As LaMarcus Aldridge goes, so go the Spurs. This has been a statistical truism in the early weeks of the 2018-19 season, with the team 9-0 whenever their All-NBA big goes for 20 or more points, but the analogue extends beyond that and into how both entities change — or don’t — in an aggressively evolving league.
Aldridge is a basketball artifact, creaky and huge and still situationally effective, even dominant, at stretches of games. No man is an island, but the 33-year-old continues to look most comfortable offensively when left to his own devices, fed the ball early, and allowed to create impossible turnarounds for himself on the block.