How about these numbers: 21.1 points per game on 48.4 percent shooting (17.8 shots a game), 9.1 rebounds a night and with a PER of 20.4 as the undisputed leader of his team.
That’s your newly minted early MVP candidate LaMarcus’ Aldridge’s numbers… from last season.
This season he is scoring 23.6 points per game on 48.6 percent shooting (20 shots a game), 11 rebounds a night with a PER of 23.8. Those numbers are up slightly but not dramatically from last season, he’s taking a few more shots and a little stronger on the boards, but he’s basically the same player shooting the same percentage.
What changed is he is getting noticed because the Blazers are 22-4. The team around him improved — Damian Lillard matured, Nicolas Batum is blossoming, the team’s defense has improved (not enough, still bottom 10 in the league, but improved) and the offense has exploded.
This discussion was started by a note from the often wise Couper Moorhead on twitter.
His rebounding has ticked up, but is LaMarcus Aldridge having that different of a season from last year, aside from a couple more shots?
— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) December 16, 2013
Royce Young of CBSSports picked it up from there.
They are right. Aldridge has taken on a little more of the Blazers offense this season, but his numbers are not out of line with what he did in seasons past (and coaches voted him an All-Star the last couple seasons because they knew how hard he was to guard).
Not everything is identical. One of the differences for Aldridge this season is he’s getting more post touches — last season 33.7 percent of his shot attempts came in the post and he shot 47.6 percent on those. This season he gets 41.5 percent of his attempts on post ups, shooting a reduced 40.7 percent. That’s come at the expense fewer spot up opportunities. (Stats via Synergy Sports.)
He’s getting the same number of shots as a roll man (18.7 percent of his offense) but this season is shooting nine percentage points higher, 56 percent.
But really, the big difference is you’re noticing because the Blazers are good. Aldridge is pretty much the same top power forward he has been for years.