LaMarcus Aldridge Admits Extreme Frustration, Wants To Give Rebuild A Chance

[RealGM Wiretap]

LaMarcus Aldridge admits he was extremely frustrated with last season but not to the point where he requested a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers.

"I wasn't ready to make a move yet," Aldridge said. "I was just frustrated in the moment. I haven't given Neil (Olshey) a chance yet."

There has been extensive speculation regarding Aldridge this offseason.

Olshey has made it clear that the Blazers do not plan to discuss trades involving Aldridge.

Via Marc J. Spears/Yahoo! Sports

[inquisitive]

if the blazers have a bad 1st half of this season, you can see trade rumors being revisited again!

[hoopnharm]

if the blazers have a bad 1st half of this season, you can see trade rumors being revisited again!

not everyone is dwight howard

[bucknersrevenge]

He hasn't requested a trade yet but don't worry, it's coming. Portland is not gonna have any better a year than the one they had last year.

[RoyalMajesty]

I hate quitters. I hope the Trail Blazers trade his ass to the Bobcats and tell him to suck it. OR! If the Trail Blazers can trade him to the Hawks for Al Horford, that would be a fair trade.

[Shem]

He hasn't requested a trade yet but don't worry, it's coming. Portland is not gonna have any better a year than the one they had last year.

And what makes you think that? Because I see a roster upgrade, especially the bench where it was the worse I've ever seen from a team in a very long time. Maybe you should try keeping up with the changes going on before making such a claim.

[Shem]

I hate quitters. I hope the Trail Blazers trade his ass to the Bobcats and tell him to suck it. OR! If the Trail Blazers can trade him to the Hawks for Al Horford, that would be a fair trade.

Where did you get the idea that Aldridge is a quitter?

[Nanogeek]

What rebuild? Lopez and McCollum? This team is destined for the treadmill. They've had horrific luck the last few years without a doubt. If Roy and Oden had remained healthy this team would have been a perennial contender. But at 28 - Aldridge doesn't have much time for a rebuild.

[captlopez0012]

He hasn't requested a trade yet but don't worry, it's coming. Portland is not gonna have any better a year than the one they had last year.

And what makes you think that? Because I see a roster upgrade, especially the bench where it was the worse I've ever seen from a team in a very long time. Maybe you should try keeping up with the changes going on before making such a claim.

i dont think portland has a much better year either. they look like a perennial 8-12 seed to me. and theyre one injury from being pathetic. no depth whatsover. and what big roster upgrades did the blazers make? they brought in mo williams who cant stay healthy and is well past his prime and robin lopez who i like but for some reason cant keep his spot on any team. i guess you could call that an upgrade but its quite farfetched to call it a "big upgrade". when your in the basement, you have nowhere to go but up.

[Wont Trade]

He hasn't requested a trade yet but don't worry, it's coming. Portland is not gonna have any better a year than the one they had last year.

And what makes you think that? Because I see a roster upgrade, especially the bench where it was the worse I've ever seen from a team in a very long time. Maybe you should try keeping up with the changes going on before making such a claim.

i dont think portland has a much better year either. they look like a perennial 8-12 seed to me. and theyre one injury from being pathetic. no depth whatsover. and what big roster upgrades did the blazers make? they brought in mo williams who cant stay healthy and is well past his prime and robin lopez who i like but for some reason cant keep his spot on any team. i guess you could call that an upgrade but its quite farfetched to call it a "big upgrade". when your in the basement, you have nowhere to go but up.

JJ Hickson to Robin Lopez
Joel Freeland to Thomas Robinson
Victor Claver to Dorrell Wright
Eric Maynor to Mo Williams
Earl Watson/Will Barton to CJ McCollum
Damian Lillard and Meyers Leonard should both have natural progression (Lillard will, at least)
Nicolas Batum will have a healed wrist

Looks like enough upgrades for a playoff push and a competitive first round series with a powerhouse. But for the future it looks like they will either have to consolidate these pieces for a star like Houston did, or rely solely on interior progression like Indiana. I do agree that this is a treadmill team, but at least it's on the right side of the playoff curb, in my opinion.

[captlopez0012]

JJ Hickson to Robin Lopez
Joel Freeland to Thomas Robinson
Victor Claver to Dorrell Wright
Eric Maynor to Mo Williams
Earl Watson/Will Barton to CJ McCollum
Damian Lillard and Meyers Leonard should both have natural progression (Lillard will, at least)
Nicolas Batum will have a healed wrist

Looks like enough upgrades for a playoff push and a competitive first round series with a powerhouse. But for the future it looks like they will either have to consolidate these pieces for a star like Houston did, or rely solely on interior progression like Indiana. I do agree that this is a treadmill team, but at least it's on the right side of the playoff curb, in my opinion.

your entire reasoning on why the blazers will be better is based on assumptions. you assume batum will be better this year, you assume meyers and lillard will progress, you assume mccollum will be a good nba player, you assume robinson will not continue to be a bust, you assume williams will stay healthy (for a change) and not continue to fall off. but most of the evidence points the opposite way. looking at all these players as they were last year, its still a very unimpressive bench. that was the blazers downfall last year, and it will continue to be so this year. and god forbid you have an injury to a starter. i dont see a guy ready to step in on that bench. in my opinion, the blazers can only go as far as aldridge and lillard take them b/c the rest of the team is below average. but in a stacked west, a lot of things would have to go right for aldridge and lillard to take the blazers to the playoffs.

[UN-Owen]

It's so tough being a millionaire athlete

So many extreme frustrations to overcome

[justrob7]

He hasn't requested a trade yet but don't worry, it's coming. Portland is not gonna have any better a year than the one they had last year.

They should be 10 wins better this year, without even over-performing.

If healthy, they can compete with any good playoff team - They have an All-Star level player inside and one on the perimeter, with solid starters who also play defense. The bench finally has scoring(still needs defensive help), and they're deeper than they have been in a few years. The questions are just the health issues and new chemistry.

They can certainly still make the playoffs and be the scary young team they were not long ago.

[Wont Trade]

your entire reasoning on why the blazers will be better is based on assumptions. you assume batum will be better this year, you assume meyers and lillard will progress, you assume mccollum will be a good nba player, you assume robinson will not continue to be a bust, you assume williams will stay healthy (for a change) and not continue to fall off. but most of the evidence points the opposite way. looking at all these players as they were last year, its still a very unimpressive bench. that was the blazers downfall last year, and it will continue to be so this year. and god forbid you have an injury to a starter. i dont see a guy ready to step in on that bench. in my opinion, the blazers can only go as far as aldridge and lillard take them b/c the rest of the team is below average. but in a stacked west, a lot of things would have to go right for aldridge and lillard to take the blazers to the playoffs.

I feel like I could turn this into a carousel where I say one prediction and you say it won't happen, but that would waste my time. All I'll say is if you don't see the improvements from last year, then you didn't see last year.

[captlopez0012]

your entire reasoning on why the blazers will be better is based on assumptions. you assume batum will be better this year, you assume meyers and lillard will progress, you assume mccollum will be a good nba player, you assume robinson will not continue to be a bust, you assume williams will stay healthy (for a change) and not continue to fall off. but most of the evidence points the opposite way. looking at all these players as they were last year, its still a very unimpressive bench. that was the blazers downfall last year, and it will continue to be so this year. and god forbid you have an injury to a starter. i dont see a guy ready to step in on that bench. in my opinion, the blazers can only go as far as aldridge and lillard take them b/c the rest of the team is below average. but in a stacked west, a lot of things would have to go right for aldridge and lillard to take the blazers to the playoffs.

I feel like I could turn this into a carousel where I say one prediction and you say it won't happen, but that would waste my time. All I'll say is if you don't see the improvements from last year, then you didn't see last year.

youre misunderstanding me. with as bad as that blazers bench was last year, theres a good chance itll be better. but going from terrible to crap is nothing to boast about. and i still see no SIGNIFICANT improvements in their team. if you think mo williams (old, oft-injured, and declining), robin lopez (solid back-up but nothing more), and thomas robinson (bust who had one good year in college), cj mccollum (coming off a broken foot and never played against nba level talent) are significant improvements, than you have not been paying attention. especially when you consider you lost jj hickson who is better than all 3 of those guys and eric maynor who is a solid bench player. the blazers were in the running for the 8 seed last year and ultimately finished 11th. and i see them as 8-12 again. i feel like their ceiling is the 8 seed and that is if everything goes right. if you match that blazer team up against the lakers, nuggets, or twolves (the 4 teams who will battle it out for the last 2 spots), i think the blazers have the worst roster of the bunch. the best thing they got going for them is injuries for those 3 teams b/c healthy, the blazers are not better than any of them. but sure anything is possible. maybe mo williams will come out and play like a 6th man of the year, maybe thomas robinson will quit his tour of nba cities and prove his worth, maybe cj mccollum will be the steal of the draft and become rookie of the year. i just dont consider any of that likely.

[PDX_DL0]

What rebuild? Lopez and McCollum? This team is destined for the treadmill. They've had horrific luck the last few years without a doubt. If Roy and Oden had remained healthy this team would have been a perennial contender. But at 28 - Aldridge doesn't have much time for a rebuild.

How so? They have a ton of cap space in 2 years with a top 5 team in terms of youth. A treadmill team would have to be locked in with no where to go. We can either build around LMA or retool in 2 years. We have a ton of flexibility moving forward

[PDX_DL0]

your entire reasoning on why the blazers will be better is based on assumptions. you assume batum will be better this year, you assume meyers and lillard will progress, you assume mccollum will be a good nba player, you assume robinson will not continue to be a bust, you assume williams will stay healthy (for a change) and not continue to fall off. but most of the evidence points the opposite way. looking at all these players as they were last year, its still a very unimpressive bench. that was the blazers downfall last year, and it will continue to be so this year. and god forbid you have an injury to a starter. i dont see a guy ready to step in on that bench. in my opinion, the blazers can only go as far as aldridge and lillard take them b/c the rest of the team is below average. but in a stacked west, a lot of things would have to go right for aldridge and lillard to take the blazers to the playoffs.

I feel like I could turn this into a carousel where I say one prediction and you say it won't happen, but that would waste my time. All I'll say is if you don't see the improvements from last year, then you didn't see last year.

It will be, he can't even create proper paragraphs when he writes. He's already admitted on other posts that he doesn't even follow the Blazers. He didn't even know who Claver or Freeland were even though they played in 50 games Just another troll on every LMA wiretap

[captlopez0012]

It will be, he can't even create proper paragraphs when he writes. He's already admitted on other posts that he doesn't even follow the Blazers. He didn't even know who Claver or Freeland were even though they played in 50 games Just another troll on every LMA wiretap

not so much. i just dont like people being a homer and exaggerating there teams skill level or position. be objective. the blazers have a nice 1-2 punch in aldridge and lillard. not much else. foolish to pretend otherwise. and i really dont understand this belief amongst blazer fans that bringing in mo williams all of a sudden solves your bench problems. the guy was never that good and whatever skill he once had have been greatly diminished. and i dont like the position the blazers are in. they seem destined for middle of the road. they have no cap space in the next 2 years and are locked into batum after that. if the goal is to contend for a championship, you have failed. and while you want to hoot and holler about mo williams and company as nice pick-ups. what about the losses? who was the blazers 3rd best player last year? oh thats right: jj hickson. hes gone now. what about eric maynor, who coming into the offseason was your best bench player? hes gone too. but you got a collection of over the hill talent and busted draft picks other teams have given up on and expect that to translate into success. good luck. like i said, its all on aldridge and lillard, dont pretend otherwise. and sorry for not knowing claver and freeland. theyre 2 european scrubs who have accomplished nothing.

[DontHateMiami]

One thing's for certain, they can't rebuild knees in Portland.

[PDX_DL0]

It will be, he can't even create proper paragraphs when he writes. He's already admitted on other posts that he doesn't even follow the Blazers. He didn't even know who Claver or Freeland were even though they played in 50 games Just another troll on every LMA wiretap

not so much. i just dont like people being a homer and exaggerating there teams skill level or position. be objective. the blazers have a nice 1-2 punch in aldridge and lillard. not much else. foolish to pretend otherwise. and i really dont understand this belief amongst blazer fans that bringing in mo williams all of a sudden solves your bench problems. the guy was never that good and whatever skill he once had have been greatly diminished. and i dont like the position the blazers are in. they seem destined for middle of the road. they have no cap space in the next 2 years and are locked into batum after that. if the goal is to contend for a championship, you have failed. and while you want to hoot and holler about mo williams and company as nice pick-ups. what about the losses? who was the blazers 3rd best player last year? oh thats right: jj hickson. hes gone now. what about eric maynor, who coming into the offseason was your best bench player? hes gone too. but you got a collection of over the hill talent and busted draft picks other teams have given up on and expect that to translate into success. good luck. like i said, its all on aldridge and lillard, dont pretend otherwise. and sorry for not knowing claver and freeland. theyre 2 european scrubs who have accomplished nothing.

Again you can spout all this non sense with no understanding about our team. As you don't follow them, you lack any credibility. Its your opinion so I'll leave it at that.