No post players took bigger leaps this year than LaMarcus Aldridge and Zach Randolph. For LA, it was about taking control of a team that desperately needed leadership once Greg Oden and Brandon Roy were both lost to injuries. For Z-Bo, it was about changing a perception that he was selfish, a guy who never passed once the ball came down to him.
While only one of them is still playing, both had the best seasons of their careers. Now, the next step is making the leap to perennial All-Stars. Which power forward is better? That’s a tough question.
We argue. You decide.
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LaMarcus Aldridge
There’s a notion that the time to judge a draft class is after three to four years, in which case, we’d still would have been wrong about LaMarcus Aldridge. In his fifth season, Aldridge has taken the considerable potential he came with to Portland as the No. 2 pick and broken through with his best season. First, the vitals: 21.8 points, 8.8 boards, both career bests for the 6-11 forward with superior speed for a player his size. We all knew Aldridge could play. But now, the hard-to-pin-down part about Aldridge. This season has answered the other questions about Aldridge, answers that tip the balance toward the Texan versus Memphis’ Zach Randolph.
Aldridge is unquestionably tougher mentally and physically this season after it was asked — demanded? — that he take over Portland’s leadership role after Brandon Roy’s knee injuries at midseason.
After Roy went down in December, Aldridge answered the bell, averaging 23.8 points and 9.2 rebounds in the next four months, crossing a line between effort and hate-to-lose in that span, something I’m not sure Randolph had ever done in Portland. Randolph came into the league with unquestioned scoring touch, but “leader” isn’t something you expect to pop up in a game of Z-Bo word association. And it’s Aldridge’s continued production and potential that makes this an easy call over Randolph. Four years younger, Aldridge has flourished playing the third-most minutes per game (39.6) in the league with a newfound confidence that the Blazers are his team. Even after the best basketball of his career this year, it could still be too early to judge his ceiling.
Few players his age had such a burden this year — carrying a team for months with a revolving cast of teammates with varying health — and played so consistently with such narrow room for error. It started immediately, putting up 35 on Dallas in December the game before Roy left for surgery. It continued into the big stretch games of spring, where put up 42 on Chicago, after scoring 40 just six days earlier. He scored more than 30 points 11 times this year, after doing it just twice in 2009-10. While still too prone to take the 15-to-18-foot jumper rather than barrel inside the key, Aldridge does get to the free-throw line more often, and is the reason why Portland led the league in alley-oops. (Everyone knows he’ll spin hoop-side when a defender plays high — so why can’t they stop it?)
Aldridge seemed fine playing in Roy’s shadow, if quietly chafing at the number-two status in the past. This year, he’s earned the title of “Big Man On Court” in Portland. And maybe there’s a hard-to-quantify aspect here, that he wants to dominate. Snubbed as a West All-Star in February, Aldridge was genuinely bothered before coming out with the PC responses. It’s almost like he had heard how people had judged his career to that point, and wanted to show them they’re all wrong.
-ANDREW GREIF
Zach Randolph
Let me start by saying, I think that LaMarcus Aldridge was playing great basketball and has the potential to be a consistently great player in this league for a long time. He should have been an All-Star this season and willed Portland to the playoffs in the wake of another injury-plagued season in the Pacific Northwest. Cool. But my esteemed colleague, Mr. Greif, is taking crazy pills if he picks Aldridge over Zach Randolph right now.
The Grizzlies’ front man, and former Blazer, is ripping up the Western Conference this postseason. After pacing Memphis in a first round upset of the No. 1 seeded Spurs, Z-Bo has bumped up his play even more in round two against OKC. In the Grizzlies’ Game 1 road victory on Sunday, Randolph dropped 34 points and 10 boards on 12-of-22 shooting. In fact, Z-Bo has been in beast-mode since first landing in Memphis last season, where he finally was awarded with an All-Star selection. This year, he’s averaged over 20 points and 12 boards a game, his third straight season averaging over 20 and 11.
For Aldridge, this year (his fifth in the league) marks his breakout season. Meanwhile Randolph (10th year) has been putting in work for the last eight seasons, really since his third year in the league back in 2003-04. But, as with all of Dime‘s “Who’s Better” segments, it’s more about who’s playing the best basketball now (minus the fact that Portland’s been eliminated), not who’s had the better full body of work. And that’s still Randolph.
Charles Barkley had something interesting to say this week while on the Jim Rome show. He talked about how the Grizzlies, like the Nuggets, are two-deep at every position. But unlike Denver, Memphis has a go-to guy locked up in Randolph.
“If you look at (Memphis) against San Antonio and them in the first game (against) OKC, Zach Randolph is a go-to guy. He is an All-Star player who can score on anybody,” continued Barkley.
At only 6-9, Randolph out-rebounds and out-muscles the 6-11 Aldridge (12.2 rpg vs. 8.8) in the post. He’s always had a soft touch around the basket and seems unstoppable down low. When Rudy Gay and his 19.8 points per game went down for the season with a shoulder injury, Randolph stepped up his workload and rose to the occasion. With the Grizz playing as well as they’re playing right now, it’s not unthinkable to say that they could come out of the West. Not getting ahead of myself, it’s just not unthinkable. And yes, both guys have been asked to carry a sizable portion of their respective team’s load, especially in the postseason. But I’m taking Randolph in this matchup.
-JACK JENSEN
What do you think?
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