LaMarcus Aldridge is the star player the Blazers have been waiting for and he now needs a team around him to guide this franchise back to the top four in the Western Conference
The Portland Trail Blazers had one of the most varying season out of all the teams in the NBA. Trail Blazers, a good second tier team in the Western Conference, made a good run for a spot in the playoffs early, but then the fortunes
slid and came the injury to Blazers star forward, LaMarcus Aldridge.
The injury brought an abrupt end to the season for Aldridge, and the Trail Blazers struggled without his presence on the court. They ended up going 1-9 in their last 10 games of the season and finished 11th out of 15
teams in the Western Conference with a record of 28-38.
The Blazers have been one of those teams that are unable to take the next step in terms of their progression in the NBA. They made the playoffs three straight seasons before the last one, and lost in the first round in all three
appearances. The last time the Blazers advanced from the first round of the playoffs was back in the 1999-2000 NBA season, when they reached the NBA Finals. They may be considered as the Atlanta Hawks of the Western Conference, who regularly make the playoffs
but fail to make the roster improvement that will enable them to make a deep push.
A team like the Oklahoma City Thunder, on the other hand, has been very successful in the past few years because they keep progressing and improving every season, whether in the form of new additions, or by working with the players
on their roster to make them better.
The inability of the Blazers to take that next step has kept them out of playoff conversation these past few years, even though they have reached the playoffs three out of the last four seasons. One huge factor for this was the
Trail Blazers did not have a franchise player, a player who had the talent and skills as well as the leadership to take the team into the future. But as it turns out, the Blazers may have just found their messiah.
LaMarcus Aldridge was drafted by the Trail Blazers in the 2006 NBA Draft, and since then has risen among the ranks in the NBA to become one of the best forwards in the league at the moment. Aldridge has shown consistent improvement
in his game over the past few seasons and his hard work paid off last season when he was nominated as an All Star.
In addition to that, this was the true breakout year for Aldridge, one in which he proved to the league that he was here to stay, and convinced the Blazers coaching staff and front office that he was their franchise player going
forward.
Aldridge averaged 21.7 points, 8 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game this past season. The forward had the ability to make plays, or create his own play off the dribble. He was also a great rebounder for the team last season. In
addition to that, Aldridge shot 51.2 percent from the field and had an 81.4 percent average from the free throw line.
Besides the stats, Aldridge took the Blazers team on shoulder and carried them to a great season, one in which they were well on their way towards finishing with a better than 50 percent winning ratio. However, Aldridge missed
the last few games of the season with a season ending injury, and Portland went 1-9 to close the season.
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