Posts Tagged ‘LaMarcus Aldridge’

Popovich On Splitter’s Rise: ‘It Helps Timmy A Lot’

HANGTIME SOUTHWEST – Is Tiago Splitter the most important player on the San Antonio Spurs?

OK, so nobody’s going to make that argument with a straight face, but consider this comment from coach Gregg Popovich: “He’s just healthy and getting consistent minutes, so that’s helping us. It helps Timmy a lot.”

Helping Timmy, as in 36-year-old Tim Duncan, is nothing to sneeze at, especially as the Spurs head into another back-to-back tonight at Milwaukee followed by Thursday’s game at New York.

Thirty-three games into his third NBA season, Splitter seems to have finally put a stranglehold on a starting job. He gives San Antonio a sturdy, 6-foot-11, 240-pound power forward to handle the inside dirty work while lessening the burden and creating space for the ageless Duncan, who is again putting together an All-Star-caliber season.

“I’m the kind of player who to win games sometimes doesn’t mean you are going to score or make all the plays in a game,” Splitter said Sunday before piling up 13 points and six rebounds in a blowout of the Dallas Mavericks. One night later he went 5-for-7 from the floor for 10 points plus a couple blocks in a rout of the Brooklyn Nets.

“The situation is good and that’s what I want to do, come in here, win games, help the team to win,” Splitter continued. “I think we have great offensive guys, everybody can score on this team, so it’s not about scoring every night — be consistent, do whatever Pop wants to do on the court, play intelligent.”

It’s been a slow build for the Brazilian, who turned 28 on New Year’s Day. He’s dealt with some nagging injuries while adjusting to life in the NBA and under Popovich’s unique tutelage. He’s played behind the now-retired Antonio McDyess and DeJuan Blair, who has bounced in and out of the starting lineup as well as the rotation the last few season, yet was Popovich’s choice to start at the onset of the season.

“I think every day you learn something with him. He is one of the greatest coaches ever,” Splitter said. “Of course, you understand how he thinks, how he understands the game, so it’s easier. It took some time. I took a year to figure out everything and last year I was totally different and felt like a player again last year.”

Now it’s up to Splitter to hold onto the job for the foreseeable future. As a starter he is averaging 10.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in 25.0 minutes, about seven more minutes than he was logging as a reserve.

Where the brawny Splitter can really make a difference for San Antonio and give Timmy the most help is by taking on the brunt of defending the big boys in the West, such as Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard, Zach Randolph, LaMarcus Aldridge and Serge Ibaka.

“Somebody asked me a while back what has he improved in. I said nothing. He just hasn’t played,” Popovich said. “What he does for us now healthy is what he’s done in Europe for a lot of years. He’s been on championship teams over there. He’s a defender, a rebounder, a solid pick-and-roll player. He doesn’t have moves and he’s not a big offensive threat, but he’s every coach’s dream because he does everything so fundamentally sound.”

No, Splitter isn’t the most important player on the Spurs. But on a team that’s been considered too small up front to get out of the West, his importance can’t be understated either.

Stop The Floppers By Ignoring Them

HANG TIME, Texas – The shot that will get the big run on all the highlights shows and the most clicks on YouTube will, of course, be Damian Lillard’s frozen rope jumper with 0.3 seconds left that provided the margin of difference in the Blazers’ 95-94 win over the Hornets on Sunday night.

But it says here that just as big a play came a little over a minute earlier and it wasn’t by a guard, forward or center and not by anyone in a Portland or New Orleans uniform.

Take a bow, referee David Guthrie.

The Blazers had squandered most of their 16-point lead when LaMarcus Aldridge got the ball on the left wing in front of the New Orleans’ bench and turned to drive the baseline on Ryan Anderson. Aldridge leaned in just slightly with his left shoulder and might have drawn a whistle for an offensive foul. Except that Anderson reacted as if he’d been charged by every bull that had ever run through the streets of Pamplona and flung himself to the floor.

What happened next? Aldridge simply stepped back and nailed a 15-footer with 1:04 showing on the clock that turned out to be the bucket that set up Lillard’s heroics.

Guthrie simply watched. And there wasn’t a peep of protest from the Hornets’ bench.

A flop is a flop is a flop. There was no need to send the video feed to the league office and wait for a ruling from the Sheriff of Floppingham, a.k.a. Stu Jackson. No need to wait a few days to levy a fine or pass down heavy-handed punishment after the fact. None of the extra level of bureaucratic nonsense that has entered the game this season with the advent of the Flop Council.

I would like to see flopping taken out of the game as much as the next guy. But we’re not even two months into the season and I’m already fed up hearing color commentators on League Pass talk nightly about whether this player should be warned or whether that player will get the dreaded fine notice or maybe a particularly egregious violator will be made to play for the next several weeks wearing a dunce cap and a bright red nose.

It’s a call that should be made — or not — right then and right there by the game officials on the scene, not somebody sitting in a New York office with a remote control in his hand, actually undercutting officials by second-guessing them. Tell them to be definitive on the spot.

If you want to drop the hammer on floppers, give the referees the power to slap them with technical fouls, maybe even an extra free throw for every additional violation in a game.

Or better yet, simply instruct them all to react like David Guthrie. Just ignore the fakers and let the game play on.

Is Ibaka The Best Mid-Range Shooter?

 

OKLAHOMA CITY – You’re the coach of the Thunder and you’re drawing up a play to get a good look to pop a mid-range jumper.

Who’s shooting it for you? Kevin  DurantRussell Westbrook? Kevin Martin?

Scott Brooks, the actual coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder, said he’ll take Serge Ibaka any day.

“He’s one of the best pop guys in the league at that position,” Brooks said. “A 17-foot jump shot, I would take that shot probably over anybody on our team.”

Look, no one’s saying that with 1.2 seconds to go in a tie game that Brooks is drawing up the game-winner to go through Ibaka to shoot a 17-footer. At the same time, no one’s saying he isn’t.

Brooks didn’t hand out the compliment for the sake of pumping up his fourth-year power forward more known for his swats than his swishes. That fact is that Ibaka is riding an offensive surge this season that has him ranked 11th in scoring among the league’s power forwards at 14.0 points a game, five points more than last season’s average.

It has greatly aided in OKC’s explosive offense that is posting more assists (22.1 per game) and scoring at a slightly higher clip (105.4) than it did with James Harden.

“Every time we play against a team, they go to [concentrate on] Russell and Kevin, so we need somebody to step up,” Ibaka said. “That’s what I’m trying to do.”

The stats bear out Brooks’ trust in Ibaka.

Ibaka ranks No. 1 among power forwards in field-goal percentage at 58.7 percent, a mark that would blow away his previous season-best of 54.3 percent (accomplished in both his first and second seasons).

And yes, you’d be correct if you’re thinking the chiseled, 6-foot-10, 235-pounder from the Congo gets a lot of buckets at point-blank range. He’s one of the best finishers in the restricted area, converting 74 percent of those attempts. And when he gets fouled down there, he’s making 83.7 percent of his free throws, third-best among power forwards.

However, you’d be wrong if you’re thinking the majority of his shots come inside the restricted area or even from within the key as a whole. Of his 225 total shot attempts this season, 84, or 37.3 percent, have come in the restricted area. Only 23 shots — not percent, but shots — have come inside the rest of the key.

So the remaining 104 attempts, 46.2 percent of his total shot attempts, are mid-range jumpers, shots that come from outside the paint and extend to the 3-point arc.

He’s connected on 57 of his 104 jumpers from that range, a whopping 55 percent. It’s a tremendous improvement from the last two seasons, when he shot 43 and 41 percent, respectively.

Ibaka has made himself a mid-range monster.

“I keep working, man, keep working, keep working,” Ibaka said after he scored 14 points on 7-for-14 shooting in last Friday’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers. “Now I have my confidence and I’m enjoying my time.”

If 14 shots seems like a lot on a team with Durant, Westbrook and Martin, it is. Yet already 11 times in the Thunder’s 22 games, Ibaka has claimed double-digit shot attempts. That happened 14 times in 66 games last season, and 21 times in 82 games in 2010-11.

It leads back to Brooks’ increasing comfort level with Ibaka taking a 17-footer when he’s got a pair of lethal All-Stars and a sharpshooter in Martin. Again, the stats bear it out.

Ibaka’s mid-range shot — remember, he’s hitting it at 55 percent — is far and away the most accurate on the team, if not the entire league. Durant shoots it at 45 percent (55-for-123), Martin at 37 percent (24-for-65) and Westbrook, so good at that high-riser from the free throw line, is at 35 percent (40-for-115).

Heck, you want more? Here’s a comparison with other power forwards, plus other top scorers, regardless of position: Harden from mid-range is shooting 34 percent; LeBron James is shooting 35 percent; Zach Randolph is at 40 percent; Blake Griffin is at 41 percent; LaMarcus Aldridge is at 42 percent; Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony are both at 47 percent; and Kevin Garnett is at 52 percent.

It’s no wonder that Ibaka’s coach and teammates are calling his number.

“It definitely helps,” Brooks said of Ibaka’s improved shooting. “He’s playing with more offensive confidence and our team is playing with more offensive confidence giving it to him.”

Blazers Face The Aldridge Question

It’s getting late early in Portland.

Of course, the shadows can’t get much longer and the outlook much bleaker than when you’ve become the first team all season to lose to the Wizards.

Still, these things happen. If it were a one-game pratfall, it would be easier for the Trail Blazers to move on up the road and try to work out their frustrations on the soon-to-be-Rondo-less Celtics.

But the trouble is that 15 games into this season, it is already beginning to look a lot like last season. And the one before. And the one before.

“Inexcusable,” is the way guard Wesley Matthews described the loss at Washington and nobody was really sure if he was talking about the way the Blazers shot the ball, rebounded, defended or got off the bus.

Intolerable for their fans is the knowledge that over the past decade, the Blazers have done more rebuilding than FEMA and still have little to show for it. They have the longest current Western Conference drought without winning a playoff series (13 seasons and counting) and are giving little indication that it’s about to end. Enthusiasm for new coach Terry Stotts’ up-tempo, move-the-ball offense is leaking like air from a flat tire.

All of which quickly brings up the question of what to do with LaMarcus Aldridge?

The Blazers official stance is: nothing. That’s what general manager Neil Olshey told Aldridge in an October meeting, asking for patience and promising that the power forward would not be traded.

But how wise is that from both sides?

Aldridge is 27 going on who knows what. He’s previously had a heart condition, was sidelined last season by a hip injury and is now bothered an achy back, probably from having to carry so much of the load. He’s averaging a team-high 38.2 minutes per game and a career-low shooting percentage of 43.9.

On one hand the Blazers need their best player on the floor for his lion’s share of time in order to even dream of competing for one of the lower rung spots on the playoff ladder. But if this is a team that isn’t really going anywhere until rookies Damian Lillard and Meyers Leonard develop, Nicolas Batum gets a real clue and then significant free agent additions are made next summer, does it make sense to wear Aldridge out?

The Blazers, with Greg Oden and Brandon Roy as cautionary tales in their recent past, are quite familiar with players that simply break down physically. If it’s going to take Olshey’s two-year window to get Aldridge the help he needs, what state will he be in physically, not to mention mentally? Might there come a time, even this season, when L.A. is ready to flee to L.A. or OKC or any other playoff contender with a need for the kind of firepower he brings? In this NBA era that we live, players are far less likely to commit themselves to a franchise for an entire career. How much longer before those around him, or Aldridge himself, conclude it’s time to start inching him toward the door?

If you’re the Blazers and have seen Aldridge’s game deteriorate into mostly jumpers and fadeaways this season, it could be easy to conclude that he’s past the point — if he ever was — of being a No. 1 option on a championship contender. If you’re already thinking about the next remodeling of the roster, wouldn’t it make sense to move the process along with a deal that could bring in young talent to grow at the same pace with Lillard, Leonard and Batum?

Of course, the trade deadline isn’t till February. But it’s already gotten late early in Portland.

Rick’s Tips: Fantasy Microscope

We’re just about one month into the 2012-13 regular season, and several players are exceeding their preseason fantasy expectations. Now the question is, should you sell-high or ride it out? To that end, I have picked five players currently ranked in the top 25 of the 8-cat rankings to put under the fantasy microscope:

1) Nicolas Batum, Blazers: Many of us were expecting a breakout season from Batum, who flashed signs in the second half of last season. But few of us foresaw Batum emerging as an elite fantasy player, currently in the top five on the 8-cat charts thanks to all the fantasy gold: aka, blocks, steals, and threes.

Batum probably won’t stay in the top five all season, but he likely won’t fall below 15th either, meaning first-round value should be there all season. And why would you trade a dude who can score 35 points and block five shots in the same game, which he did last Friday against the Rockets?

2) Jrue Holiday, 76ers: If you watched Dennis Scott, Rashan Ali, and myself on NBA.com Fantasy Insider during the preseason, then you probably have Holiday on your team because we could not have been higher on the Sixers’ floor general. And Jrue is backing up the hype, currently giving owners first-round value, hovering around 20 points and 10 assists per game.

And with Andrew Bynum nowhere near returning to the court due to problems with both knees, there is no reason to expect a decrease in value from Holiday, who is Philly’s undisputed No. 1 player at this point. As such, I recommend riding it out with Holiday, who may take your team all the way to the Fantasy Promised Land.

3) Damian Lillard, Blazers: Lillard whetted our appetite at the Vegas Summer League, racking up impressive stats and Co-VSL MVP honors. Well, Lillard has carried over that fine play to the regular season, hovering around 20 ppg and ranking in the top 5 for threes made.

The Blazers have hitched their wagon to this young stud out of Weber State, and he will form a potent 1-2 combo with LaMarcus Aldridge for years to come. Not only would I resist selling high with Lillard, but I think it’s safe to expect even better numbers going forward as he continues to polish his craft.

4) J.R. Smith, Knicks: It wasn’t hard to see J.R. getting off to a fantastic start given the knee injuries to Amar’e Stoudemire and Iman Shumpert. But I’m not sure anyone — including his family members — saw J.R. maintaining top 25 value across 8 cats through the NBA’s first month.

Enjoy all of these goodies while they last, however. When Amar’e and Shump get back to work in the new year, J.R.’s minutes and shots will decrease, and he likely will shift from fantasy starter to fantasy bench player. As such, I would be shopping J.R. for someone who has a better chance of keeping his value all season.

5) Kemba Walker, Bobcats: Kemba is the straw that stirs the drink in Charlotte, so you have nothing to worry about in terms of his value going forward. Currently, Kemba ranks in the top 25 across 8 categories, with 18.8 points, 5.5 assists, 3.9 rebounds, 2.5 steals, and 86 percent from the free-throw line.

Perhaps best of all, after shooting .366 from the field as a rookie, Kemba is shooting .423 from the field as a sophomore. I was shocked to so him shoot so poorly last year, so I think this year’s percentage is more indicative of his talents. Do not sell-high with Kemba, who’s career arrow is pointing straight up.

Will Tim Duncan Take Advantage Of His Rule For All-Star Start?


HANG TIME SOUTHWEST –
 So which player could be the first to take advantage of the so-called “Tim Duncan Rule,” the tweak to the All-Star ballot that will ask fans to vote for three “frontcourt” players instead of the traditional two forwards and a center?

Um, how about Tim Duncan? The league will debut the new ballots on Tuesday. The 2013 All-Star Game is on Feb. 17 at Houston’s Toyota Center.

For years, the San Antonio Spurs’ mellow superstar has masqueraded as a power forward really by name only. When Yao Ming entered the league in 2002-03, he generated such an enormous number votes from his home country that there was no way Duncan, who broke in with the Spurs alongside 10-time All-Star center David Robinson, would have ever started an All-Star game if classified as a center.  As a power forward, Duncan started 12 consecutive All-Star games from 2000 to 2011.

Highest def. reb. percentage, 2012-13
Player GP DREB DREB%
Anderson Varejao 5 47 32.0%
Tim Duncan 7 60 31.4%
Spencer Hawes 6 36 29.8%
Al Jefferson 7 55 29.7%
Kevin Garnett 6 46 29.3%

Through Saturday, 11/10
Minimum 100 minutes played
DREB% = Percentage of available defensive
rebounds obtained while on the floor

(Frankly, with so few true centers being viable All-Star candidates these days, the ballot change was overdue.)

That streak, as well as 12 consecutive All-Star appearances ended last season as youngsters Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin dominated fan voting to earn starting spots, Kevin Love and LaMarcus Aldridge simply couldn’t be left off as reserves, and reigning NBA champ Dirk Nowitzki appropriately got the nod despite a slow start.

Most observers figured Duncan’s All-Star days were behind him with his stats trending down as coach Gregg Popovich continued to reduce his court time while shaping the offense around guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili and the club’s perimeter shooters.

Of course, the move of Dwight Howard to the Western Conference could well make the discussion of Duncan as a starter moot anyway, assuming fan backlash toward the maddening, flip-flopping center doesn’t hurt him on the ballot.

Nevertheless, Duncan is certainly making it interesting.

At 36, he is playing like he’s 26. With the Spurs off to a West-best 6-1 start, Duncan is far and away the team’s scoring leader (18.9 ppg) and he’s dominating the boards, averaging 9.7, more than three more rebounds a game than anyone else on the team.

Consider this nugget shared by NBA.com stat guru John Schuhmann: Duncan’s defensive rebounding percentage of 31.4 is the highest of his career (defensive rebounding percentage is the percent of available defensive rebounds he got when he was on the floor, so with the Spurs on defense there have been 191 available rebounds with Duncan on the floor, and he’s grabbed 60 of them). He ranks second in the league in the category behind Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao.

If Duncan keeps this up, he will be a top candidate to make a 14th All-Star roster. But how realistic is it for a 13th career start? Again, the Howard dynamic is in play, but the new format at least creates the discussion. You have to believe that Durant and Blake will again dominate fan voting and take the top two spots.

But here’s the catch for the third: Other candidates have either started the season slowly or injured. Love and Nowitzki have yet to even suit up and could still be out a few more weeks. LaMarcus Aldridge, an All-Star newbie last season, is off to a poor-shooting start (a career-worst 43.6 percent although he’s averaging 21.8 points and 7.3 rebounds) on a Portland team in transition. Pau Gasol is off to an inauspicious start in the Lakers’ soap opera.

Memphis’ big-man duo of Marc Gasol, an All-Star last season, and Zach Randolph, off to a monster start, will make hard cases.

Bottom line is if Duncan continues at this rate, how does he not make the team? It will be an interesting couple of months.

Aldridge Must Get Back To The Paint

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – LaMarcus Aldridge is at it again.

Drifting from the basket, failing to get into the low post and settling for jumpers.

Two years ago, Aldridge transformed his game by getting into the paint a lot more than he did in his first four seasons in the league. The transformation helped him become an All-Star last season. But now, he’s gone jumper-happy again, and the issue is much more pronounced than it ever was.

LaMarcus Aldridge’s shooting, career
Season %FGAP FG% FTA Rate
2006-07 50.7% 50.3% .240
2007-08 46.7% 48.4% .257
2008-09 46.8% 48.4% .269
2009-10 45.3% 49.5% .260
2010-11 58.5% 50.0% .314
2011-12 46.4% 51.2% .291
2012-13 30.8% 43.0% .112
Total 49.0% 49.4% .273

%FGAP = % of total FGA taken from the paint
FTA Rate = FTA/FGA

It’s simple math. Aldridge has made 58.3 percent of his shots from the paint over his career, and he’s made 41.8 percent of his shots from between the paint and the 3-point line (a far cry from Dirk Nowitzki, who’s a career 46.8 percent shooter from mid-range).

Right now, Aldridge is shooting a paltry 43 percent overall and he’s gone to the free-throw line just 12 times in five games. It’s early, but he’s having the worst season of his career, and you can easily point to his shot selection as the reason why.

Jason Quick of The Oregonian sees the problem. But apparently, neither Aldridge nor Blazers coach Terry Stotts does, as Quick writes in Friday’s paper

I’m not against Aldridge shooting jump shots. He is a terrific outside shooter. But long-range jump shots shouldn’t be his bread-and-butter.

In a salty postgame interview Thursday after 7-for-17 shooting night, Aldridge said he doesn’t believe he is shooting too many jumpers.

“I don’t,” Aldridge said. “Obviously you do, you asked the question.”

And coach Terry Stotts, at least publicly, is saying Aldridge’s shot selection is not of concern.

But the numbers don’t lie.

Read the entire article, because it’s right on point. Aldridge gets even testier with his responses to Quick and Stotts seems to brush the issue off as a result of what other teams are doing defensively.

The Blazers are going to be a bad defensive team this season. That’s a given already. They rank 27th defensively through Thursday, allowing 107.4 points per 100 possessions. They fell off a cliff on that end of the floor when they got rid of Gerald Wallace and Nate McMillan. And all you really need to know about their defense is that they start J.J. Hickson at center.

But with Damian Lillard, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum, Aldridge and Hickson, they can be a pretty good offensive team and, therefore, stay somewhat competitive in the Western Conference.

Right now, Portland ranks 16th offensively, scoring just 99.7 points per 100 possessions, which is below the league average. They’ve attempted just 41 percent of their shots from the paint, the third-lowest rate in the league.

Over the years, there hasn’t been a correlation between the percentage of shots a team takes from the paint and its offensive efficiency. But it’s clear that the Blazers need Aldridge to get in the low post and get to the line. If he continues to float around the perimeter, they’re going to struggle on both ends of the floor, and it could be a very ugly season in Portland.

Is Third Time (And Improved Defense) Charm For Blazers’ Stotts?





It’s a homecoming of sorts for Terry Stotts to take his Blazers into Dallas, the place where he spent the previous four seasons and was part of the Mavs’ championship in 2011. It will feel warm and familiar.

But it is also the place where Stotts’ view of the game took a transformation that could make him more successful in his third time around than in his previous two stints as coach at Atlanta (52-85, .380) and Milwaukee (63-83, .432).

More than anything else, coach Rick Carlisle is about defense.

“I think the background having been with Rick the last four years kind of opened my eyes to another approach to the game,” Stotts said. “Obviously, being with George (Karl) as long as I was, that was one view. To have a different perspective that was with Rick kind of expanded my horizons. (more…)

Matthews’ Fire Puts Out Harden’s Flame



HOUSTON — Wesley Matthews could only have looked more alone on an island if he’d been trying to crack open coconuts and build a raft.

There was the clock running down in a tie game and here was James Harden – the NBA’s opening week version of a five-alarm fire — standing in front of him with the ball in his hands.

“You’re in the gym by yourself and you’re counting down ‘5-4-3…,’ ” Matthews said. “Once the clock hit four seconds, there was gonna be no screen coming. It was just gonna be me and him. He was left hand dominant so I tried to jump to that side and he had the ball loose out there.”

Loose enough for Matthews to strip the ball away and send the game into overtime, where his Blazers ran off to a 95-85 win.

It had been quite an eye-popping start to his Houston incarnation for Harden, scoring 37 and 45 points in his first two games with his new team, putting up numbers that were Chamberlainesque. (more…)

Hawks’ Smith Flies With The Best





HANG TIME, TEXAS — Along with electricity, gravity and the remote control, we can add one more item to the list of things we take for granted.

Josh Smith.

Is it because he plays in Atlanta, where the home team usually has been far less entertaining and satisfying than the home team down the road at the TNT studio?

Is it because to the Hawks, life beyond the second round of the playoffs is as mythical as Xanadu or the lost continent of Atlantis?

Is it because of all of Smith’s ill-timed, ill-thought 3-pointers that have resulted in dents in the wall from where we slammed our heads? (more…)