There were a lot of people with that opinion. But i guess i am just one to look for the best and hope the season went well enough to make sure he stayed. Didn't work out that way.
Dame is a player you can build around and go the distance. He has the mentality for it. I was ready for him to take over and trade Aldridge. I even said so on the Oregonlive Forum.
Even more so they won that year playing team after team that was dealing with substantial injuries. All the way through the Finals. A healthy Blazer team that year gives them a run no question.
The only person that I can for sure say they wanted to trade Aldridge during that time on O-Live was BendBlazer22 and that was only because he had some personal hatred of him. I don't understand why people are saying now that we had to trade Aldridge for Lillard to take over. The stuff about Aldridge not liking Lillard getting the spotlight didn't come out until afterwards. Why all of a sudden is the narrative that we couldn't build a team around both them?
We didn't have to trade Aldridge for Dame to take over. Dame just took over as I knew he would after watching a full season of him as a rookie. I disliked many things about Aldridge at the time.
Oh boy. Wonder where bendblazer is now? That dude was off the rails but he did want to trade Aldridge without question.
But Aldridge was never going to stay. I just had a feeling, and when he wouldn't sign I would have traded him. He was too pouty and moody when he was here. It's not a risk I would have taken. I said on O-Live I wanted to trade Aldridge many times. Not as a firesale, because he was a valuable player, but for as much value as we could get, because he was going to leave eventually.
Eh, I guess so. I've used this same screen name since the early 2000's. Many in here know that. And I'm sure some remember my stance on Aldridge. You're the one's arguing that we shouldn't have traded him even with the benefit of hindsight lol.
All I'm saying is it's your opinion that he was for sure leaving. I don't believe that for a second. I think he meant what he said until the disaster that was the end of that season. And for the record, fuck Aldridge.
I'm not saying he was lying. I don't think he was trying to screw us. But I also don't think he thought of things in those terms. He was always going to do whatever made him feel better. And in that situation the grass is always greener. I didn't think he had it in him to turn down the pretty girl who came calling. *Edit* And yes, of course it's just my opinion. I never claimed to have any inside information.
Which goes back to my and several other's point that had Wes not gotten hurt the grass might have been greenest in Portland.
I know Phat believed they should trade LMA, because I was Of the same opinion. LMA told them he was leaving.
Well we got embarrassed by the Spurs after beating Houston, so I think the same would've happened the year after against whatever contender we ran into. I dont think that team was built to win, and I dont think it stood a chance against a LeBron-led team either. I think Blazer fans overrate that team a bit. Barton was hurt last year. Thats a terrible gauge to correlate his drop in production with anything other than he was hurt basically all year.
I juat think the best case scenario of trading him was better than the best case scenario of him staying, and the worst case scenario for trading him was certainly better than the worst case scenario of him leaving.