LaMarcus Aldridge believes he is the guy around which the Portland Trail Blazers should build – NBA News
The Portland Trail Blazers are one of the rising teams in the Western Conference that are looking to make their mark in a league where the competition has never been tougher. The Trail Blazers are looking to the future with the
view of bringing in some new pieces into the team, but before they can do that they need to decide how they perceive their All Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge.
Aldridge is an All Star player who was anticipated to make the final cut for the US Olympic Basketball team before bowing out of the competition with injury. Over the past few seasons, he has developed and grown into a force on
both ends of the floor, averaging 20 plus points and close to 10 rebounds on a regular basis and helping the Blazers win games. His selection for the All Star game was the official confirmation that Aldridge had arrived in the NBA and people had taken notice
of him. However, it seems as though those people do not include the Blazers front office.
The team management is yet to give any clear indication that they are convinced that Aldridge is their man for the future and will be the person around whom the team will be built. Perhaps they are not yet clear if he can lead
a team into the upper echelons of the NBA, and may be looking for a star player to join him. Aldridge is quite clear about where he stands in the league and what he thinks of himself in the present scenario.
“I think every team in this league feels that I’m a number one and that’s why they double-team me and they scheme me the way they do it. If I wasn’t a number one, teams wouldn’t double-team me and teams wouldn’t try to take me
out. So I don’t think there’s no need to bring in a number one. This organization can do whatever they want to do, but I think it’s definitely good to keep putting really solid pieces around myself, Dame [Lillard], Meyers [Leonard], and J.J. [Hickson],” said
Aldridge while talking to CSNNW.com
The Blazers have an important decision to make very soon because the window of opportunity in today’s NBA is very small. Either they accept Aldridge as the franchise player of the Blazers organization and start building a team
around him, giving him the confidence and clarity as well about his future with the franchise. If not, then the Blazers need to bring in another high profile player who can, together with Aldridge, lift the team into the top tier of the Western Conference.
In the NBA of today where super teams are the new way to go, it would be ideal to bring in another guy anyway, but the team needs to decide who will run the show before they can finalize a player to target.
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