LMA has always been this talented. He had 20 ppg last two seasons even. It's that now the Blazers are good and people are paying attention. He's also bulked up over the last year and a half too.

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Posted by LosLobos111

Austere

Member since Feb 2011

45385 posts

Posted on 5/5/14 at 9:42 pm to theducks

quote:
LMA has always been this talented. He had 20 ppg last two seasons even. It's that now the Blazers are good and people are paying attention. He's also bulked up over the last year and a half too.

Yeah he's been a top 5 PF for a while

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Posted by TigerinATL

Member since Feb 2005

61440 posts

Posted on 5/6/14 at 10:28 am to theducks

quote:
It's that now the Blazers are good and people are paying attention

There's no shame in being "only" a quasi All Star. If Aldridge were more than quasi, he'd have shown it by now, especially with all the injuries Portland has had basically dumping the team on his shoulders. He's been a 21/9 guy until this season where he stepped up to 23/11. How long can he keep this pace up? He'll be 29 next season, do you really expect him to maintain that pace for long once he's on the other side of 30? Let's say he does the 23/11 thing for the next 2 seasons, then he goes back to the 21/9 range for several years. That's what a quasi All Star looks like.

Compare that to a guy like Kevin Love who will only be 26 at the start of next season, his last 4 seasons have been:

20.2/15.2
26/13.3
18.3/14 (injury riddled 18 game season)
26.1/12.5

I'm not saying Aldridge is bad by any means, there just are talent tiers in the NBA, and it's pretty clear which one he's in. The point of this thread is that I think Holiday, Evans and Anderson are in the same tier and when AD is 25 and battling to be the top player in the league, those 3 will hopefully be hitting their peaks where on any given night they can play as well as anyone, just like Aldridge is starting to do now.

This post was edited on 5/6/14 at 10:29 am

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Posted by corndeaux

Member since Sep 2009

9634 posts

Posted on 5/6/14 at 10:44 am to TigerinATL

What's interesting is that he had his worst shooting season by far in his career and he's gotten more love for being a dominant shooter than ever before.

He is and has been a very, very good player for a long time. He deserves all the plaudits he is receiving now. But the shift in profile for him seems more like a good team and YAY POINTS! mindset than a true elevation in his play.

Narrative is fickle bitch

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