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LaMarcus Aldridge decision looms – Who has his attention?

By David MacKay

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LaMarcus Aldridge has now met with the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, and Toronto Raptors as he prepares to narrow down the teams he prefers to sign with in free agency. He will meet with the New York Knicks today before trimming the list. Some teams have impressed him, others have not. The impressions left by each suitor thus far are as follows:

The Lakers were the first team to meet with Aldridge. Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times reports that Aldridge was not impressed by their pitch. More specifically, he was not on the same page as Kobe Bryant, who spoke briefly at the meeting. The “basketball part of the presentation” did not suit his Aldridge’s liking.

The Rockets were next. According to Bresnahan again, they floored Aldridge with their analytics. Calvin Watkins of ESPN confirmed that the Rockets had a good meeting.

The strongest presentation thus far came from the Spurs, though, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Spurs have been heavy favorites to land Aldridge for some time, and a meeting that included Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and even former Trail Blazer Patty Mills must have been quite a recruitment effort.

The Suns, seemingly out of nowhere, launched themselves into the race for Aldridge by signing center Tyson Chandler just before the meeting. Said meeting included former Trail Blazer Earl Watson, with whom Aldridge is close. Watson signed on as an assistant coach in Phoenix last month.

The Mavericks were poised to follow up with a tantalizing offer before Chandler’s departure devastated their position. It seems unlikely that Aldridge will even consider them—a sentiment reflected by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.

Little has been said of Aldridge’s meeting with the Raptors, whose financial situation is a bit sticky at the moment, though their acquisition of DeMarre Carroll may be a vote of confidence for the organization, according to Michael Grange of SportsNet.

The Knicks will be the final team to meet with Aldridge, after which Aldridge is expected to officially narrow his decision down to one or two teams. It is hard to imagine the Knicks impressing as a bad team in a huge market if the Lakers couldn’t. The Spurs and the Trail Blazers are still anticipated to have the best chances to sign him in the coming days.

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