Saturday, November 28, 2009

Concerns about Aldrich

This is something I just wanted to throw out there and not say much more about it than it's something to watch as the season progresses. Cole Aldrich has had his struggles when playing against other big men who are considered legitimate pro prospects. That problem surfaced again in a recent game against Oakland and Keith Benson:

Benson: 7-13, 20 P, 6 R, 4 B.
Aldrich: 2-10, 4 P, 9 R, 3 B.

This was also a problem last year:

Jordan Hill: 11-23, 23, 11, 0.
Aldrich: 2-4, 10, 4, 0.

Goran Suton: 2-8, 6, 7, 0.
Aldrich: 4-9, 14, 11, 3.

Chinmelu Elonu: 2-4, 7, 6, 1.
Aldrich: 8-13, 16, 8, 2.

Craig Brackins: 11-19, 42, 14, 0.
Aldrich: 7-12, 16, 12, 2.

Leo Lyons: 4-15, 13, 1, 0.
Aldrich: 3-8, 8, 15, 5.

Leo Lyons: 7-15, 20, 6, 0.
Aldrich: 8-13, 19, 14, 2.

Dexter Pittman: 5-11, 16, 3, 3.
Aldrich: 4-9, 12, 10, 3.

Goran Suton: 8-16, 20, 9, 1.
Aldrich: 6-13, 17, 14, 4.

The good here is that Aldrich outrebounded his opponent in just about every case. The bad news is he was seriously dominated by Jordan Hill and Craig Brackens and he was fairly ordinary against Leo Lyons and Goran Suton. The more bad news is none of these opponents appear to be anything other than NBA role players at best. That is the type of players a center drafted in the top 5 will be expected to dominate for the next 10 years or so.
I do understand that the Kansas system probably doesn't allow for Aldrich to be showcased as well as he could. I also understand that in most of these cases Kansas did come away with the W and stats are always secondary to such things. But this is a concern, as is the fact that his scoring is down in both frequency and efficiency so far this year.

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