The Boxscore Geeks Show: Aldridge is Overrated

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The All-Star Reserves

Devin broke down the All-Star reserves. We were a bit shocked on some missing names. We've been pounding the Lance Stephenson drum for a while now. As commenter carlherrera pointed out, we couldn't even bring ourselves to leave Anthony Davis off the list, for good reason!

Since '85-86, 25 players have averaged 20P/10R/3B through 1/31. Only Olajuwon ('91-injury) and Anthony Davis not selected to ASG.
— Justin Kubatko (@jkubatko) January 31, 2014

Another name we love, DeAndre Jordan, couldn't even make it on to some of the All-Star snub lists (See here and here)!

LaMarcus Aldridge is Overrated!

I wrote a piece on this. And of course, this topic is nothing new around here.

Aldridge's stats are pretty damning. He shoots decent from way out, but requires assists from his teammates to do it. He is content to settle for shots closer to the hoop, but not right by the hoop. And on a team with amazing perimeter shooting, why is a top rebounder backing away from the hoop on offense, unlike, say, Robin Lopez?

Thanks to shawn_woods15 for pointing out that Aldridge's "elite" midrange shooting amounts to a 29% three point shooter. As a follow up to that though, thanks to commenter ziggy for pointing out that a downside of threes is an increase in available possessions (via rebounds) for the defense.

Marion's Bad Labor Advice

Patrick wrote about Shawn Marion's bizarre logic that the NBA should up the minimum age requirement. Patrick and Dre are both tech people that have seen the impact of a scarce resource (software developers) on a market. The NBA avoids this problem by using artificial means (the draft, the age requirement, the salary cap). However, is there a scarcer resource than a tall, talented NBA player? And as Kobe (I side with Kobe over Marion!) points out, college may be hurting the development of future players(h/t to Andrew Sutton).

Mail Bag

Thanks as always to our amazing producer Brian Foster. GoldShammGold asked in a recent thread if we'd be open to question and answer threads. Absolutely! What better place than the Boxscore Geeks show! Leave questions you might have in the comments, or tweet them to @nerdnumbers, @nbageek, @boxscorebrian, @arturogalletti, or @devindignam. If you add a #boxscoregeeksshow to it, it will make it easier for us to find them around show time. We'll see you next week!