Gonna put it out there: LMA WILL STAY.

Nooooope. They are all hanging around the outside waiting for someone to pass them the ball.

 

It's frustrating. Even Zo is hitting cutters for layups. Zbo!

Stotts ball is easy to scout.

 

There are exceptions to the max salary; heck, kobe bryant makes 7 or 8 million more than anybody else . . .

 

I hope Aldridge stays. He'll be a demi-GOD in Portland if he does

 

I think LA will stay but I also think we won't get a good idea of what he is going to do for a couple of days. Teams will wine and dine LA and a shitstorm of "OMG LA IS LEAVING TO SO AND SO" threads will pop up because social media will go nuts and misreport where he is signing 12 different times.
LA SHOULD take his time, this will be the only time he is the #1a/b FA in a draft class and he has earned the right to make up his mind, as much as i'm sure he is staying I also think he has earned the right to leave and not have people hate him for it.

 

Except if he goes to the lakers. That is unforgivable.

 

If he doesn't re-sign here he'll end up in a Laker uni.

 

I do it to watch El Prez lose his shit.

 

That is disgusting, he should be banned.

 

He's given Portland a lot of chances to build a winner; a team that can contend. Maybe if injuries hadn't decimated this year's incarnation they could have had a puncher's chance, but that's not what happened.

If it were me, I'd be thinking about how many more years I've got left to chase a ring while I'm still in my prime and then I'd think long and hard about how far away Portland really is from getting to a true championship contending level based on the players that are around me.
-Lillard: A sometimes dynamic offensive player who is a serious liability on defense
-Batum: A mercurial talent who has only ever proved to be tantalizing, but never reliable
-Lopez: A serviceable big man (no real complaints)
-Matthews: The heart and soul of the team coming back from an injury that leaves his future very much in doubt
-The Bench: A couple of bright spots now and again, but pretty awful when you stack it up against the other elite teams in the West.

To me that adds up to a lot of questions marks - more now than there were a year ago, which tells me this franchise isn't trending in the direction it needs to for resigning him to be fait accompli. On the other hand, LMA has always seemed remarkably loyal and the Blazers can offer him the most money so that's nothing to dismiss.

 

This post makes a ton of sense, but I would like to add a few parts to this mix.

1.) What other team can give him a better chance to win now that has the cap space and talent to take him to the next level?

2.) Dame is a liability on the defensive end, but there are many teams that had a defensive liability on their team. I think the problem lies with Stotts and how he isn't giving help to Dame on defense. They are basically "punting off the pick" allowing teams to get that wide open 10-12 ft jumper.

3.) Our bench definitely needs work, but this summer will be the flexible enough for Olshey to actually find the talent needed to make that next leap.

 

We have flexibility because there's a very good chance that we could lose Lopez, Wes, AA, etc. It's possible LA will decide to bolt simply because he isn't sure what our future holds.

 

Well, we also have flexibility to sign every player and add a FULL MLE player as well.

 

We do. I guess it just depends on how Aldridge views the future of the team. If he thinks we have enough to win, he will probably stay. If he thinks the team is lacking, and locking up all those players would essentially end our chances of adding another star player, he might decide to leave. It's too hard to predict right now what's going to happen. My fear from the beginning is that he wants to play closer to home. I don't see him leaving for LA or NY. I could very easily see him leaving for SA or Dallas.

 

Exactly!!!! What Aldridge decides will determine what we plan to do this summer. I suspect if Aldridge bolts, we will do a 180 and completely retool the team, only keeping Dame, CJ and Leonard; building a team to compliment Dame. If Aldridge stays, then we stay the course and try and get a Gasol or Hibbert to replace Lopez, then bring in a FULL MLE vet to solidify the bench. On both scenarios, I still think we may trade Batum. His inconsistency has become a huge liability.