Portland Trail Blazers head coach is looking forward to developing Aldridge as a power forward, based on his experiece with Nowitzki during his time with the Mavericks......
Terry Stotts was the assistant coach under Rick Carlisle with the Dallas Mavericks the past few years, and got an up and close view of the game of Dirk Nowitzki. Now, Stotts is the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and
is looking to bring some of the Texas basketball he has learned over the years to his new employer.
Stotts wants to use Portland big man and breakout talent LaMarcus Aldridge like Dallas uses Dirk Nowitzki.
Stotts was on Blazers courtside, on Trail Blazers TV and explained his vision for LaMarcus Aldridge and the offence of the Trail Blazers for next season.
“I want to try almost everything that we did with Dirk, with LaMarcus, to get a comfort level. On the left block he’s as good of a block player as there is in the league. A pick-and-pop shooter for a big man, he’s almost on the
same level as Dirk with mid-range. Dirk can take it out a little bit further, or at least he has. I’d like to expand his game a little bit,” said Stotts.
Aldridge got 41.3 percent of his offensive scoring from down low last season, and shot over 50 percent from the floor. However, his spot up shooting and isolation game is nowhere near the level of Nowitzki at the moment.
Nowitzki is a veteran in the NBA and one of the best players at his position. Aldridge has a lot to learn before he can be as effective as the German has been over the years. He is only 27 years old and has shown a great deal of
improvement over the past few seasons, which means he is on track for the next level.
With Aldridge playing the four spot, the Trail Blazers might just give more minutes to rookie Meyers Leonard. Coach Stotts talked about him as well and had some encouraging words to say for him.
“Whether it’s because big men take more time or whatever, I don’t want to say today that Meyers is going to come along slowly. If he’s ready to start opening night, he’ll start opening night. To say that he’s going to be the starter
opening night, I think that’s too early to say too,” said Stotts.
The Blazers have an interesting and exciting mix of players on the roster for the next season. And if they play to their potential, Portland just might be a team to watch out in the Western Conference this season.
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