Lillard flying to LA to convince LA to resign here

all things come to pass...either it's assists or he's a George Harrison fan

 

I'd like to believe that. Olshey playing the director, staring Lamarcus Aldridge executing a plan to forever change free agency, and the way free agents view Portland. Lead as many teams on as you can, get them to dump players to make salary cap room making them weaker, as they hold back on signing anybody else while they wait on you. But in the end he leaves them all hanging and resigns with PDX, following a carefully scripted plan. The plan ends with his understudy Lillard stepping in to bring him back, proving that there is a true chemistry between them that players around the league want to be a part of. Every year from here on out when a FA sets up meetings, the question is raised "Is he really interested in signing, or is he pulling a Lamarcus?" Pulling a Lamarcus is a strategy to be debated for years. Is it a brilliantly shrewd strategy? Or is it unethical? The answer is debated, but the results are clear . . . Portland becomes a desirable FA destination, LA becomes a transcendent superstar who is lauded for taking down Pop & the Spurs (among others) as much as he is for his play on the court. The Blazers go on to win a number of championships in the Lamarcus-gate era.

Yeah, I'd like to believe even some of that.

 

Breaking News: It's being reported Jason Quick will be reporting on the meeting any minute - he allegedly caught glimpses of the meeting during battle with mini-blinds.

 

TORCHES AND PITCHFORKS!!! WHO'S WITH ME!?!?

 

Hey remember a couple years back at the all star game when LA said guys wanted to join the team? I wonder who the guys were

 

WTF!!!?? DON'T GIVE AWAY THE PLAN!!!

 

If that's the plan, he's already executed it

 

Oceans 11 bitches!

 

Keeping the conspiracy alive with a tweet from whoever this guy is

 

Really think about the core of that Quick story. If your team is so fragile it can't handle losing a single player and it collapses when it does happen, then it's like a house with dry-rot; nothing left but to gut it and strip it down to the foundation and start over because it was never going to be sustainable in the long run. Matthews injury is sort of a godsend in my mind. It revealed some fundamental flaws in the roster and showed us that maybe our supposed franchise cornerstones (Aldridge and Lillard) really aren't worth building around. Aldridge as the number one guy was never going to get us to a Larry O'Brien trophy and until/unless Lillard's defense improves in the couple of years, I'm not too optimistic about him being that guy either (but I think he can still be a good number two).

I'm actually more optimistic about this team's long-term chances of being good in another 3-4 years now than I was at the end of the season when it looked like we might just be going with the status quo; maybe in hindsight we'll look back on this time and be thankful that it all shook out the way it did? (Granted the next couple of years are probably going to be rough as the team goes back to lottoland).

 

Wes, Rolo and Nic are all very good role players. Their primary role was to support LMA. Now that he's gone, it wouldn't make much sense to keep those guys. Olshey has to retool the roster around Lillard.

 

Re: the notion that due to his bitter jealousy of Damian, this meeting could do more harm than good... Well if Damian didn't reach out to him the argument would be he doesn't care if Aldridge comes back, clearly there was a rift between them. I think these jealousy rumors are overblown. But if it's true, and Damian is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, you have to at least try and let the chips fall where they may. If the rumors are true it certainly can't make things worse.

 

I agree with you, however, the meeting should have been private. Nobody should have known about it. If the rift is true, and LA is jealous of the attention that Dame gets, then there's no way he's going to re-sign and give Dame the credit for "bringing him back into the fold." The fact that it was made so public really didn't help the cause at all.

 

Actually you are 100% dead on. If we rely on one player heavily as he seem it be, then we are absolutely fucked. I love Aldridge, but I am more happy that we are in better hands with Lillard if this is the case

 

Oh I don't know if we're in better hands with Lillard or not - if his defense improves substantially "yes," if not, "no."

 

Again, if the rift is true, then it doesn't matter if it's public or not, it ain't happening. If it's just overblown, unsubstantiated bullshit, then I think Aldridge is a tad more concerned about the biggest life choice he's ever faced than he is about credit distribution.

 

Unless, of course, the rumors are true and Dame wanted to expose the beef was purely by Aldridge. I think this would tarnish Aldridge's credibility more than Dame. Dame is the one reaching out to Aldridge. Dame was the one that publicly mentioned Aldridge on Twitter that we need him.

If Aldridge's ego is that fragile, do we really want him on this team?