LaMarcus Aldridge key to San Antonio Spurs finding a better balance
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Sunday 19 January 2020 14:42, UK
LaMarcus Aldridge's surprising and sudden embracing of the three-point shot has enabled the San Antonio Spurs to move closer to finding balance on both ends of the floor, writes Sky Sports NBA analyst Mark Deeks.
In our look at the New Orleans Pelicans, we explored whether to them, considering the youth of their roster, contending for the eighth seed in the playoffs in the second half of this season, is worth going for. With the San Antonio Spurs, though, there is no doubt. They are going for it.
Head coach Gregg Popovich turns 70 this month, they have the fifth-oldest playing roster in the league, and there are no Zion Williamson-calibre young talents to rebuild around. Their incentive has always been to try and win now, just as it has been for a generation. It just has not worked, for a change.
In the chasing pack for that eighth seed, the Spurs had a grip on the spot until a recent six-game surge by the Memphis Grizzlies, which is pushing them down to ninth at the season's halfway point. For the first time in a while, the Spurs' ability to make the postseason is being called into question.
The Spurs have made the postseason for 22 consecutive seasons, and in 29 of the last 30. The only year they missed was in 1996/97, a year in which their superstar center, David Robinson, missed all but six games due to injuries, and important wing scorer Chuck Person missed the entire year as well. Yet even that proved to be a blessing: finishing 20-62 on the year, the Spurs were able to win the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft and select Tim Duncan. Thereafter, they built a dynasty, and won four titles in the next decade.
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With Duncan's retirement in 2016, the franchise passed into to the hands of Kawhi Leonard. But Leonard wanted out of San Antonio and got his wish when he was traded to the Toronto Raptors in 2018. Since that time, the Spurs have been without a superstar for the first time since 1989, when Robinson first joined the team.
The closest things they have had to a superstar over the past two seasons have been their All-Star guard DeMar DeRozan and their All-Star big man LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge has been with the team since signing as a free agent in 2015, and although it has not been the smoothest tenure - at one point, a trade demand was openly discussed - he turned 34 this past offseason, and is now a veteran by any measure. Indeed, behind only veteran reserve guard Patty Mills, Aldridge is actually the second-longest tenured Spur.
DeRozan, meanwhile, was the main returning piece in the trade of Leonard to Toronto, the rare instance in which a superstar was traded for a star in return, yet his presence on the team has long brought about two fundamental issues with the pairing. Offensively, both like to operate in the mid-range. Defensively, neither has ever been that good.
You will know by now the mathematical revolution of the NBA over the past decade or so has emphasised taking more three-pointers, free throws and lay-ups, eschewing the mid-range jumpers and post-up possessions as much as possible. It has got to the point of being a new orthodoxy that prospects are penalised if they defy. In Aldridge and DeRozan, though, the Spurs have two of the biggest buckers of that trend out there.
In starting point guard Dejounte Murray, too, the Spurs have a player who better operates in the mid-range areas. Murray at his best is an aggressive defender, excellent rebounder prone to turning over possession and getting out in transition. In the half-court, though, his lack of three-point shooting combined with not having the strongest playmaking instincts or passing vision out of the pick-and-roll makes for a useful and unique but flawed guard.
To add some much-needed shooting to the line-up, Bryn Forbes has long been a starter, but as a very undersized shooting guard he too is very limited. Forbes shoots three-pointers and pull-up two-pointers well, but is always going to be attacked on defense, is little threat inside the paint and does not create often for others either. Backup veteran shooter Marco Belinelli offers better size, but less defense, and also has not been shooting well.
Having suffered from a severe lack of consistent production from the forward spot all season: Trey Lyles has only been effective at rebounding the ball and has looked timid to shoot; Rudy Gay has lost his shot this year; DeMarre Carroll has not been trusted with many minutes. The Spurs have therefore been battling against a roster that has lacked for cohesion and depth of talent, particularly defensively.
The need for shooting has meant a need to start Forbes, but pairing him alongside DeRozan (who in his career has never been even an average defender for anything more than short stretches), while not having a pure paint protector since the demise of Pau Gasol, and not having a good defensive option at the forward spots apart from Gay, has meant rarely if ever being able to run out line-ups that are well-balanced on both ends.
Murray and Derrick White provide the backcourt defense, but they need DeRozan to be the playmaker and isolation scorer that they are not, leading to a dearth of shooting and floor spacing which is then compounded by Aldridge always wanting to operate from the mid-range areas on the left side and no frontcourt weak side shooting threat since the trade of Davis Bertans over the summer. There has always been a weak point somewhere and a lack of balance.
To the surprise of everyone, however, Aldridge has finally embraced shooting a higher volume of three-pointers over the past month. Out of nowhere, he has become a total gunner.
Having attempted only 42 three-pointers all of last season, averaging only slightly more than half-an-attempt per game for his career and only once shooting more than 100 such shots in a season, he has already taken 100 this year, including 51 since Christmas. To the surprise of nobody considering how good he is always been from 22 feet away, adding an extra three feet of range has not been a problem for him, and he is shooting 44 per cent from three-point range on the season.
Beyond the extra points that this offers just by being a higher value shot, the added spacing a frontcourt shooting threat provides is key on a team that was relying too much on Forbes and Mills to provide it all from the backcourt. Forbes is indeed one of the beneficiaries of it, as is everyone else - now defenders are having to play up that little bit further out, as Aldridge draws that little bit extra attention and has that little bit extra gravity, there is more space for everyone to operate in.
This should benefit no one more than DeRozan, and although he does have a history of hot streaks in his career, it seems likely that the 29.0 points per game on a .713% true shooting percentage and 22 NET rating that he has posted in the month of January is heavily related to this. DeRozan likes to attack the rim in isolation and out of post-ups from a long way out, and it is harder for defenders to help onto that when they are one step further away, having to guard Aldridge outside the three-point line. There is something to this mathematical evolution, after all, and now that Aldridge (one of the major holdouts) is buying in, everyone on his team stands to benefit.
Additionally, until the last couple of years, Aldridge had also held out from shifting to the center spot. He came up as a power forward at a time when 6ft 11in, 250lb power forwards were normal, but players like that now, unless they are particularly fleet of foot, are centers.
Aldridge is not fleet of foot, and thus he has become a five-man where once he so avidly refused to. Indeed, the Spurs have been operating a platoon of him and Jakob Poeltl at the spot all season long. In doing so, fuelled by much-improved rotations and physicality from Poeltl and cleaner, more regular contests around the basket from Aldridge, the center spot has been one of the few defensive bright spots for this team.
Now that Aldridge has accepted this stretch-five role, spacing the court on one end and shutting down the interior on the other, the rest of the Spurs can find better balance. There is more space for DeRozan et al to operate in, and, having much improved as a passer over the course of his career, he can better take advantage. The lack of consistent play from the forward spot remains an issue, but the breakout of Lonnie Walker IV to add some athleticism and transition play in the backcourt beyond just Murray adds extra dimensions to a slow-footed team that was inevitably suffering on defense.
The Spurs are still not close to the team of the last few years, but nor is LaMarcus Aldridge the same player he has always been either. Having gone 10-8 over their past 18 games, according better with modern efficiency principles and improving their defense at at least two positions, they are getting closer.
