I feel like this guy deserves to make the All-Defensive Team at some point during his career. I mean LA is a pretty good defender and the good one at positioning on time though it's just that it's been overshadowed.
by btrusher
@Portland Trail Blazers
10 Comments
Nothing special. Very honest.
He’s the opposite of what most Blazers defenses are. He’s Good not Great.
I forgot to mention in the thread that Aldridge owns a career defensive rating of 106.5.
He was fair, but never dominant or really game-changing on the defensive end. Aldridge had so much potential, yet always felt overshadowed by Brandon Roy and then later Damian Lillard. If he had stayed here, they might have been a special team for a year or three, but his lackadaisical average defense was always the biggest knock on his game.
Hi nickname in Portland was LaMattress if that tells you anything.
He was okay. He wasnt a great rim protector, and definitely wasn’t great at banging in the post defensively, but generally was in the right place at the right time. His enormous wingspan helped a lot too.
He also had great hands – he was super great at timing swipe downs for steals (kind of similar to Melo).
He was decent on defense. Not a stopper but long and smart enough to position himself well. Turned it up on that end when he got to the Spurs for a couple years before falling off
Good help defender. Not All-Defensive level
Honestly, his ability to be enough of a positive on defense along with his versatile offense means he helps acquire wins in the regular season (capable of adding 10-15 wins per season to a team.) and is useful in the post-season but not a major driving force.
But that’s not a bad thing. It just means he’s perfect as a tertiary option because your team would be winning championships.
In that sense, I really thought he would’ve a perfect third option next to Roy and Oden. Just never materialized
A bit on the soft side
Somewhere between solid and slightly above average. Definitely not as bad as others at his position, but nowhere near like KG.