Nets add LaMarcus Aldridge
to increasingly loaded frontcourt
Nets add LaMarcus Aldridge to increasingly loaded frontcourt
LaMarcus Aldridge, who the Spurs shut down on March 10 and waived Thursday, will join the Brooklyn Nets, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania.
The signing would seem to take the Nets out of the bidding for the other bigs who either have been bought out or are likely to be, including Andre Drummond and Gorgui Dieng
Both Woj and Shams — along with Miami Heat execs — believed that Aldridge was headed to Miami but changed his mind and spoke with the Nets in recent days. First word that Aldridge might consider the Nets came from Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports early Friday morning.
But still, the Heat were considered the front-runners. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald said Saturday night that the change-in-direction was all about Aldridge’s expectation that the Nets are the better bet to win the NBA title.
The Nets now have 14 standard contracts, two two-ways in Chris Chiozza and Reggie Perry and a 10-day contract in Alize Johnson. Aldridge is the second major buyout to sign with a new team. The other was Blake Griffin, who is also a Net.
Aldridge, at 35, will become the Nets oldest player, supplanting Jeff Green. The 6’11” Aldridge is a seven-time All-Star and a five-time All-NBA selection. He has played with the Spurs since 2015-16 when he overlapped with Sean Marks until Marks left San Antonio for the Nets GM job in February 2016. Marks was the Spurs assistant GM.
In recent years, his output has tailed off and the Spurs have moved into a rebuilding mode which led to the mutual decision on March 10 to let him pursue other options. Aldridge was playing on an expiring $24 million contract. No word on how much he gave up in the buyout.
After a first half where he was plagued by injuries, primarily to his hip and quadriceps, Gregg Popovich decided to bring Aldridge off the bench. He played a reserve role in the three games that he did play, the first time he hadn’t started since he was a rookie with Portland. He was averaging 13.7 points and 4.5 rebounds in 25.9 minutes per game at the time with a shooting line of 49/32/81.
Barely two months ago, the Brooklyn Nets were left with a sizeable hole in their frontcourt following the James Harden trade. Now they have DeAndre Jordan, Nicolas Claxton, Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge to choose from. The interesting part is that the Nets were rarely reported to be in the race for the latter. 먹튀검증
Even though it's good to have a selection headache in the NBA, this move has serious implications for both Jordan and Claxton. LaMarcus Aldridge has largely played as a center this season and will eat into the duo's minutes.
Jordan is at a bigger risk of being phased out because Aldridge operates in the low block, much like the former. Claxton's defensive versatility could fetch him valuable game time but he's also set to lose out on playing time in the process. It'll be interesting to see how head coach Steve Nash manages the team's rotation.