It would have been nice if Aldridge stayed and recruited some other impact players to the team, but that would have meant he'd be advocating for his teammates from last season be replaced. He wimped out and bolted, I'm over the guy. Hopefully Olshey comes up with something that makes us forget him completely.
El Presidente. You forget the cap space isn't getting us anyone to sign here on money alone. We just tried. How did we do? The cap space means shit. When we were all healthy, we had the best starting 5 in basketball. How do you replace that while spending ALL the cap space and think expectations would be higher? Name the players you think we could have replaced them with to keep LMA here? It seems like your unable to just take it and must have someone to blame, when it is just what it is. Circumstances and feelings change. In my opinion, there WAS no one thing that blew this team up. It was a combination of injuries, contracts, a team that had peaked, and if we brought everyone back, we wouldn't have been able to improve the team. If we let them go keep Lillard and Dame, who do you put around them to keep LMA happy and here? What incentive have you given him to think the team would be any better than the last two years? Your trying to find an answer when there really isn't one.
I guess you are right. You and your PhD in Internet Psychology from Clown College obviously have me figured out. Unable to take it? Damn right, I thought this team would have been great if LMA stayed and we could have been a team that could have contended to go to the WCF and beyond eventually. I am fucking pissed at Aldridge dissing the team when him and Lillard had something special going on. The end result of his decision is the team is in Tanksville, USA now. As for Free Agency, we tried selling a team WITHOUT Aldridge. With Aldridge, as I stated earlier, I think we get a Greg Monroe and more attractiveness to players that want to win. We get other cheap guys and we actually do have talent we could trade and move around for more veterans. Any of the guys. We kept Aldridge, lose an inconsistent Batum, injured Wes and declining Lopez, I still think with the right moves we'd be a very strong Playoff team. Lillard Henderson Aminu Aldridge Monroe would have been pretty nice, definitely better than what our team looked like at the end of last season. We would have swung more for the fences for sure instead of safe and flexible moves we are doing in Tank mode. We have this team, add a few other veteran role players and we're good. Then the cap goes up next year and we add more players and do more things. Saying "thank you LA for all you've done" is the pussy way out of this. Its what fans with no emotional investment in the team or fans that didn't follow the team from blowing it up to one that gets out of the first round of the playoffs say. Fuck Aldridge.
Lol, well your anger certainly justifies my statements. I think you and I disagree on the peak of what the roster could have been if we brought everyone back, and LMA did not want to go through another rebuild. He'd been through two already. He is at his peak and will start declining in a few years. What you lined out in no way sounds as attractive as what he did. And I don't think he truly new what he was gonna do until post season...though I think his gut started turning at Wes's injury and I cant blame him for that. Mine would too.
I think he has hurt this franchise more and done more damage than any player in Blazers history, including Oden or Bowie. Those were out of their control.
No way!! He never said one negative thing about Portland. He never got busted with drugs. You know what hurt us more than anything else? EVERYONE... and I mean EVERYONE thinking that when Oden and Roy went down that LMA could step up to that 2nd or 1st guy. He is, in my opinion, the third piece to a puzzle. Ala Bosch was to Miami or Gasol was supposed to be to Kobe and Howard, etc. The front office, the players, the fans, we all just accepted him stepping up when I don't think he was the guy. He is too unorthodox and not athletic enough to be a 1 or two and this is why I think his best days are behind him... unless he conforms to the player we wanted him to be but refused, which is the C. He would dominate most centers with his quickness. This would piss me off and maybe burn a little hatred from me into him. But if he stays true and does what he has, it will be a blessing in disguise. I wont hate him and San Antonio will fall apart because of it. I have mad respect for the SA organization, but if anyone else is gonna win on a consistent basis (GS was one and done in my opinion), then their time needs to come to an end.
