LaMarcus Aldridge is the top free agent in the class of 2015. He was scheduled to meet with seven teams and the team with the first pitch was the Los Angeles Lakers. LA didn’t hesitate to pull out all of their available resources to try and recruit LaMarcus.
It’s reported that the Lakers will also be the first team out of of the running for the All-Star big man as they have been ruled out of the running to add LaMarcus Aldridge to their team for next season.
Following from Mike Bresnahan of Los Angeles Times.
LaMarcus Aldridge will not be joining the Lakers, The Times has learned. They were a 50-50 choice but he disliked bball part of presentation
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) July 1, 2015
Aldridge was floored in a good way by Houston's analytics, on-court projections in their presentation. Not so with the Lakers.
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) July 1, 2015
More LMA: He and Kobe didn't quite gel. It's a little vague, but Aldridge apparently didn't quite get answers from Kobe he was seeking.
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) July 1, 2015
And from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
As @Mike_Bresnahan says, Aldridge felt too much of Lakers presentation focused on outside opportunities; wanted clearer, better b-ball focus
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 1, 2015
It’s kind of a similar pitch the Lakers had last year when they were going after Carmelo Anthony. They were selling Los Angeles more than the Lakers. They wanted him to be the star in LA and while he does want to do that, it’s just not enough for him especially where he’s at in his career.
Aldridge coming into next season will be 30 going into next season so joining a team in the middle of a rebuild with their star at the end of his career, there’s obvious concerns for Aldridge joining LA.
If these reports are true, you can’t blame him for not wanting to go to Los Angeles.
UPDATE: According to Marc Stein and Ramona Shelbourne the Lakers have not been formally ruled out of the running for LaMarcus Aldridge.
Note from a traveling @ramonashelburne: While Aldridge was undeniably cool on Lakers' pitch source says LMA hasn't formally told LA it's out
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 1, 2015
