It’s been a rough start for the Lakers in this free agency period. The first 18 hours of free agency feel a lot like the last two off-seasons.
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The biggest fish in the market was LaMarcus Aldridge and he was not a big fan of the Laker presentation and Kobe Bryant is unfairly being blamed for pushing Aldridge away. It all started with Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times reporting that Bryant and Aldridge didn’t gel well, Twitter then exploded.
According to Bresnahan, Aldridge informed the Lakers he would not be signing with the purple and gold. However, David Aldridge of NBA.com reports that the Aldridge camp has not ruled out the Lakers, at least not yet:
The @aldridge_12 camp pushing back hard against LAT story that he's already eliminated the Lakers from consideration: "completely false."
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) July 1, 2015
Now, things have gotten interesting. This doesn’t mean Aldridge will be coming to the Lakers, but it is a good sign that he hasn’t ruled them out.
It’s important to note that the Lakers were a long shot to land the big man from Texas. The Blazers can offer him more money and the Spurs offer him a better chance to win. Unless he loves the LA weather, it was hard to see a scenario where he picks the Lakers.
If Bresnahan’s reports about the meeting are true, the Lakers must focus on selling free agents on the product that will be on the floor. Aldridge is 30 years old, so he doesn’t have the time to wait around for a team to become a contender.