After LaMarcus Aldridge’s season ended, the path ahead looked pretty clear. Wesley Matthews had suffered an injury and the rest of the Portland Trail Blazers just got unlucky. Another productive offseason and they’d once again contend.
But then, and to summarize Portland’s offseason thus far in a word… Yeesh.
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Portland traded talented wing Nicolas Batum to Charlotte and Matthews all of a sudden is an absolutely necessity to convince Alridge to stay. And even that might not be enough.
ESPN’s Chris Broussard reported recently Aldridge’s probability of departing sits at 99%. Marc Stein, also of ESPN, listed the San Antonio Spurs and Lakers among the teams Aldridge prefers most – the Lakers having leapfrogged the Dallas Mavericks.
Now, that in and of itself isn’t enough to say the Lakers have all that great a chance at landing one of the most league’s most talented big men. However, if you combine those reports with Stein’s latest article, updating readers of San Antonio’s current situation, the Lakers chances continue to rise.
"“It has been widely assumed in league circles that the Spurs would be forced to try to trade veteran forward Tiago Splitter to help create the needed salary-cap flexibility to handle the max deals San Antonio has earmarked for Leonard (and the likes of Aldridge or Memphis’ Marc Gasol) and still have room to accommodate Duncan and Ginobili at reduced salaries, if the latter two choose to play on. But sources told ESPN.com that the Spurs actually rebuffed trade interest from teams hoping to pry Splitter away in conjunction with Thursday’s NBA draft, raising the possibility that Splitter might stick around.”"
Without getting too deep into the way the salary cap works, the Spurs would seemingly need to move Splitter in order to have room for the other moves they hope to make – including acquiring Aldridge.
Now, the Spurs have historically gotten by on their players taking paycuts along the way to free up room for other moves, so it wouldn’t completely shock me to see Tim Duncan or Manu Ginobli take some ridiculous salary and make this all work. And, in their fifth last season together (it feels like they’re always on some last run), Duncan and Ginobli could set their franchise up for an incredible future after their hall of fame careers end.
Please, basketball gods, don’t let this happen.
If the math plays out without the aforementioned miracle sacrifice, and Aldridge simply doesn’t fit in San Antonio’s cap figures, there’s plenty of room in Los Angeles, especially if Mitch can somehow move Nick Young either by trade (tough) or the stretch provision (much more likely).
Again, the prevailing sentiment here is how much more exciting it is to be a Lakers fan during this offseason compared to the last two seasons. Worries of relevance sure do look ridiculous as the Lakers continue to find their way to the top of elite free agents’ preferred destinations.