smh, he spent 2 yrs at Austin. He was born, and spent all his life prior in Dallas. He considered Dallas his hometown. This isn't news. Do you also believe Dame is from Utah, and not Oakland?
While his days of being average defensively are behind him, I still think he's better as a defender than Kanter, and he brings an outside shot. I think on nights where Portland needs spacing and better defense than Kanter provides, Aldridge can provide that. Solid outside shooting is something even Nurkic doesn't provide and it can be a big deal.
If we can stay below the luxury tax and it is on a minimum contract, I do not see the harm. My guess is that there is no way LA gets signed if Lillard is not 100% on board with it. Most said Melo would be a bad fit and would never fit with this team. He has fit nicely at a minimum contract and changed the narrative with his late career resurgence. Would love to see LA do the same.
He would occupy the same spots on offense that Melo does. As I said, the combo of Melo/Kanter bring whatever Aldridge can. I'd rather we address more defensive wing depth or maybe even getting a PG.
Melo can't realistically play center, unless Portland is playing a team experimenting with super small ball. A big who can shoot and thus drag the opposing center out of the paint opens up a lot. Especially if it's a big who, like Aldridge, also has a refined post game and can punish teams that try to cover him with a wing so their big can remain in the paint. Considering I'm only interested in him as a vet minimum player, I'm obviously not saying he'll completely transform the team. But no veteran's minimum player will. I think Aldridge's package of tools is more impactful than you'll find in other veteran's minimum players.
If Otto Porter or George Hill became available in the buyout market, would you take Aldridge over them?
except of course, that's out of context. I was responding to this assertion: if Melo gets doubled AND that, in turn " frees up Dame", we should see some evidence that Dame's numbers are better when playing with Melo on the floor. But the opposite is true If you are going to accuse me of some arbitrary reasoning, at least base it upon accurate context. And by the way, that context was present in my post