Through the Spurs’ first 18 games, LaMarcus Aldridge is shooting a career-worst 41% from the field, 10 percentage points down from last season — which is as good as any single reason for the team’s shaky 9-9 start. The big man already has three single-digit scoring efforts (more than in the whole of 2017-18), and it bears mentioning because of how closely his scoring is correlated with the team’s success: the Spurs are 0-7 this season when Aldridge scores less than 15 points and 1-9 when he scores less than 20.
Smarter writers than I have diagnosed what could be eating into Aldridge’s early-season efficiency, from what the team is doing in the pick and roll, on post-ups, or him getting the ball later in the shot clock than the rhythm-based scorer is used to.