what you said doesn't contradict what i said. and when ron is not shooting well or drawing fouls, he and battier on the court at the same time is a bit redundant.
Artest certainly has the strength to keep Aldridge out of the paint. However, I don't think he has the height to stop his jumper. That being said, I much prefer Aldridge as a jump shooter (he won't always be on fire like on Tuesday). I don't think it's a bad idea. But then who would Scola/Landry be on? Whoever it would be, it would be a speed mismatch. I think Artest on Batum and Battier on Roy is probably the best idea. Keep Scola/Landry/Hayes on Aldridge and make sure they do their best to keep him away from the basket. Artest can definitely leave Batum often to help on Aldridge, too.
You tell artest to rough him up a lil, I'd think LMA would shy down bc of his style of play. Like a previous poster said, this would allow us to spread the floor on off. And we wouldn't have a liability on offense with chuck n the game. And artest could play the pnr pretty well, they could jump Roy and/or switch on the pick.
Well LA sure didn't score the vast majority of his points by playing like a pf. If all he is going to do is shoot jumpers and fadeaways all game then might as well put Artest on him. I would say put Hayes on him when he gets hot, but w/o Deek, Hayes becomes too important as the primary backup center. Esp since Portland has two legit centers to trot out there.
We don't have anyone on the team that has the height to stop LA's jumper(cept Yao, but that's a bad matchup as well). We are blessed, however, with two elite defenders in Artest and Hayes that can harrass the hell out of him with strength and quickness. I don't suggest having Artest/Hayes shadow LA all game, but it'd be nice wrinkle to hopefully throw him off when he gets in a groove.
My honest opinion on the idea: Could it work? Yes. Is Aldridge good enough to the point I consider this idea (sacrificing length/height for Artest's power/intimidation) worth trying? Probably not. Aldridge is a complete softy that, frankly, doesn't scare me. Aside from a couple backdown-hooks his game is almost entirely all mid-range, turnarounds and fadeways. Bottom line: he was hot in game two. Is he going to play like that every game? Probably not. It's in the nature of a jump shooter to have hot and cold nights. Aldridge just so happened to catch us in game two on a night where he just wasn't going to miss anything. I would play Aldridge exactly the same way with a special emphasis to Scola/Landry on standing your ground and not allowing Aldridge to back you down. Scola did fair job at this during game two but picked up two needless whistles for dropping his elbow into LA's back. Those are the type of errors we need to eliminate. If Aldridge is hot and having success backing down Scolandry, send the Chuck Wagon at him for a stretch. I can live with LA shooting 15-foot fadeways. That's not really the problem. The real problems are letting him set his feet from 20 feet away without a hand in his face and allowing him to back you down to close to the basket.
To be honest Scola was playing LMA well, he was just swishing his turn around fade away jumpers even with a hand in his face. The next step in defending him is deny him the ball in his comfort zone, which a physical defender like Artest might have a better shot at doing.
I agree. While it was just an idea in my head, is this something we'll even need to resort to at home? I don't think so. I honestly don't seeing Game 3 or 4 being that competitive. Aldridge's game is extremely finesse, with 90% of it being mid-range jumpers. Just hope he doesn't get hot again, and hope Scola never leaves him open. Whenever he does decide to post up, Hayes will deny him from establishing any sort of space in the paint.
Great suggestion, and I like how people are starting to focus on the real issue What was the difference between game 1 and game 2? -The Amount Yao was able to score -Our Defense The two adjustments we need to make is keeping Yao out of foul trouble (he always finds himself in foul trouble in the playoffs) and our defense. Our offense is fine, we haved scored well both games so far and yeah down the stretch we might mess up on a possesion or two, but we are putting up enough points to win the game. Our average this series is higher than the NBAs best offense from this past season. I think upping Chuck Hayes' minutes, and asking Battier and Artest to play little more will help us out. Hopefully we can figure out how to do this without reducing the effectiveness of our offense. As far as Yao, he just needs to reduce the careless fouls without giving up his aggressiveness. Easier said than done, but I believe HCA will help him out these next two games.
This is such a great idea. For those of you who think its not are completely nuts. Aldridge is a finess offensive player. What does finess players hate to play against the most? It's against physical in your face defenders who's stronger and faster than you. He can definitely shoot over Ron Ron but his personal space will be cramped and that will effect his shots. Like another poster said, the only concern is the boxing out and rebounding but LA is not really known to be a beast on the boards.
If JP can guard Yao then I don't see why Artest can't guard LA; use the same dirty tactics that JP uses on Yao to rough up LA. Beside LA is a softy, he was dominated by Glen baby Davis in the elite eight game.
Ron is strong as well. Both Ron and Chuck are at a height advantage but both possess exceptional strength. Ron may not necessarily do better on Aldridge than Chuck but he's not going to do worse either. And since Chuck is more of an offensive liability, I could see this working. The biggest problem with it though is that you couldn't use this lineup with Scola or Landry in the game because that would force them to guard a SF and that's not going to work. It'd have to be a small lineup with Battier, Wafer (or maybe Barry), and Artest guarding the 2, 3 and 4. And as someone mentioned, it could help with fronting/double teaming on Yao. Camp four 3 point shooters outside the arc and completely vacate the interior. Rebounding would suffer but it might be worth trying if it gets the ball in Yao's hands.
I'm gonna pretend that that was a typo error, and not me forgetting that Battier wasn't on that team, but same point. If the 2 guard can defend Dirk, Artest can defend Aldridge.
Artest can guard anybody he wants a long as stupid Rick Adelman realize it. Heck he doesn't even have to guard Aldridge, his presence alone will make it uncomfortable for him to shoot just because Artest is intimidating.
trust me aldridge is not quicker than ron.. he is quicker than scola though.. scola has to lay off and that's why aldridge took those face up jumpers... ron can play him close and force him to penetrate but yeah he'll probably still get his shots off if he face up on ron
I agree. For all the guys that want Adleman gone I'm possibly going to give them ammunition in the offseason, because I do expect us to be able to throw some things at Portland that I believe they won't be able to adjust to. A3PO, why do you think Artest on Roy is a better matchup than him on Aldridge? And why not try it especially since Roy's first step is negating defensive ability?
if I remember Aldridge doesnt have great upper body strength.. which means he might not be able to back down a guy like Artest. I remember when he was being drafted, that he couldnt even bench 180lb once.
I like the idea. Thought of posting it myself. Ron can guard him for the same reason that Chuck can guard him - strength and good footwork. In fact I think Ron can do something that Chuck can't, that is deny the ball because of his quickness. Another benefit is that playing Ron at PF will really spread the court in a way that Scola or Hayes wouldn't because Aldridge would have to guard the perimeter therefore taking him away from the double on Yao. Let's try it, Rick!
