2007-08 season: Aldridge stepped into a starting power forward role and had a breakout season, averaging better than a point every two minutes with one of the lowest turnover rates at his position.
Though he's 6-foot-11, Aldridge is an excellent shooter for his size and gets a lot of his points off jumpers. Nearly two-thirds of his shots came from outside the immediate basket area, and nearly a third of his tries were long twos. He made 40.3 percent of those, which is OK, but he was even better at short-range shots. He took nearly five short-range jumpers a game and made 45.4 percent of them, a strong mark at a distance where many players struggle.
Aldridge is also a low-mistake player who had the eighth-lowest turnover ratio at his position, helping offset a middling TS%. It's possible for him to take that turnover ratio even lower, actually -- Aldridge committed 36 offensive fouls, the ninth most in the NBA and a huge total for a midrange jump shooter.
Scouting report: If this guy were any softer you'd use him to blow your nose. Aldridge has the size and length to be an outstanding rebounder and defender, but he willingly concedes prime post position and allows opponents to push him around under the basket. Given his size advantage at power forward he's also a frustratingly mediocre rebounder, especially on the defensive glass where he was only 40th out of 62 power forwards.
Offensively, he prefers the left side of the floor, taking nearly twice as many shots from there as from the right last season, and especially the left block. When he posts up it's usually for a short-range jumper -- he rarely forces the action toward the basket and consequently has a low free-throw rate. However, he can finish around the rim off of a feed or a rebound and he runs the floor well in transition.
2008-09 outlook: The return of Greg Oden could cut into Aldridge's minutes a bit, as Nate McMillan liked to play small last year and when he does Oden won't be the one sitting. Otherwise expect Aldridge's development to continue apace -- in fact playing with Oden could help him quite a bit because of how many open jumpers he'll get from midrange. Don't expect his per-game numbers to increase, but his shooting percentage might jump.
More importantly, keep an eye on his defense. Aldridge's softness has been his main problem thus far, so his ability to defend in the paint and rebound could be more important to his future than any incremental offensive development.
