The Cavs target LMA

[B-Roy]

Please, correct me if I'm wrong

Just about every defensive statistic out there has Aldridge as an average/above average defender relative to the rest of the team. But no, I should trust your magical eye test over all of them. Give me a break.

 

[Blazer4ever]

Any such statistic is bullshit.
Aldridge is ok at guarding a player one-on-one, partly because Robin has his back, he's also above-average at guarding the perimeter for a big.
But he doesn't do any of the things I mentioned above and I would add that he doesn't rotate well and doesn't protect the rim. All these liabilities make him a very poor team defender and a defensive liability.
He's very good on one side of the court, thinking it makes it OK for him to be a lousy defender is making excuses for him. If Lillard and Aldridge don't improve their defense we would be playing two very bad defenders for 40mpg. Can't have a very good defense that way.

 

[B-Roy]

Any such statistic is bullshit.
Aldridge is ok at guarding a player one-on-one, partly because Robin has his back, he's also above-average at guarding the perimeter for a big.
But he doesn't do any of the things I mentioned above and I would add that he doesn't rotate well and doesn't protect the rim. All these liabilities makes him a very poor team defender and a defensive liability.
He's very good on one side of the court, thinking it makes it OK for him to be a lousy defender is making excuses for him. If Lillard and Aldridge don't improve their defense we would be playing two very bad defenders for 40mpg. Can't have very good defense that way.

You would think that, if Aldridge was such a horrible defender, at least one statistic would paint him as such.

Yeah, I'm not biting. The statistics pretty much confirm my own eye test: that Aldridge is an average/above average defender.

But just to prove you're wrong, here are some stats:

http://stats.nba.com/playerTrackingDefense.html?PlayerOrTeam=Player&pageNo=1&rowsPerPage=25

In the playoffs:
Opp FGM at Rim per game 7.2 vs 5.0
Opp FGA at Rim per game 13.4 vs 11.4
Opp FGP at Rim 54.7% vs 44.0%

First number is Lopez, second is LMA.

LMA was better at defending the rim in the playoffs than Robin. That's what you were so pissed about right?

There are regular season stats as well. Aldridge was top 25 in the league at shots per game contested at the rim. He allowed a similar percentage as these players:

DeAndre Jordan
Tyson Chandler
Anthony Davis
Omer Asik
Kevin Garnett
Marcin Gortat
Dwight Howard
Andre Drummond

But yeah, he's a total defensive liability because you said so.

 

[Blazer4ever]

I don't like players who think they deserve personal accolades over helping the team wins, who would bitch about wanting better players around him but not have their back on defense. I don't like players who 'improve' by taking more shots or by collecting just easy rebounds. I don't like a player who thinks he's good enough on offense for other players to do his job on defense. I don't like Aldridge playing 5-10 more minutes than Robin not because he played better but because he's an all-star, max player, etc, etc, and Robin is Robin.
I am for this supposed trade partly because I don't mind T-Rob tireless energy, jumping at every ball, at every rebound than La's "natural talent". If he really deserves all this MVP candidate hype he should take this criticism as a challenge. Freeland improved tremendously last summer, T-Rob's defense at the beginning of the season wasn't nearly as good. But they knew if they didn't improve they wouldn't play, Aldridge would still get 40mpg because u would call anyone criticizing him 'idiotic'.
If I'm the coach, Aldridge would already be playing closer to 35 mpg and his minutes would steadily decline if he doesn't improve his defense. You can call me an idiot but mine would be Popovich's approach while yours is at best Stotts' kiss-up to the superstar approach.

Your stats I think are skewed by the fact Aldridge doesn't sit enough on the bench and by Robin doing two players' defense when he plays.

 

[Blazer4ever]

When exactly did Aldridge protect the rim at all? How do you protect the rim without bringing your arms above your shoulders? The famous Aldridge ball-slap? With his head?

 

[B-Roy]

I don't like players who think they deserve personal accolades over helping the team wins, who would bitch about wanting better players around him but not have their back on defense. I don't like players who 'improve' by taking more shots or by collecting just easy rebounds. I don't like a player who thinks he's good enough on offense for other players to do his job on defense. I don't like Aldridge playing 5-10 more minutes than Robin not because he played better but because he's an all-star, max player, etc, etc, and Robin is Robin.
I am for this supposed trade partly because I don't mind T-Rob tireless energy, jumping at every ball, at every rebound than La's "natural talent". If he really deserves all this MVP candidate hype he should take this criticism as a challenge. Freeland improved tremendously last summer, T-Rob's defense at the beginning of the season wasn't nearly as good. But they knew if they didn't improve they wouldn't play, Aldridge would still get 40mpg because u would call anyone criticizing him 'idiotic'.
If I'm the coach, Aldridge would already be playing closer to 35 mpg and his minutes would steadily decline if he doesn't improve his defense. You can call me an idiot but mine would be Popovich's approach while yours is at best Stotts' kiss-up to the superstar approach.

Your stats I think are skewed by the fact Aldridge doesn't sit enough on the bench and by Robin doing two players' defense when he plays.

Clearly no amount of logic is going to persuade you, not that I expected it would.

You can keep spouting your nonsense about how Aldridge is a defensive liability. Maybe if you say it enough times it will become true. Then again, maybe not.

 

[Strenuus]

When exactly did Aldridge protect the rim at all? How do you protect the rim without bringing your arms above your shoulders? The famous Aldridge ball-slap? With his head?

The only thing I'll say is that you may want to just edit some of your posts instead of just making a new post. I see a lot of your posts go back-to-back-to-back. One post will do. lol.

Other than that, I think Stotts is not the right coach for this team.

 

[Blazer4ever]

BTW, bringing his arms up on defense is not something he can't do. It's something he needs to learn and it's the coaches' job to make him learn that. Problem is, when you get 20mil a year and get superstar treatment from the fans you don't have to learn anything.
That's the difference between him and Lillard IMO. I don't question Lillard's motivation.

 

[BigGameDamian]

How about some YouTube videos for some examples?

 

[Blazer4ever]

I wouldn't know what I should search for.
He needs to start playing as part of a defensive system. He's not a bad one-on-one defender but there's much more to defense than that.
Learn to rotate to the open player, learn to cover for other players, challenge every drive no matter how strong, keep your hands up as a basic under the basket defensive strategy, learn how to box-out - simply the player closest to you, learn to like the physical battle, taking hits. That's mostly it.

Oh and one more thing: if you are out on a guard, say Tony Parker, and he starts charging at you, don't start going backwards, set your feet where you are and make him go through you or all the way around you.

 

[Sinobas]

There are regular season stats as well. Aldridge was top 25 in the league at shots per game contested at the rim. He allowed a similar percentage as these players:

DeAndre Jordan
Tyson Chandler
Anthony Davis
Omer Asik
Kevin Garnett
Marcin Gortat
Dwight Howard
Andre Drummond

But yeah, he's a total defensive liability because you said so.

Shots per game contested at the rim, or FG% allowed near the rim? Because number of shots contested at the rim sounds like a flimsy stat to me. It says nothing about the players success at altering shots, and Portland allows more shots in the paint than any team.

 

[RR7]

How about some YouTube videos for some examples?

I can show a youtube video of Ha looking good. What a shit way to look for an example of basketball skill.

 

[Blazer4ever]

Also, you can't leave the rim unprotected!
If Robin gets stuck on a switch or goes away from under the basket to challenge a drive, you have to be aware of it! The interior can't be unprotected, you rotate to under the basket immediately, even if it means allowing your own player an open jumper. Protecting the rim with at least one player is first priority, if you can use 2 players that's even better but you have to have at least one and it's not just Robin's responsibility but Aldridge's as well.

 

[jlprk]

Just about every defensive statistic out there has Aldridge as an average/above average defender relative to the rest of the team. But no, I should trust your magical eye test over all of them. Give me a break.

Aldridge ranks near the worst (like worst 5) in percentage of rebounds which are uncontested. And in absolute number of uncontested rebounds per game.

In other words, Lopez forces the miss and makes the ball go 10 feet out to Aldridge, who gets the box score glory by playing no defense.

 

[B-Roy]

Shots per game contested at the rim, or FG% allowed near the rim? Because number of shots contested at the rim sounds like a flimsy stat to me. It says nothing about the players success at altering shots, and Portland allows more shots in the paint than any team.

How is opponent FG% at the rim a bad stat for judging this? It's included in the analysis.

And # of shots contested at the rim was a direct response to Blazer4ever who stated Aldridge never contested shots at the rim.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

This conversation is bad comedy. Aldridge is our best defensive player by most statistics. That's not to say he's a stopper; our defense was overall pretty ragged. But he is the best on our team.

 

[B-Roy]

This conversation is bad comedy. Aldridge is our best defensive player by most statistics. That's not to say he's a stopper; our defense was overall pretty ragged. But he is the best on our team.

Thank god someone here has some sense.

 

[RR7]

I've definitely notice Aldridge being poor at help defense a lot. But the hyperbole to paint him as terrible shifts it to just being an unreasonable discussion that is going to go nowhere. I feel like your followup posts have been solid, but just started off so bad.
I said before, can totally see reasons to trade him, reasons to keep him, can hop on both sides of the argument/discussion, which makes me notice how strongly people paint their positions on either side, and it's a little ridiculous. There's reasons to listen, and there's reasons not to deal him.

 

[blue9]

If LMA is such a great defender, why is he guarding the opposition's worst offensive player 99% of the time? That's why his defensive stats look good - because he's almost always guarding a stiff who rarely touches the ball.
I will say that LMA is quite adequate at defending PFs/Cs in the post, one on one. I don't have many issues with his defense there. But that's the only part of his defense that's good.
If he gets caught guarding a smaller player he's absolutely garbage (likewise if a guard switches onto him when he's on offense). Even guarding a big who can put the ball on the floor in a face-up situation is tough for him. And he is one of the worst help-defenders I've ever seen - he's guarding a guy who rarely touches the ball, yet he sticks to him like glue while watching a guard waltz down the lane for a lay-up.

 

[Rhal]

If LMA is such a great defender, why is he guarding the opposition's worst offensive player 99% of the time? That's why his defensive stats look good - because he's almost always guarding a stiff who rarely touches the ball.
I will say that LMA is quite adequate at defending PFs/Cs in the post, one on one. I don't have many issues with his defense there. But that's the only part of his defense that's good.
If he gets caught guarding a smaller player he's absolutely garbage (likewise if a guard switches onto him when he's on offense). Even guarding a big who can put the ball on the floor in a face-up situation is tough for him. And he is one of the worst help-defenders I've ever seen - he's guarding a guy who rarely touches the ball, yet he sticks to him like glue while watching a guard waltz down the lane for a lay-up.

We switch no matter what on D. Its annoying but thats just the game plan. Most bigs who get switched onto guards are garbage, its why teams try to get that switch so often. LA doesnt gaurd the worst player on the other team he usually guards the PF regardless of who is better between the PF/C. LMA and Lopez will switch often, which isnt a bad thing since Lopez is the better defender but LMA will spend the majority of the game starting out the defensive play on the pf.
LMA help D is without a question horrible but im starting to wonder if its just him or stotts defensive system because he would would help a lot more and block more shots when he was coached by McMillian. I say it could be Stotts system since we rarely double and you hardly ever see anyone slide away from there man to help Lopez in the paint.
Regardless if its the system or not LMA needs to step up defensively next year.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

 

[e_blazer]

If LMA is such a great defender, why is he guarding the opposition's worst offensive player 99% of the time? That's why his defensive stats look good - because he's almost always guarding a stiff who rarely touches the ball.
I will say that LMA is quite adequate at defending PFs/Cs in the post, one on one. I don't have many issues with his defense there. But that's the only part of his defense that's good.
If he gets caught guarding a smaller player he's absolutely garbage (likewise if a guard switches onto him when he's on offense). Even guarding a big who can put the ball on the floor in a face-up situation is tough for him. And he is one of the worst help-defenders I've ever seen - he's guarding a guy who rarely touches the ball, yet he sticks to him like glue while watching a guard waltz down the lane for a lay-up.

It's hardly unusual in the NBA for coaches to assign their best offensive players to the opponent's least offensively gifted player. It makes sense both from a standpoint of not wearing your offensive player out and from not picking up fouls.

Man, some of you guys are unreal in your criticism of LMA. The funny thing is, if he were playing for another team and there was a shot at getting him this summer, you'd probably be wearing out the Trade Machine coming up with ideas as to how to get him.

 

[BigGameDamian]

It's hardly unusual in the NBA for coaches to assign their best offensive players to the opponent's least offensively gifted player. It makes sense both from a standpoint of not wearing your offensive player out and from not picking up fouls.

Man, some of you guys are unreal in your criticism of LMA. The funny thing is, if he were playing for another team and there was a shot at getting him this summer, you'd probably be wearing out the Trade Machine coming up with ideas as to how to get him.

When hasn't Portland had a dominate PF? The Blazers have always been blessed with having such great PF it's like they grow on trees for us. The PF position is one position that always seems to even out for us.

 

[BigGameDamian]

 

[H.C.]

So the question comes back to this........The way this team is constructed now, In the next 2-4 years can this team win a championship with minor upgrades? I would have to answer no but with that said I do think they are very good, fun and exciting to watch.

With the way the Spurs have handled everyone in the playoffs this year(becides Dallas.. but it's a rivalry of course it's going to be tough) I don't see anyone contending with the Spurs next year. Injuries could play a role, as well as retirements. But honestly? the Spurs have blown out every team in the playoffs in at least one game this year. They're just good, too good. Dallas/Blazers/OKC/Miami.. None of those teams are labelled as "easy outs"

Problem I have with the starting lineup is Batum/Wesley.
Wesley needs to shoot a higher % in the playoffs. Or Batum needs to be that 3rd option consistently because a lot of times Wesley was the #3 option.
Batum needs to be the #3 and sometimes #2 option on offense to take this team to the next level.
Batum is paid like a #2/3 option he needs to play like it consistently on the offensive end by SCORING the ball, and not falling ASLEEP on the defensive end.
Aldridge has shown he improves in the offseason there is no reason for me to disbelieve he won't do the same this offseason.
Lillard.. While the guy can shoot, and everyone believes he has a competitive nature.
He's shown the opposite of that on the defensive side of the ball. He hasn't pulled a Wesley and took someone scoring on him personally.

Bottom line is the bench needs to be better. The Blazers need to be able to play small ball effectively without getting shit on.
Meaning Aldridge needs to protect the rim but also the Guards must stop one dribble drives to the basket.
Lopez has slow feet, meaning he can't play small ball effectively most of the time.

When teams force small ball the Blazers went to Mo Williams. Who is also a liability defensively.. meaning the Blazers were screwed with two Guards who can't stop dribble penetration, and a Forward who falls asleep defending off the ball.
With the way Will Barton defended in the playoffs and the natural ability he has to defend I want to see him more in small ball situations if the team stands pat. Less Mo Williams because in small ball situations help defense is hard to come by. Have to play your man straight up. Will Barton has the tools to do it and the ability to take a challenge on.

Rim Protection begins with Guards. Ends with a contested shot/block. But in no way is team defense on ONE player like some people are making it sound. I mean.. It's called team defense for a reason

The last statement wasn't directed at anyone in particular.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Mark (Portland) [via mobile] Would you trade Aldridge for the #1 pick? To me, it seems like 4 years of low contract plus 4-5 more years after that is better, but most Blazers fans seem to prefer Aldridge.

Kevin Pelton (3:57 PM) I would. To me the big advantage is the low cap number for the No. 1 pick in the summer of 2015, which would give the Blazers the opportunity to re-sign their starters and potentially add someone else. And there's the chance Aldridge walks then, in which case it would be great to get a valuable asset for him. But I can sympathize with fans who don't want to break up a quality team for a player who might never be as good as Aldridge.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Mark (Portland) [via mobile] Would you trade Aldridge for the #1 pick? To me, it seems like 4 years of low contract plus 4-5 more years after that is better, but most Blazers fans seem to prefer Aldridge.

Kevin Pelton (3:57 PM) I would. To me the big advantage is the low cap number for the No. 1 pick in the summer of 2015, which would give the Blazers the opportunity to re-sign their starters and potentially add someone else. And there's the chance Aldridge walks then, in which case it would be great to get a valuable asset for him. But I can sympathize with fans who don't want to break up a quality team for a player who might never be as good as Aldridge.

Before I comment, is Pelton an idiot or not? I can never remember who the forum has decided to bash.

 

[ripcityboy]

Lamarcus is under contract for one more year, correct? If we dont sign him or trade him, he's gone for nothing. Right?

 

[Natebishop3]

Lamarcus is under contract for one more year, correct? If we dont sign him or trade him, he's gone for nothing. Right?

yup.

 

[ripcityboy]

yup.

Hmmmmm. If I were him, I'd just wait a year and sign a huge contract in Texas with Dallas. KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!!

 

[BigGameDamian]

Wiggins will be a stud!!