WTF? Hasn't changed THAT much? Needless to say, I completely disagree with that statement. Anywho. Rashard Lewis was an UNRESTRICTED free agent. That matters. A lot. He got paid. And virtually everyone said it was way, way, way too much money. Again, using an outlier, from 2 years ago (which was the market peak - Dow 14,000), as the comp is not appropriate. We didn't lure a long-time proven vet who has an All-Star berth, away from another team. We drafted Aldridge. We hold his rights. He still has much to prove. He still has awards to gather. We don't have to pay him crazy money in the superheated free agent frenzy.
I agree, the Blazers got no discount with LA. From a strictly financial standpoint, this move didn't make much sense. However, I think the Blazers have and enjoy the reputation of an organization that takes care of their players. They try to create a family atmosphere among the players and taking care of them through contracts is part of that. They extended Webster when he was hurt, they have been generous with Joel, Outlaw, Roy even Blake. They gave Lamarcus an extention they could have probably given next year with really little to no chance of losing him . . . but they want to create a different type of relationship with the players, especially the core. Blazers reached out to Aldridge, showed how committed they are to him and hope this kind of gesture will help nuture a star player who will be committed and loyal to the Blazer family.
I am not sure what you are getting at with the Spurs. They had contentious negotiations with Parker and Ginobili. Ginobili almost signed with the Nuggets, and the Spurs only came up on their offer because of the threat of Ginobili bolting to the Nuggets. Parker was not given the maximum extension, despite being the single hottest PG under 24 at the time he inked his extension, and despite asking for it. In fact, Parker, under the old, more generous economic climate, was paid less per year than Aldridge just now received. The Spurs also went to Duncan and asked him to take less than he was allowed on his latest extension, which he did. That kind of salary cap management was where I hoped the Blazer were headed. You praise the players and tell them you want them; you tell them you have a budget, salary slots and a plan; and that plan involves putting a team together that has several very good players each who could get more but wants to play together; then you tell them where they fit in the plan and why you are offering the deal you are and why it is less than what their agent is telling them. Oh well. It isn't a bad situation the team is in, I just hoped for better (cheaper, more flexible contracts). At least Miller is a good contract signing for the team.
Some of it is almost certainly psychology. Aldridge has demonstrated a certain paranoid streak in the past. He seems pretty sensitive about personal slights. (His comments during negotiation, his early minor rift with Roy over not being invited to some dinner with Outlaw.) I really don't think he's the kind of guy you put in the situation where you leave him unsigned and hope to match next year. He could start to turn ugly. There's so much momentum going the way toward a deep playoff run. I can see why the GM wasn't willing to risk that by having his second best player grouse all season that Roy got signed and he didn't.
The right comparison, imho, is Al Jefferson - and LMA got about the same amount as Al-Jeff did. The reason they were willing to lock him down, even if they did not get the discount - is because they did the right thing. They have a plan, LMA is one of the 3 pillars of that plan, and they decided not to fuck up with it to pinch a penny. That was the right decision - see what happened to Chicago when they decided to screw over with Deng/Gordon after their 49 wins season. If you have a plan, believe in it and you know what you are going to do - the correct thing to do is not to make last minute changes in order to save insignificant amounts of money.
