If you have a true low post center, like Oden, playing Aldridge at the 4 makes perfect sense. Given that all three of our "true" centers are currently injured, Aldridge is well above average as a starting center. He has the tools to play both positions. It is good to see him playing more in the low post on offense. Hopefully, that carries forward when Camby/Joel return. Neither of them are serious low post scoring threats. So, it would be nice to have Aldridge getting some high percentage shots and drawing fouls down low.

BNM
 
He's not an All Star by the NBA fan voting that's for sure. Another reason why I hate the ballot system where fans just look at the name and not the production game numbers.
Aldridge leads Portland in scoring at 19.1 points and is second in rebounding at 8.6. In the seven games he has played since the last All-Star voting results were released two weeks ago, Aldridge averaged 25.1 point and 11.3 rebounds, but the effort did not vault him into the top 10.

Top 10 forwards by vote.
1. Kevin Durant (Okc) (735,521)
2. Carmelo Anthony (Den)
3. Pau Gasol (LAL)
4. Dirk Nowitzki (Dal)
5. Tim Duncan (SA)
6. Blake Griffin (LAC)
7. Lamar Odom (LAL)
8. Luis Scola (Hou)
9. Kevin Love (Min)
10. Caron Butler (Dal) (168,937)

Butler has PPG 14.9 RPG 4.2 APG 1.7 EFF + 12.44

vs LaMarcus

PPG 19.1, RPG 8.6, APG 1.9 EFF +20.44


Now thats fucked up. LA definitely has better statistics. Stupid fans and Ballot system.
 
Tonight's game is a great example of why LA will have a tough time making the AS game. He is playing great, but only has 2 rebounds because Camby is going to end up with almost 20
 
Someone who diametrically disagrees with the facts in that sentence would say that Camby has almost 20 rebounds because Aldridge only has 2.
 
I still don't understand why LA is so underrated. Do people not look at his stats? Is it our lack of coverage on ESPN? I still can't believe Greg Anthony said this.
"He's playing really good basketball, but no...But he will be an All-Star soon if he keeps doing what he's doing."
He was more productive than Love.
On Monday, Aldridge was matched against Love and got the upper hand with a career-high 37 points to go with 12 rebounds in a 113-102 home Portland win. Love had 22 points and 17 rebounds in the loss.
I do think the NBA coaches will push for him after the Blazers take on the Clippers and everyone else will see how well LA is doing and might get more votes next year if he keeps this same pace up for next year (if we don't have a lock out).
 
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Greg Anthony said:
He's playing really good basketball, but no...But he will be an All-Star soon if he keeps doing what he's doing.

I'm not sure what you find objectionable about that quote. It sounds pretty fair to me. He may not be an All-Star because he's only been playing at this level for a month or a little over a month. His likely competitors for a spot, like Blake Griffin and Kevin Love, have been super productive all season.

As Anthony said, if he keeps playing at this level, Aldridge should be an All-Star (perpetual All-Star, IMO) soon...like next season.
 
Love is probably the real deal, but... but... the junk around Love seems no worse than the junk around LeBaby in Cleveland... if Love is all that and a bag of rebounds, why can't his team beat ANYONE?

K-Bo?
 
If you watch Kevin Loves game closely he really doesn't have any go to moves, and he gets a lot of his points off of garbage. He also is not a good defender IMO. I think both Griffin and Aldridge are superior players, more polished. Last night when playing against Griffin, he didn't register a rebound until almost halfway through the game.
 
Not that any of you care, but Bill Simmons says no. His West roster--Paul/Kobe/Melo/Durant/Gasol with reserves Westbrook/Williams/Manu/Love/Griffin/Dirk/Duncan.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/110120&sportCat=nba

I guess if you are going with "forwards" and not power forwards. I tend to vote for positions rather than just generic "forwards" because that is how the game is really played. I went with Durant and Dirk Nowitzki as starters. I see Carmello, his performance so far this season, and the amount of distraction he has created, as anything but "all star". Whereas Dirk and Durant have been walking the walk.

Westbrook on the team is a laugher IMO, when you have Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Steve Nash in the conference.
 
I'm not sure what you find objectionable about that quote. It sounds pretty fair to me. He may not be an All-Star because he's only been playing at this level for a month or a little over a month. His likely competitors for a spot, like Blake Griffin and Kevin Love, have been super productive all season.

we can hope team record equalizes that. it very well could, particularly if we win tonight.

As Anthony said, if he keeps playing at this level, Aldridge should be an All-Star (perpetual All-Star, IMO) soon...like next season.

tall order, but if he outplays Griffin tonight and blazers win i predect he's in (likely over love). if he has an off game he's probably out (barring another big missing the game or carmelo trade). coaches are presumably looking at their ballots RIGHT NOW, so what happens tonight might count 10x a normal game (good or bad).
 
I guess if you are going with "forwards" and not power forwards. I tend to vote for positions rather than just generic "forwards" because that is how the game is really played. I went with Durant and Dirk Nowitzki as starters. I see Carmello, his performance so far this season, and the amount of distraction he has created, as anything but "all star". Whereas Dirk and Durant have been walking the walk.

If 'Melo gets traded, Gasol gets in on votes, and then maybe Dirk gets named starting center, and one more bench spot opens up. Is Aldridge currently #13 for the West? Maybe--Simmons says he's up against Nash, Ellis, Odom, Z-Bo, and Eric Gordon.

Westbrook on the team is a laugher IMO, when you have Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Steve Nash in the conference.

Do you honestly think that Nash is having a better season than Westbrook, or is that a reputation-based opinion?
 
Westbrook has put up some impressive #'s. I don't know if I'd call it a laugher.
 
You could almost make the argument that Westbrook is more invaluable to the Thunder than Durant is. Without him they've got no straw to stir the drink -- He's playing lights out.
 
actually i should retract my previous post because the coaches won't be picking the 12th man, STERN will (duh). if coaches vote in duncan and griffin which is very likely, stern will be the one choosing between love, LMA, zebo etc for the final spot, and he showed last year that, unlike the coaches, he gives little weight to team record. i can see him already being tied to love's bandwagon. if that's the case there isn't really much hope no matter what LMA does in the next few games.
 
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I agree about Westbrook. I see no travesty there. He's flat out played better than Nash this season.
 

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