LaMarcus Aldridge Chooses The Spurs Over The Blazers

Monday, July 06, 2015

Robby Davis, GolocalPDX Contributor

The LaMarcus Aldridge saga has officially ended. On July 4th he announced that he will be signing with the San Antonio Spurs. His contract will be for 4-years and $80 million dollars. This is one of the biggest signings that the Spurs have had in recent history. Typically they don’t target big free-agent names, but Aldridge was one guy they simply couldn’t pass up on. To many, Aldridge is the perfect guy to step and take over for Tim Duncan whenever he chooses to retire.

Although this is a great signing for the Spurs, this puts the Portland Trail Blazers in a tough situation. Do they rebuild? Do they begin seeking out trades? Or do they build through the draft?

Since 2006 Aldridge has been a key player for Portland. Although he’s been an integral part of the team’s success he was never truly the face of the franchise until Brandon Roy was waived due to his degenerative knees back in 2011. After that Aldridge has developed into arguably the best power forward in the game. That’s why losing Aldridge is devastating for the Blazers.

Even with Aldridge now with the Spurs it seems as though the Blazers had been preparing for this moment for quite some time. The team had signed Ed Davis and traded for Noah Vonleh. These are 2 young players who happen to also play the power forward position. Having Aldridge sign with the Spurs is definitely not the news that Rip City wanted, but if we’ve learned one thing it’s that the Blazers are a team that always bounces back.