There might be an argument to consider trading LMA, but you don't make that argument at the beginning of the season before you have any idea how the new pieces may mesh with his skills. If LMA and Lillard develop the chemistry that really take advantage of their respective talents you could be talking about Stockton/Malone 2.0. This season is about experimentation, seeing what develops and getting another lottery pick in the draft. There's plenty of time to think about adjusting the roster next summer if it doesn't look like things are shaping up.
Obviously we have some time to make a decision, but what we DON'T want is for LMA to demand a trade. If things get bad enough, I could see him doing that, and then we lose a ton of leverage.
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=d5h7zbe Kevin Martin, Motiejunas, and Royce White for Aldridge. Maybe have them throw in a draft pick as well. Aldridge isn't Dwight Howard, but he's a guy from Texas and he's an All-Star bigman to with Jeremy Lin and Lamb. We would get cap relief from Kevin Martin (one year left) and a couple of talented young bigs. Personally I really like Motiejunas. After watching him in the summer league, that guy is a very gifted center. He absolutely abused Leonard.
I don't think I'm ready to blow this experiment up after a couple of preseason games. If Lillard turns into a real-deal top 5 NBA point guard, which is certainly possible, and if either Batum pulls his head out (he's only 23!) or Leonard looks like a top 5 center, then continuing to build around Aldridge makes a lot of sense. Depending on the growth of those three guys (Batum/Lillard/Leonard) we could be just a year or two away from a second round playoff team. And from there you still have a lot of Aldridge's window to build on that to a better team.
Come on Mook, we don't really want to win, do we? It's just going to lead to heartbreak and disappointment.
Improvement comes from trading bad players for good players, not the other way around. Aldridge is a good player.
Yes, he does. He's just entering his prime. And, even though he may peak around 30, I think his decline will be gradual and graceful. His game relies more on length and skill than athleticism. Good teams rely on a combination of youth and veterans. By the time our young guys enter their primes, Aldridge will be the savvy veteran and still a very productive big. Productive bigs are always in short supply. I don't think we'd get equal value in return, at best it would be a huge gamble. I'd rather stick with the sure thing, continue to build around him an hope some of our many young guys pan out. With five rookies likely in our top 9 or 10, we don't really need more youth. Guys like Barton, Freeland and Claver are already going to be fighting for minutes. If we had even more young guys, when would they get a chance to play? This year will be tough, and will most likely net us another lottery pick, but I see this team improving rapidly. Even with no other additions (other than next year's lottery pick), I see this team making the playoffs next season. Aldridge will be an all-star big, Lillard will have a year running the point under his belt, Leonard should be ready to start by then (he will still be inconsistent, but there aren't a lot of great center in the West right now) and Barton will be a solid 6th/7th man - plus we'll have another lottery pick, possibly a SG, at that point. Unless things go terribly wrong, I wouldn't even consider trading Aldridge until the 2014 trade deadline - and then only if he demands it, or it's clear none of our young guys are as good as projected. Let it bake! BNM
Well said. I'd add that Batum is 23, Hickson 24, Elliot Williams is 24, and Nolan Smith is 24. All these guys are younger than Freeland! And Matthews is only 26. So it's not like we have a lot of elder veterans either. Just look at our roster and tell me we need to focus on getting younger. It's pretty stunning to see how young we've suddenly become.
Looking over that roster, I would say Olshay needs to focus on getting in some more quality role playing old guys. I just don't see the point in washouts like Ammo, Karl and Sasha. They're all 28 or older, so it's not like they've got worlds of upside. And they are essentially castoffs trying to cling to the league, so they aren't going to provide locker room stability like a quality role player like Jeffries. The are the worst kind of veteran--the sad sack who has no way to lead and no hope of improvement. Ronnie Price is pretty borderline between Jeffries and the other old scrubs, but I give him a pass because Lillard likes him and we aren't going to get a lot better choices while rebuilding around Lillard.
I think it's a mixed bag. I think Hickson, Batum, Matthews, Freeland, Barton and even Smith have long-term careers in the NBA. Leonard and Lillard are really the only two that I think have real All Star potential. Lillard is the only one with superstar potential. Obviously, on a rebuilding team you'd like to see more potential All Stars/Superstars.
Problem is we may be young but IMO that youth is not that good and that's a problem. Batum is the best of the group, just signed a big contract and has questions to answer about his consistency. Hickson may be a career backup, Williams is another injury enigma and we can't realistically count on him at all, Wes really should be a 6th man and Freeland is likely a backup as well. So we have one "capable" starter of that group, Nolan has shown me nothing. We need MORE TALENT
Here is the problem I have with this whole "we have no talent" arguement. We dont know what we have, making assumptions on rookies who havent played an actual nba game just not a good idea because we dont know how they will play. We can count out williams due to injury but Hickson was a stud in cleveland but he was rumored to want a 10m a year contract so they traded him and he sucked on a team with 4 of there starting 5 being "me first players" he has shown starter level talent on cleveland. Wes is a sixth man talent and Batum is inconistant to the point of madness but its yet to be seen if he just doesnt have it in him to be consistant for 30m a night or if a coaching change was just what he needed. With players like claver/barton/freeland/leonard/even lillard we dont know what we have in them until we see them vs other nba teams. We dont exactly lack talent we lack proven talent and we wont really know what we will need until half way through this season. Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2
Garbage. Like I said, every year or two a league star like Dwight Howard gets traded. Wait till then and trade up, not down. Meanwhile, we can see whether Aldridge improves under a non-McMillan coach.
That's not a sentence, so I had to translate. Говард выиграл как много титулов с Орландо и список лучше, чем вы бы в Портленде?
