This is the funny part with the trade ideas. It's all for draft picks and young players that won't be anything more than solid contributors. The Nerlens Noel trade ideas make me want to throw up. He's not a franchise player at all. Aldridge/#10 pick/FA is better than any trade suggested in this thread by far. Why? Because the Blazers have the star player. 2-3 solid players don't make up for one star. The Blazers would get those 2-3 solid players and then guess what...they would need to find at least another cornerstone piece to go with Lillard, most likely two. That's just a backasswords way of thinking. If you trade Aldridge it has to be for a player that is proven and has the potential to be as good as Aldridge and has already flashed it. Thompson is not even close to being that guy.
Why does it have to be one of those two? Can't a 3rd option be keeping LMA? Bosh was clearly gone because they couldn't put a decent roster around him, and he had stars in his eyes and talked of teaming up with other players. Carmelo wanted to play in NY and made that clear. Deron was polite publicly, but am sure told Utah of his intentions to not stick around. We don't know what LMA has said privately to Olshey, so won't speculate on going the Deron route. He hasn't talked about leaving like Carmelo, so no real reason to go that route. I don't see why it's out of the realm of possibility he sticks around if we can put talent around him, which we have already begun with Lillard, as well as Batum as a good fitting piece.
Why would another team give us the same level of player as Aldridge? Another team looking to acquire Aldridge would either need depth at a position where they could afford to move an all-star-level guy OR they would have other assets they value less than we do because of organizational time frames. I like Aldridge, but I don't think that this team is going anywhere in the next year or two, and it would be more interesting to me as a fan to do a deal like this one with Cleveland. There are few guarantees in the NBA, and it's possible that the Blazers could be making a huge mistake in trading their best player for potential (in the form of young players and cap space) but I think it's more likely that we'll be stuck in mediocrity for the next few years, and I'd rather go big or go home. Ed O.
I really like LMA, but he turns 28 in a month. The window to win with him is 3 years or so. Ideally, you pair him with a strong rebounding SF and C, neither of which the team really has. The Blazers could instantly become an up and coming young team, with a championship window that coincides with Wade maybe retiring and LeBron and Bosh turning 31 in 3 years. The #1 should be ROY, giving the Blazers back-to-back winners. Thompson is not bad at all for a 21 year old player. The other picks and cap space make for good bargaining chips. Maybe you use the $5M savings to resign JJ. Now the deal looks like a 1st, Thompson, more picks, and JJ for LMA. Draft Lillard's back court mate. Go get a legitimate C. Overnight you have a solid starting 5 with Wes to backup SG and SF and Thompson rounding out the bigs rotation. Go make playoffs and get some experience.
Aldridge has a game that will age nicely. 6-11. Great length. Nice jumper. Good post moves. Unblockable shot. Doesn't really rely on his athleticism. He'll be a great player to have for another 5-6 years.
Kind of surprising how acceptable the idea of trading Aldridge has become to many here. Makes me wonder if this will happen this summer. When you consider all the variables already mentioned, the fact that he's our most valuable trade asset (outside of the virtually untouchable Lillard), and Olshey looking to put his imprint on this team, it may be much more likely than I'd thought. And then there's the whole LeBron thing. A team looking to elevate its immediate potential in order to lure LeBron could do a lot worse than trade young assets for Aldridge.
And that's a very decent haul. Just looking at stats through the lens of per36 (as I said earlier, I'm not familiar with Thompson's game), there are only a few categories that differ significantly from LMA (otherwise they're nearly identical): Rebounds, FT%, and PPG (and APG to an extent). Thompson is the better rebounder, LMA shoots FTs better, and LMA shoots more so he scores more (essentially identical FG% though). I included Hickson in the comparison just because: http://www.basketball-reference.com...013&p2=thomptr01&y2=2013&p3=hicksjj01&y3=2013 Given that Lillard, Wes, Nic and Hickson all sport better eFG% than LMA, I think we should be fine with the 7ppg difference between LMA and Tristan. Also, Tristan's FG% and FT% both improved by 5% from his first year to his second year. Is that a demonstration that he's working on his shot and improving? Or does it just show that he wasn't as confident/comfortable as a rookie?
I've always hated when people add your own assets into a deal as if you're gaining something you never had with it.
Let me know when Thompson commands double teams because it's too hard to stop him 1 on 1 and becomes the focus of the defense. FG%'s are not equal. Bringing up eFG% is stupid because Aldridge doesn't shoot 3's while Nic/Wes/Lillard shoot a ton of them
If you keep LMA, you're letting JJ walk. So you really would be getting him. He's a Free Agent, not your asset.
We have the bird rights yo pay him whatever he want. He can most certainly walk, and I hope he does. But if we want him, we can make an offer to him regardless of who is here. Trading LMA doesn't all of a sudden make him ours. Offering him a bigger contract than everyone else does. And that doesn't change with the rest of our roster.
Plug in anyone you want - Hickson was just an example, and represents the increased cap space which should be enough to sign two solid players, or one solid player and make an uneven trade.
It was more an aside to this discussion, and not entirely meant to single out Denny. You see others do it, I dunno, maybe sort of a pet peeve. It's one thing to say here is the potential finished roster in its entirety, and another, IMO, to say, oh, it's kind of like you also traded for your own asset.
LaMarcus Aldridge Discusses Roster, Future: http://www.blazersedge.com/2013/5/28/4373932/sepkowitz-blazers-f-lamarcus-aldridge-discusses-roster-future Maybe should have had it's own thread: dunno.
2nd or 3rd time I've seen him give a similar interview, and when asked about the current roster, and given names of the players, he doesn't mention Wes. Doubt it really means anything, just have noticed it is all.
Can someone with "Slam" verify if there is more of note in the actual interview? Ha! NM. I thought it was a subscription site. LOL http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2013/05/qa-lamarcus-aldridge-2/
