Goldsberry: Blazers F LaMarcus Aldridge Is "Mayor Of Mid-Range"

Kirk Goldsberry, contributor to Grantland.com, has been running a series of visuals (here and here) concerning shot distribution this week.

The latest: naming the "mayors" of various zones based on who launches the most field goal attempts. No surprise: Portland Trail Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge leads in both the left and right mid-range categories.

LaMarcus loves the mid-range. No NBA player shoots as much in the mid-range than Aldridge. He shoots so much in the mid-range that he is the mayor of two adjacent sections on the chart. Although he only shoots about 41% from these zones, his ability to get the kind of volume he gets there is still impressive. Aldridge narrowly beat out Kobe and KG for the top spots in these two zones.

Blazers rookie guard Damian Lillard also leads on the top of the key threes.

Lillard loves the top of the arc. The potential rookie of the year is the most frequent shooter in the zone where point guards shoot most of their 3′s. As of January 22nd, Lillard had attempted 126 shots from this spot, but he's only making about 37% of them.

Back in November, we took a look at the sharp increase in Aldridge's mid-range attempts under new coach Terry Stotts. While that's come back a little bit over the last few months, he still remains No. 1 in the league in field goal attempts from 16-23 feet by a large margin. Aldridge and Stotts discussed his shot distribution in early December.

Aldridge is up to 47.3 percent from the field overall after shooting 44.3 percent through the end of November.

Hat tip: Casey Holdahl at Blazers.com

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter