LaMarcus Aldridge has become a 3-point shooter now
The dictionary definition of a back to the basket big man might have his picture next to it but lately, LaMarcus Aldridge has become a proficient 3-point shooter.
LaMarcus Aldridge has had a lot of success over the course of his career, averaging 19.6 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, as a traditional post-up, back to the basket big man. Mid-to-long-range jump shots have been a prominent part of his offensive arsenal, with 40-50 percent (or more) of his shot attempts routinely coming between 10 feet out and the 3-point line.
Long-2s are the most inefficient shot in basketball when stepping back just a few more feet is worth another point. But with Aldridge and his inside the arc game as the focal point of their offense, the Spurs bucked that idea with the league’s sixth-best offensive rating last season.
Aldridge’s raw numbers are down a little so far this season (18.9 points, 7.6 rebounds per game), but his shooting percentages are pretty close to last year. Lately, though, there has been a marked difference in what he’s doing.
Over his first 26 games this season, Aldridge had 44 attempts from beyond the arc (1.7 per game) while converting 31.8 percent of them. Over his last 10 games, he has attempted 50 3-pointers, making 28, for an easily calculated five attempts per game with a 56 percent success rate.
So Aldridge has basically tripled the rate at which he’s taking 3-pointers within this season, and even that prior 1.7 attempts per game more than triple his career rate of 0.5 3-point attempts per game.
The construction of the Spurs’ roster has changed over the last couple of years, with Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard notably gone and replaced by less proficient perimeter shooters. So it’s been up to Aldridge to evolve his game to create better spacing for San Antonio’s offense, and he has done so this season with a substantial uptick in volume recently.
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Aldridge’s current run as a 3-point shooter is ripe for regression. But even as he likely (or ideally?) settles in around 40 percent, making defenders account for him on the perimeter by simply being willing to shoot from beyond the arc more is a net positive. His bread-and-butter post up game stands to get easier too and foster further good things for the Spurs offensively.