Could a Love/ Aldridge front court work ?

[rondohondo]

Say we can sign and trade for one of them and then have enough cap space to sign the other . Could a Love/Aldridge front court work ?  I would be concerned with our rim protection , although I think Aldridge is adequate . On the offensive end , the c's would be really good with spacing and the ability to go to either of their big men in the post . Also the pick and roll with IT would be pretty special .

We would still have Smart and hopefully Crowder to provide perimeter defense , plus draft picks to fill out the roster .

If we trade ab,wallace, and ko or Sully

PG: IT               / vet min
SG: Smart         / Turner
SF: Crowder     / Young
PF: Love           / Sully or KO
 C: Aldridge       / Zeller

We would likely need to find a backup center who can play good defense and protect the rim . (Robin Lopez type )

[D.o.s.]

Neither of them wants to play center, and are on the record saying that, all things being equal, they would much rather play the 4 -- Particularly Aldridge.

[Rondo9]

would they be interested in Boston?

[rondohondo]

would they be interested in Boston?

who knows? both have visited though . Just a hypothetical ....

[Denis998]

Meh, play one at the 3, who cares about positions these days. Just go super small in the back court to even things out. Maybe start IT and Pressey.

[crimson_stallion]

I don't think it can, at least not very well. 

Both guys need the ball in their hands A LOT in order to be productive enough to justify their contracts, and I think both guys are too similar in play style. 

For example, 60.6% of Love's field goal attempts last season came from outside of 10 feet and 64.5% of Aldridge's field goal attempts came from outside of 10 feet. 

Love took only 21.3% of his shots inside 3 feet, and Aldridge took only 19.2% of his shots within 3 feet.

I know people will blame Love's numbers on his role in Clevleand, but if you look at the season before that (his last one with Minny) he took 58% of his shots outside 10 feet, and only 25% of his shots came from inside 3 feet - not a very big difference at all really.  Love has shown a clear trend lately of moving away from the paint, and playing a more perimeter oriented game.

Both guys have actually been pretty effective down low when they go there (Love has shot a decent 59.6% within 3 feet over his career, and Aldridge has shot a crazy 69.5%) - they just don't seem to have the desire to get physical and bang around down there. 

Despite being fairly perimeter oriented, Love still got to the line pretty well, with a free throw rate of 33.7% last year.  Aldridge (despite his better post game) actually got to the line far less, with a pretty average free throw rate of 25.6% last season.  Neither guy is really that huge a threat in terms of putting pressure on an opposing teams interior defense.

Overall despite being very different guys physically (with Aldridge having the obvious advantage in terms of size and mobility) both have too similar a play style IMHO for them to work well together, so I'd actually much rather see a one of those two guys (preferably Aldridge) paired with Greg Monroe. 

I have a few reasons for this:

1) Monroe lives inside the paint (92.2% of FGA inside 10 feet) so he's a perfect fit alongside a perimeter big like Love or Aldridge.  Each guy can control his 'zone' while staying out of the other guy's way - it's a match made in heaven.   

2) Of all three guys, Monroe puts the most pressure on an opposing team's defense.  His free throw rate of 39.4% this season is borderline elite.  For comparison reasons, Russell Westbrook had a free throw rate of 44%, and he's known as as one of the best in the league at drawing contact - so Monroe really does put a LOT of pressure on the defense.

3) He's the best rebounder of the three, with a Rebound rate of 17.9% compared to 16.6% (Love) and 15.5% (Aldridge).  For comparison reasons our current best rebounder (Sully) had a rebound rate of 15.4%, so Monroe is a significant upgrade for us on the boards.  This is especially impressive considering Monroe shared the court with Andre Drummond, who is probably one of the NBA's top 5 rebounders - that he STILL managed to pull down as many rebounds as he did says a lot about how much of a beast he is on the boards.

4) He's the best passer of the three, with an assist rate of 11.7% compared with 10.7% (Love) and 9.2% (Aldridge). 

With Monroe's natural ability to dominate the paint offensively and on the boards, the other (either Love or Aldridge) would be completely free to play out on the perimeter.  With either a Monroe/Love or Monroe/Aldridge combination we'd have complete inside-out domination on the offensive end of the floor, as well as one of best passing and rebounding front-lines in the NBA. 

Our only weakness would be interior defense, but when you are dominating every other aspect of the game the way either of those front court combinations would, and when you have perimeter defense as good as ours (with Smart/Bradley/Crowder) rim protection becomes more of a luxury rather than a necessity. 

I also think this is the most likely scenario of the three.  If rumours are true we are one of Monroe's top 2 free agency destinations, so we have a VERY real chance of signing him outright.   Then with Monroe added we would instantly see a major increase in the level of interest from other free agents like Aldridge and Love, who would suddenly become far more likely to explore sign-and-trade options to come here.

I'm loving the sound of this:

C: Greg Monroe, Tyler Zeller
PF: LaMarcus Aldridge (or Kevin Love), Jared Sullinger (or Kelly Olynyk)
SF: Evan Turner, Jae Crowder
SG: Avery Bradley, James Young
PG: Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas, Phil Pressey

With Brad Stevens as the coach, that's a legit contender assuming we can acquire Love or Aldridge in return for an offer of Brandon Bass, Gerald Wallace, Jared Sullinger (or Kelly Olynyk) and multiple draft picks.

[Geo123]

Neither of them wants to play center, and are on the record saying that, all things being equal, they would much rather play the 4 -- Particularly Aldridge.

Exactly, so the answer is no.  Not to mention we don't have the salary cap room to make it happen either...

[Celtics4ever]

Love on D would be bad, I would rather have Monroe and Aldridge.   Monroe is not a solid defender but he is better than Love.

[crimson_stallion]

Love on D would be bad, I would rather have Monroe and Aldridge.   Monroe is not a solid defender but he is better than Love.

Agreed.

[footey]

Monroe and either one together strikes me as a clunky, anti-GSW way to go. No thank you.

[bleedGREENdon]

Monroe and either one together strikes me as a clunky, anti-GSW way to go. No thank you.

WCS and Aldridge ?

[greece66]

No, not both.

This is a funny question to ask because the chances of signing one of them are well below 20%, the chances of getting both are really low.

Now, to why I would not want them both. It is quite obvious: they play the same position and they bring a very similar set of skills (and weaknesses). Why have two max contracts for two players who can barely fit in the same team?

Moreover, switching one of them to 3 as a previous commenter suggested, won't work IMO, neither has the ball the handling ability to do this.

So, it really boils down to using one at the 4 and another at the 5: this will be an offensively productive if awkward duo, but with defensive issues.

What is more, what's the point from the players POV? Presumably, Love would leave Cleveland (I doubt he will, but let's just assume it) for the sake of finding a team where he will be the star and play according to his strengths. What's the point of coming to the C's and having to adjust to have LMA next to him?- that' even worse than having to adjust to LBJ's playing style lol.
One of the two 'divas' will have to make adjustments to allow room for the other player to fit in the starting 5 and this will be bizarre. Like putting Kyrie and CP3 in the same team.

As another commenter said (always talking at the manager fantasy level here) it would be much preferable to get one of these two + Monroe since then we would have a complementary duo of bigs.

tl;dr there are better ways to spend our money than getting every stretch 4 available in the League.

[BitterJim]

Monroe and either one together strikes me as a clunky, anti-GSW way to go. No thank you.

Although it would be tough for a Monroe+Love/LMA to match up with GSW's small ball lineup, they wouldn't need to.  If Love had been playing, GSW would have needed to play Bogut more often, since Love would likely be too much for Green inside (and if they played both Mozgov and Love at the same time, GSW would definitely need Bogut in the game)

Having a couple of true bigs that can score effectively inside makes the other team put in true big men, and would actually be an effective way of taking some of the sting out of a team like GSW's offense (by not allowing them to just play small ball), or getting easy buckets if they went small anyway

[slamtheking]

Could a Love/Aldridge front court work ?

I'd wager it'd work better than an a Sully/KO & Zeller front court

[LGC88]

Monroe and either one together strikes me as a clunky, anti-GSW way to go. No thank you.

Although it would be tough for a Monroe+Love/LMA to match up with GSW's small ball lineup, they wouldn't need to.  If Love had been playing, GSW would have needed to play Bogut more often, since Love would likely be too much for Green inside (and if they played both Mozgov and Love at the same time, GSW would definitely need Bogut in the game)

Having a couple of true bigs that can score effectively inside makes the other team put in true big men, and would actually be an effective way of taking some of the sting out of a team like GSW's offense (by not allowing them to just play small ball), or getting easy buckets if they went small anyway

If GS will have problem with Love, we can trade with them for Olynik, he has proven he's the only one who can stop Love.
What? bad joke?... sorry