LaMarcus Aldridge – Defense by the numbers
By David MacKay
LaMarcus Aldridge gets a fair bit of flack for being a “soft defender.” I believe this misconception actually stems from a pretty interesting phenomenon. Sometimes when a player dominates one side of the ball without doing so outright on the other, they are deemed insufficient in their area of lesser proficiency. Aldridge is a spectacular offensive player and a more than adequate defensive one, despite the large gap between so-called specialties.
Statistically speaking, Aldridge does not stand out in the league-wide defensive ratings (points allowed per 100 possessions), but I would not expect him to. You can learn a lot more from this advanced stat by looking at it under the lens of a single team than you can by broadening the scope to include the entire NBA. This is because individual defensive rating cannot be formulaically separated from team defensive rating. Players are glorified or stymied by those that surround them and the system they are in. For instance, the power forward with the highest defensive rating in 2013-14 was… Carlos Boozer. No, really.
Jan 18, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks power forward Dirk Nowitzki (41) shoots over Portland Trail Blazers power forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) during the game at the American Airlines Center. The Trail Blazers defeated the Mavericks 127-111. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
If we look at Aldridge as a Trail Blazer, we get a better idea of what he contributes. In 2013-14, he had the best defensive rating of everyone on the roster (104). Continuing down the path of advanced statistics, he also led the team in defensive win shares (an estimate of how many wins a player earned for his team based on defensive effort), despite missing 13 games. In more traditional statistics, he averaged the most steals per game (alongside Wesley Matthews and Nicolas Batum) and blocked the second-most shots behind Robin Lopez. Aldridge is measurably one of the Portland’s better defensive players.
Admittedly, he lacked physicality early in his career, but the notion that he still does after eight seasons is an outdated criticism. Heading back to league-wide comparisons, Aldridge allowed opponents to shoot just 49.3 percent at the rim last season. This mark was better than many of the NBA’s best rim protectors: DeAndre Jordan (49.8 percent), Tyson Chandler (50.9 percent), Marc Gasol (51.2 percent), Andre Drummond (53.1 percent). If an opponent wants to back Aldridge down, they have to work for the bucket.
Yet, Aldridge is not without his tangible deficiencies. Pick and roll defense has been an area of weakness for him in Head Coach Terry Stotts’ drop-back system. According to The Hang Time Blog’s John Schuhmann, Aldridge allowed screeners to shoot a wildly high 56.8 percent through the majority of last season. This is most likely because he was slow to close out when baiting opponents into the long two. It is a statistically poor shot to take, but not when poorly contested. This problem defending mid-range in certain situations pulls Aldridge back to the middle of the defensive spectrum.
While numbers are not everything, they are reasonable indicators of a player’s efficacy. Aldridge is not an elite defensive player, but he is at least a hair above average, and his efforts on the defensive end are becoming more visible in the outstretched shadow of his offense. He is far from a one-way superstar. Without bias, I would call him a middling defender; with bias, I would call him an above average defender; with statistics, I would call him a good defender. This is the subjective range of his abilities.