Even when Roy was going strong. LA was holding it steady. And he stayed steady through out his career until the last two years when he pushed on the gas. LA had the better career. I still think Roy did more for the organization overall. And he was more important to it.
LA proved when he wanted that he could take over a game. He showed us twice in the Houston series that he could. They were amazing performances. I don't feel he had the personality to do it consistantly the way Roy did it.
If he stayed and signed a max, he could have...and probably would have. Career numbers alone would have done it.
I personally think he is the best PF in franchise history. Oddly, that's not enough for me to retire his number. I think if he is headed to the hall of fame at the end of his career that might be grounds for me to reconsider.
Yeah I think I'd take Sheed over LA. I would've loved to see Sheed with Dame, Wes, Batum as teammates. Dame and Wes can take all the big shots and let Sheed do his defense or 3rd fiddle scoring spurts. Sheed just didn't want to be the vocal alpha man but with a Blazer group like that it would've been similar to the Pistons success. Dame can defer to a guy like LaMarcus if he knows its important for him to think he's the man or Dame will stand up and lead if he knows thats what is best instead. Sheed was stuck with mighty mouse as his PG and trader Bob making too many deals those last few seasons. Sheed still had 4 playoff series wins compared to LA's 1.
I've been thinking about this thread for a while now as it's a very interesting question. If we're going strictly by the OP's question of 'Who had the better career?' then the answer is clearly Aldridge based on longevity alone. His nine years in Portland allowed him to leave his mark all across the Rip City record books. However, if we're discussing who had the more memorable career, then I don't think the answer is quite as clear. While Roy only played five seasons in Portland, he provided so many more moments that will live in the minds of the maniacs forever. I should also note that I was never a huge Aldridge or Roy fan. I liked them both but neither will crack my Top 10 favorite Blazers of All-Time list, so I don't have a bias either way. But there is no denying how vital Brandon was in reviving this franchise. We were the laughing stock of the league and he made us relevant again over night. Off the top of my head, B-Roy's delivered these memorable moments: Rookie of the Year Was Portland's first All-Star in a seven-season span (Wallace 01 - Roy 08); three consecutive All-Star appearances 2nd Team All-NBA in 2009 - Highest achievement since Drexler made 1st Team in 1992 0.8 buzzer beater to stun the Rockets at the Rose Garden on national television Career-high 52 points against the Suns in Portland The switching right-to-left layup against Bosh during Portland's 13-game winning streak in December of 07 Buzzer beater against the Wizards in March of 2010 Unlikely return against the Suns in Game 4 of the 2010 playoffs, just eight days after surgery (This was before Twitter was popular and news like this didn't get out before tip. I still remember seeing him on the jumbotron before warmups and getting chills as he jogged onto the court) Unreal 18 point fourth quarter to lead the Blazers to a 23-point comeback victory over the Mavs in the 2011 playoffs Buzzer beating layup against the Rockets in December of 2009 Game-winning layup in traffic over the Knicks in February of 2009 Posterizing David Lee and Cheikh Samb And here are LA's memorable moments that I can think of right now: 46 Points in Game 1 and 43 Points in Game 2 of the 2014 playoffs against Houston 4 time All-Star 3rd Team All-NBA (2x, 2014,2015) Buzzer beaters against the Mavericks in 2012 and 2013 Western Conference Player of the Month (February 2011) Back to back 40+ point performances against Chicago and San Antonio in February of 2011 Game-winning bucket in Milwaukee (December of 09) There was a stretch of basketball played by Aldridge from December 2010 through February of 2011 where LaMarcus was a man-child. He literally tried to dunk everything and dominated in the post. If I remember correctly, he ended up getting snubbed that year in the All-Star Game and it fueled his play. That LaMarcus was my favorite LaMarcus. This vicious alley-oop over Michael Beasley summed up his three month dominance nicely. While LA's back-to-back 43+ point performances against the Rockets in the 2014 playoffs meant more than any single moment that Brandon delivered, as it helped Portland do something that Brandon wasn't able to accomplish - get Portland out of the first round, I just don't think he left the lasting impression that Brandon did. To me, I believe we got the most out of Brandon. LaMarcus, on the other hand, could have been even better; a game changer had he played with the aggression he displayed during that three month stretch of the 2010-11 season.
^^^ Hell of a post MAS, I think that is a really good summary and is hard to argue with. It certainly made me reconsider my earlier statement of LMA being better, I think you are right well done!
I hope Meyers makes us forget due to a continuation of his play against Memphis, and not a regression or something terrible like that.
Exactly, LA had stretches where he found his mojo and actually dominated the post, I remember thinking that he had finally turned the corner. But over the last two years, it's mostly been LaMarsha. His performance in the Houston series was cool, but it was also an aberration. Never in his career, before or since had he gotten that hot on the turn around fade way jumper. So to me, pointing at that is like pointing at Tony Delk's 50 point game.
All I can think of while reading this thread is "What a total goddamned shit show Kevin Pritchard's tenure turned out to be." A lot of it wasn't necessarily his fault and would have been tough to foresee or mitigate against, but talk about wasted potential. 9 years on and we have absolutely nothing to show for a number one overall pick, a number two and a number six. All of those assets gone like a fart in the wind. Wow! Carry on.