He may not sign it. A maximum contract extension can only be for 3 more seasons kicking in after the upcoming season, the final one in his current deal. If Aldridge becomes a free agent in 2015 instead, he is eligible to sign with Portland for 5 years or another team for 4 years. I don't know if the security of having the guarantee locked in right now as oppose to a year from now (with the associated risks of injuries and decline) is worth giving up on an extra year or two of guaranteed money once he hits the market.
Good for him, he is one of the few Max guys that worked his way there, he was definitely not a max caliber player coming out of Texas but he has put in the work to deserve it now.
Could this max offer give him an ETO option after year 2? If so, he'd be dumb not to take it and opt out to get even more money.
LMAs top dollar would be around 5 million per year more than Hardens. Not to mention he is 4 years older as well. LMA is a great player, but I don't see him as a guy that you can afford to pay 20 mil per year too and expect to win big. It's absolutely the right move for Portland, but fans of other teams should be happy to see him sign a deal like that because it makes things that much harder on Portland.
made a ridicoulous jumpers vs us then got dominated and played like crap vs the spurs worth a max contract but lets not act like he's wayy better than Harden
Was just looking at some stats from last season and noticed something. If you look at the top 100 players based on PER and then look at the TS% they posted, LMA comes in at 97/100. Barely beating out Tyreke, Kemba and Jrue Holiday. Amazing someone that inefficient shooting the ball was still able to put up the 19th best PER. And crazy how hot he got against us considering his regular season numbers.
It took two things for Portland to beat us: 1. A Herculean effort by Aldridge 2. A choke job by the Rockets Aldridge is a great player but I personally wouldn't put him in the elite category. It wasn't so long ago when Amare Stoudemire laid waste to Duncan and the Spurs and he was supposed to be the next all-time PF. When you get the right matchups....
I don't think PER takes into account efficiency correct? If so then I would take it with a grain of salt.
You can't win paying $20 million a year for a high usage super inefficient player with .500 TS%. It's not the early 2000's anymore.
If I was LMA, I wouldn't sign that extension right now. If Portland thinks a core of Lillard/LMA/Batum is enough, then they aren't going to be serious contenders. They had a great season, yes but they basically had a perfect season as well. They had two starting lineups the whole season. When is that ever going to happen again? They were extremely lucky with health this year. Also, their schedule this year totally helped them. The first part of their schedule was a literally cake walk as was their last stretch of games. When the schedule got harder in the middle, the media darling "dark horse favorites" Blazers looked like a below average NBA team. There's a reason why the Blazers slipped from 1st place in the West to almost 8th when their schedule got harder. In the playoffs, the Blazers took advantage of a team that's power forward position is a joke defensively, on a team who's defense is a joke past Howard and Beverley. Even then all the games were close and could have gone either way. But when they reached the Spurs, it was a total embarrassment. If the Blazers are committed to their current core, they aren't winning anything any time soon. They got extremely hot offensively to begin the year but cooled off just as fast. Defensively, they were in the bottom 2/3 of the league. They will be stuck in 1st or 2nd round exits with that team.
I like Aldridge and think he'd be a great fit here, but I think the reason he played so awesome against us this year in the playoffs, is that he's from Texas, and was showing his Texas pride ...
Portland feels like they’re too close to let him go to another team now & without receiving equal value in return. There’s no way he’d consider staying there without being offered the max, and Portland would have to kiss their playoff/championship hopes goodbye trying to survive in this wild wild west without him.
Good for him, good for us too. Our pathetic effort aside, the ceiling on that unit in Portland is very low.
