Illustration by Maddison Bond.
LaMarcus Aldridge’s talent has never been truly appreciated, even among the legendarily rabid and territorial Blazers fanbase. When he came into the NBA in 2006, he was overshadowed by Rookie of the Year and future All-Star Brandon Roy. The following year saw the arrival of Greg Oden, the would-be franchise-changing center, and the forming of a Big Three that was supposed to dominate the west for the next decade. Aldridge was always a part of that triumvirate, but he was the definite third wheel—the Chris Bosh to Roy and Oden’s LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. As he blossomed into an elite two-way power forward during the 2010-11 season, his outstanding play was still dwarfed by the endless drama and question marks surrounding Roy’s rapidly deteriorating knees. Now, the Blazers are Damian Lillard’s team. The rookie point guard is the future, the new Great Hope that’s supposed to lift the franchise up from the ruins of a half-decade of injuries and wasted potential. Aldridge has been there the whole time, and since Roy’s 2009 peak, has been the best player on the team, but he’s been constantly marginalized.
This may be because he plays with a consistency and reliability that can come off as boring if you prize narrative and flash over production. As he’s assumed the mantle of franchise player, his excellence has been nothing if not quiet. He’s not a talkative guy, nor does he have an outsized personality for the media to latch onto. He doesn’t even have the Derrick Rose/Kevin Durant “humility as a selling point” thing going on. He just shows up and does his job. And that job, NBA power forward, is something he does better than almost anyone. He’s the 12th-most efficient post scorer in the NBA, and the 34th-best post defender, according to mySynergySports. Terry Stotts’ offense has drawn him out of the post, however, and gotten him stretching defenses with midrange jumpers. These shots were aggravating at the beginning of the season, but as the year has worn on, he’s grown ever more consistent, shooting in the mid-40s from almost everywhere between the paint and the three-point line.
As the Blazers have overachieved this season relative to where many (including myself) thought they’d be, they’ve come to be known throughout certain parts of Twitter as the Chaos Engine. They specialize in blowing up narratives and pulling out games they have no business being in, much less winning. Nothing about this team makes sense. Except, that is, the man at the heart of the machine, operating from his work station in the low post.