narek

Rose goes home

narek

Celebration erupts after Bulls pick Rose No. 1

narek

Point taken: It's Rose

narek

Kirk Hinrich seems vulnerable in Bulls' guard logjam

narek

Young Derrick Rose ready to lead Bulls veterans

yodurk

This isn't Bulls related, but I'm frankly stunned at how the Blazers make out like bandits.

They got the player who I thought could've/should've been the 4th pick in the draft, in Jerryd Bayless. Now that guy is talented. To pair him up with a playmaking SG like Brandon Roy is scary, since Bayless is sort of like a Ben Gordon with better court vision and ballhandling ability.

Bayless/Roy/Aldridge/Oden

While I still am not intimidated by Aldridge and think he's been overrated (personal opinion), that core is a dynasty in the making.

narek

They were helped out by Phoenix's selling them draft picks - moves Phoenix did for short term salary cap relief, but long term stupidity. And at the time only Portland could give Phoenix the cap release.

SALO

I agree he'll turn out like Gordon, only better. His alligator arms probably scared some teams, but I still like his ability to create his own shot and attack the basket. He really can do it all on the offensive end of the floor. Pairing him next to Brandon Roy is just not fair. This Rush/Bayless trade will turn out just like the Roy/Foye deal... totally lopsided in Portland's favor.

I'm not high on Aldridge either, but he really is a great fit next to Oden. Oden can do the dirty work down on the blocks and Aldridge can knock down jump shots all day.

C: Oden, Pryzbilla
PF: Aldridge, Frye
SF: Outlaw, Webster
SG: Roy, Fernandez
PG: Bayless, Rodriguez

Terrific combination of size, skill, athleticism. Pritchard has done a fantastic job. Roy, Fernandez, Bayless were all players I really wanted the Bulls to acquire and they all should've been picked way higher than they were.

__________________
"The improvement we made -- eight more wins in the regular season, getting through the first round, competitive against Detroit -- that's not good enough. Now we go out and try to get better.''

- John Paxson

liekomgj4ck

I don't think this is the intention of the thread although it sounds like it, but I got a funny story.

I went to the bar and "sang" drop it like it's hot by snoop on mic and it sucked!

yodurk

Yep, I feel the same on Aldridge. I'm not high on him the way others seem to be, but he definitely fits well with Oden with his midrange ability.

The only pieces they seem to be missing -- and this should be incredibly easy to fill -- is a defensive specialist at SF, and a true PG who can backup Roy and Bayless (not sure if Rodriguez fits the bill there).

Let's say they add Chris Duhon & trade Webster or Outlaw for someone in the Bruce Bowen mold. That team is so well-rounded and talented it makes me sick. But hey, I got nothing against the Blazers and at least they're in the Western Conference. Should be a fun team to watch.

andalusian

I am not sure why anyone will have doubts about Aldridge - he is a 2nd year player (more like one and a half, the Blazers training staff considered his 2nd year his rookie year because of the injuries in his rookie year that prevented him from getting real burn for most of the season - he only had one real month of play time in his rookie year) and he produced at a fantastic rate (17.8/7.6 on 49% FG%) while playing at times out of position (he is a natural PF that had to play a lot of C last year), works harder than just about anyone and fits perfectly next to Oden...

Just imagine him next to a true low-post beast defensive center - being able to streak for fast breaks started by Oden rebounding/blocking, getting free reign when Oden is double-teamed...

I will be shocked if Aldridge does not make multiple appearances in the all-star game during his career.

yodurk

Without getting into a drawn out argument, these are my reasons in short:

a) Weak rebounder (Oden will cover him on this, hence the great fit)

b) No real physical advantage -- I like his length which is good defensively and does help get shots off, but he isn't especially quick and certainly isn't very strong. This has all sorts of implications for the long term.

c) Streaky shooter/scorer -- he's very reliant on his shooting touch. If that's not falling, he's pretty worthless offensively (referring back to the physical limitations).

I see him as similar to Pau Gasol, but less athletic. I've debated this plenty with others so no need to re-hash. Just my opinion since you asked (sort of).

We all knew Aldridge had a pretty NBA ready game when he was entering the draft; and yes, his scoring numbers have been better than expected. I just don't see him expanding his abilities any further than they currently are, and my gut feeling is that he's the type of guy who'll regress if/when his jumper goes through cold streaks. Not enough other ways to compensate for that. I value versatility you could say.

andalusian

He is an OK rebounder, not a great one, but as you said - not a real issue next to Oden.

We must be looking at different players - since he is the fastest running big man out there - and reportedly is the 2nd fastest sprinter on the Blazers team with only a guard being faster than him in the annual camp sprints. Add the fact that he does a really good job at pick and roll defense being able to switch on guards and doing a fantastic job of staying with them when they are penetrating with the dribble - I am not really sure where you got it. Aldridge is damn fast for a 6'11'' guy and he length and Wallace like shot makes it almost impossible to block his shot.

His 49% FG% should tell you that while he might be somewhat streaky - he is still very good... and his last 2 months last year he did a much better job of playing in the low-post. I think he worked very hard on playing close to the basket all year long - and you could see how much better he got at the low-post at the end of the year. If it continues (and I see no reason why it would not - he is an extremely hard worker) this would not be a real issue.

As I said - his last 2 months of the year were fantastic and he was arguable better than Roy on the Blazers at the end of the year. We also saw the Lakers a lot at the end of the year (all 4 games against them were at that time) - and we saw Aldridge going 1 on 1 against Pau a lot - he won just about every one of these matches and was much tougher than Pau.

The Blazers trainers expect a top-level rookie to really hit his stride in his 2nd year in the league when his body adjusts to the league - and in an interview they said that they considered Aldridge's 2nd year to be his rookie year because he lost so much time in his first year. If this is correct and we can project from the end of the year - we could see Aldridge really blossoming next year - especially when he will have Oden next to him.

Time will tell - but I think that people are really sleeping on how good he is going to be.