Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings - Franchise players in each NBA Team – NBA Feature Part 17
Portland Trail Blazers – LaMarcus Aldridge
The Portland Trail Blazers seemed to have a solid roster last season, but after a torrid middle half, everything fell apart. Gerald Wallace was traded to the New Jersey Nets, head coach Nate McMillan was fired, and this off season
Ray Felton departed to the New York Knicks.
Amidst all the changes, the Trail Blazers ensured that they keep one player intact, and that was LaMarcus Aldridge, one of the most talented power forwards in the league.
Portland are in a rebuilding process at the moment and the man on whom they are relying upon is Aldridge. His task is however quite difficult, given that he has Nicolas Batum and two high draft picks in Damian Lillard and Meyers
Leonard to assist him.
Batum was part of a rights war between the Trail Blazers and the Minnesota Timberwolves this off season, one which eventually Portland won. But, given that they have invested so much money on the Frenchman, who is at best a role
player, it will be difficult for the franchise to go all out for a superstar any time soon.
Sacramento Kings – DeMarcus Cousins
Here is a man who can be the next big thing after Dwight Howard.
Only in his second year last season, the player averaged 18.1 points, 11 rebounds and 1.2 blocks for the Kings and going into the future, he is man the Kings will want to shoulder the franchise.
However, the biggest problem for Kings is his maturity level. Cousins is notorious for his attitude problems with the team mates and was the reason behind the firing of head coach Paul Westphal early last season.
Cousins can be easily riled and his aggressive attitude stands in his way to become an All-Star. The guy is still immature and need a cool head to guide him through on the court.
Last season, he was in the news for all the wrong reasons after taking a shot at Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin. He however silenced his critics with his performances.
Going in to the next season and the future, Cousins needs to ensure that his game does all the talking. If he can manage that, the league will have a new front court superstar pretty soon.
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