The Portland Trail Blazers have remained confident that they will be able to retain LaMarcus Aldridge in free agency, but several teams are preparing to lineup and challenge them in that pursuit. The forward is one of the more marquee names preparing to hit that market and with players like Kevin Love and Kenneth Faried already locked in, team will be fighting Portland for Aldridge.
Several teams are aiming to throw a max contract to Aldridge in hopes of pulling him out of Portland. The Dallas Mavericks are the latest team to throw their name into the ring. According to Eddie Sekfo of the Dallas Morning News, Dirk Nowitzki is advocating that Aldridge come team up with him in Dallas next season. The Mavericks have missed on a number of big names in the past including Deron Williams and Carmelo Anthony. They signed Chandler Parsons, but will have plenty of salary cap space to work with in order to give Aldridge the money he wants. Considering Aldridge is a native of Texas, the move is possible.
Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports is reporting that both the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks are eyeing max contracts for Aldridge as well considering both teams will also have significant salary cap space to work with in the future. The Lakers will lose Carlos Boozer which opens up a spot for Aldridge. The Knicks will say goodbye to Iman Shumpert, Amar'e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani which makes signing Aldridge a priority for the team. Both teams are large-market franchise, with pieces to help make Aldridge successful. Should Portland be worried?
Aldridge has said multiple times that he intends to remain with Portland. Having Damian Lillard to run the court with certainly makes staying very enticing. However, it cannot be ignored that Aldridge opted to play out the remainder of his contract instead of signing an offered extension which makes most of the fanbase nervous he will bolt at the first opportunity. Aldridge likely opted not to sign an extension simply because of the new tv deals coming into play when will give teams more money to spend in the long-term. The forward is ready to bank on that. The question remains if it will be with Portland or not.