So...what is wrong with LaMarcus Aldridge?

[KingSpeed]

I'm eerily reminded of last year's "What's wrong with Brandon Roy?" thread. Roy was only shooting jumpers. No drives. One year later, Aldridge is mostly shooting long jumpshots. He's not going deep into the post like he did when he earnedAll-NBA third team honors last season. Our only hope of winning a title is him becoming a superstar. He looked like an emerging one last year. This year, not so much. I'm worried. Is there something we don't know?

 

[BoomChakaLaka]

My guess is that he's a little out of shape, he may be a bit shy to push hard for fear of his heart....and he needs to mix it up; his turn-around J is predictable after only four games! He needs a drop-step-to-the-baseline in his arsenal as well. And running a few plays for Wallace might also help too. If we don't see any adjustments in the offensive sets soon, teams will simply put their tallest player on LMA and take him out of his game and he won't be making any All Star team.

Finally, while Camby and Thomas make great back-up Centers - LMA needs a starting-quality Center on the floor with him. I think a move for Cousins may be worth examining!

PS: I may have set a record for hyphens!

 

[Natebishop3]

One answer: No Andre Miller. The guards aren't doing a very good job of getting LMA the ball in scoring position, or really getting him the ball at all.

 

[Mediocre Man]

I think it's two things.

1. Simply not in he best basketball shape yet, so he is conserving energy to stay on the floor by not going down low and pounding

2. Right now there are too many other people trying to be the man.

 

[magnifier661]

I don't agree that it's anyone's fault but Aldridge. Not saying it may be health or conditioning, but I watched him get into the paint and get pushed out. There were a lot of blown post shots that I normally see go in. I don't blame the other teammates at all. They are trying to get it to him.

 

[GriLtCheeZ]

LA has always been a slow starter.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

One answer: No Andre Miller. The guards aren't doing a very good job of getting LMA the ball in scoring position, or really getting him the ball at all.

Also, no Rudy. Rudy threw some GREAT lobs for Aldridge. Also, a lot more Crawford. So Aldridge should look for offensive rebounds more than lobs.

LA has always been a slow starter.

That's true too. It also seems to me that he's being totally swarmed these days. He gets double teamed practically every time. Was that true last year? I don't remember.

Finally, the spacing isn't there yet and everything's more higgledy piggledy.

 

[Sinobas]

LaMarcus does this every year, then picks it up. None of the blazers looked like they were into the game last night. I think this squad will be saving a lot for the home crowd.

But also, they don't do a good job at getting the ball to LA when he has a mismatch.

 

[tlongII]

Yep, it's just a slow start. He'll be fine.

 

[e_blazer]

LA scored 19 and had 9 boards. Yeah, he could have played better, but still a pretty solid night. I'm more concerned with Gerald Wallace. Zero points and zero assists in 30 minutes? What's up with that?

 

[Blazinaway]

LA scored 19 and had 9 boards. Yeah, he could have played better, but still a pretty solid night. I'm more concerned with Gerald Wallace. Zero points and zero assists in 30 minutes? What's up with that?

I thought Nic had a solid game. nice rebounding and scoring

 

[Boob-No-More]

Yep, it's just a slow start. He'll be fine.

Well, goddammit, he better pick it up soon. The season is already 6% over. If he doesn't pull his head out of his ass and go into beast mode soon, we'll never make the playoffs!

If we lose tomorrow night in OKC, the front office should definitely look into blowing this team up. We could probably package Aldridge and Batum in exchange for a potential, unprotected high lottery pick. Combine that with our own lottery pick and we'd be on our way to a dynasty. The upcoming draft is VERY deep at the PF and C positions. 6 of the top 7 projected picks are big men. Maybe we can also package Camby's expiring contract and secure the top two picks to land both Anthony Davis and Andre Drummond. Maybe we can move Gerald Wallace for another pick to use on Harrison Barnes. Then, we'd just need to add a veteran PG, like Steve Nash and we'd instantly be serious title contenders.

BNM

 

[Ed O]

Aldridge seems to be doing just fine. Of all the reasons we lost last night, I don't think that he was it.

Ed O.

 

[magnifier661]

Aldridge seems to be doing just fine. Of all the reasons we lost last night, I don't think that he was it.

Ed O.

This I agree with. I'm just concerned with him not getting points in the paint. He is our only player that can post up. We need a player like him to dominate the post. It makes it easier for everyone else to score. Also we need someone to get the other bigs in foul trouble.

 

[magnifier661]

I'm more concerned with Gerald Wallace. Zero points and zero assists in 30 minutes? What's up with that?

I actually have a theory on last night. I was watching it live, so maybe it just seemed slower, but it looked like Nate was putting a leash on him. He wasn't playing loose like he did the first 3 games. It was really odd.

One of these days we maybe blessed with Wallace and Batum having good games. That's really important for our success IMO.

 

[HailBlazers]

2. Right now there are too many other people trying to be the man.

That's what I saw too. The offense was pretty ugly when slowed down to a crawl, what do you know.

Aldridge seems to be doing just fine. Of all the reasons we lost last night, I don't think that he was it.

Wasn't his fault, but he was the reason we should have WON. Nobody could match him outside Deandre Jordan, therefore his teammates should have gave him the ball every time somebody else was on him. It didn't happen, LMA faded away like old, and our best player only scored 19 when he could have had 29. Hell 25 points from him would have won the game.

 

[ABM]

He made all those preseason claims to the effect that, with the departure of Roy, this has become his team.

It would occur to me that he's determined to back that statement up. However, I don't think he's a "true" leader type, so, IMO, he might still be reconciling within himself a bit as to what that means on the court...off the court......on the road.

It's still way early, though. As they say, no worries.

 

[jlprk]

I'm not disappointed because I only expect the old Aldridge, not the new one. He had a good 6 weeks last season, I think it was Dec. and Jan., then he settled back down. But everyone remembers it now as season-long, and permanent. I think one reason he came back down to Earth was that Camby got injured and so many of the lobs ended.

The Rudy reason is also right. Aldridge said (on picture day was it?) that losing Rudy had lost him a lot of lobs.

Aldridge's shots come mostly from passes. In contrast, Gerald Wallace creates most of his own, like a guard. Aldridge is dependent on the goodwill of passers, and our guards are now all shooters, unlike in the past.

 

[BoomChakaLaka]

Watching the game up here in BC (game was nationally broadcast in Canada) it looked to me like the Blazers had spent New Year's Eve in LA!

...and that Crash had stayed up until the sun rose!

Just a sloppy game by both teams. Had LMA or Crawford hit their respective 3's from the corner with under a minute to go - we very well may have won this game.

Many truths will be told tomorrow night against OKC in my opinion:

Will Nate let 'em run?
Will Wallace have a monster game?
Can Crawford come off the bench and score 14+ points?
Can Batum take his man (typically someone much shorter) to the hole?
Can Matthews hit 5 or more outside jumpers?
Can anyone prevent Durant from scoring fewer than 30 points?

 

[Nikolokolus]

The guy had a minor heart surgery, no training camp and it's been 4 games ... and he's managing 20 points per game on 48% shooting. But I'm sure he's a big disappointment to some.

 

[PapaG]

I'm pretty sure whatever it is you're complaining about is because he doesn't do cocaine, doesn't do acid, doesn't believe that Jesus was real, and that he's never read the Book of Mormon.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

It's pretty simple, he's not attacking the hoop.

The 'game' he's playing is exactly like pre-2010 LaMarcus -- settling for jumpers.

 

[KingSpeed]

It's pretty simple, he's not attacking the hoop.

The 'game' he's playing is exactly like pre-2010 LaMarcus -- settling for jumpers.

Exactly. And Nik- it's not about the numbers. He's making the jumpers. The question is why isn't he attacking the hoop like he did last year? It's not because Andre Miller is gone. People are getting him the ball. He's just not attacking. It looks like something must be affecting him physically. When you're tired or hurt, you settle for jumpers.

 

[KingSpeed]

It's pretty simple, he's not attacking the hoop.

The 'game' he's playing is exactly like pre-2010 LaMarcus -- settling for jumpers.

Exactly. And Nik- it's not about the numbers. He's making the jumpers. The question is why isn't he attacking the hoop like he did last year? It's not because Andre Miller is gone. People are getting him the ball. He's just not attacking. It looks like something must be affecting him physically. When you're tired or hurt, you settle for jumpers.

 

[Nikolokolus]

Exactly. And Nik- it's not about the numbers. He's making the jumpers. The question is why isn't he attacking the hoop like he did last year? It's not because Andre Miller is gone. People are getting him the ball. He's just not attacking. It looks like something must be affecting him physically. When you're tired or hurt, you settle for jumpers.

What part of "heart surgery" and "no training camp" do you not understand? It takes time to get your legs under you after almost any surgery and being laid up for a week. If he's still playing like this in two or three weeks you'll be on to something, but right now? C'mon.

 

[mook]

Seems like he's fumbled a few opportunities in every game where Felton is trying to set him up on the roll. In those situations I think he's used to seeing the ball lobbed up high for him to finish, whereas Felton tends to deliver it more into the breadbasket. They just need to get some games under their belt to develop the timing. Aldridge is thinking a lot out there, whereas he needs to go on instinct more like Amare did. Nate seems intent on forcing those cobwebs off by giving LMA 40 minutes/night.

 

[jlprk]

Seems like he's fumbled a few opportunities...Aldridge is thinking a lot out there, whereas he needs to go on instinct more like Amare did.

That's the essence of Nate McMillan. He makes the players think all the time, and play defense every second. Shooters are distracted by everything other than shooting. Good shooters are ruined. To compensate, McMillan slows down the game to get more focused shots than other teams require.

McMillan is such a serious guy that he never loosens up.

 

[Ed O]

Wasn't his fault, but he was the reason we should have WON. Nobody could match him outside Deandre Jordan, therefore his teammates should have gave him the ball every time somebody else was on him. It didn't happen, LMA faded away like old, and our best player only scored 19 when he could have had 29. Hell 25 points from him would have won the game.

I don't like this kind of logic. It leads to perpetual disappointment due to arbitrary standards.

I don't think he "could" have had 29 points any more than he "could" have had 9 points. I look at the shots he took and the shots he made and the way he DID play the game... not how I envision he should be playing it.

Ed O.

 

[HailBlazers]

All I'm saying is we need more ball movement and they need to look to LMA over and over.

 

[magnifier661]

All I'm saying is we need more ball movement and they need to look for LMA over and over.

Well not to be argumentative, but it looked like Portland was trying to get the ball into LMA. I also saw him get pushed out of the paint, and get a re-entry for worse position. I do agree with Nic and others about his conditioning, minor surgery and only having 2 practices with the current team.

I didn't even know he's only practiced 2 times with the team