Comments on: Morning Linkage – Oct. 22/09

By: Michel G

Michel G — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:20:52 +0000

Don’t you guys hate it when people make excuses for Bargs (regarding his rebounding). He plays away from the basket, Marion “took some of his rebounds”, etc. So why the excuses for Aldridge?

Aldridge is a poor man’s Bosh, nonetheless, he deserves the money they gave him. I won’t begrudged him that.

By: MC B-Rad

MC B-Rad — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:54:48 +0000

yeah considering he isnt on the roster and hasnt been in a while

By: Raptors Report

Raptors Report — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:27:55 +0000

It was supposed to be a dumb throwaway joke, but I’ll admit I did a terrible job with it.

By: Marz

Marz — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:43:29 +0000

It looks like Aldridge is making Bosh money in his final season (a little over 15 million), and many Portland fans believe he’s as good as Bosh right now.

Either way, I agree that Pritchard got screwed by FAs, but I doubt Sam Presti will make similar mistakes. Not going after Lee was a smart move. Yes, he’s a double-double machine, but he doesn’t fill a need for their team right now. No reason to throw money just for the sake of it. Better to wait and pick up a solid low post-presence.

By: Raps Fan

Raps Fan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:27:53 +0000

Agreed that they both aren’t max players. And yes, Aldridge isn’t the greatest rebounder either, but remember, Oden took some of his rebounds, and Portland has much better rebounding wings then the Raptors do. Not an excuse, but something to consider.

On top of that, Aldridge is in the West with much bigger boys to fight on a daily basis.

By: brothersteve

brothersteve — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:13:19 +0000

LaMarcus started for the last 2 seasons in Portland and averaged 37 minutes last year. Bargs was jerked around by Mitchell so much he didn’t even have a position.

Besides that 7.5 boards per game is hardly overwhelming for a guy who has no long range game at all.

LA like Bargs got paid reasonably for what they’ve done and is expected from them. No max contract for either of these high draft picks.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:34:55 +0000

Aldridges deal is a result of the Bargnani deal. BC set the market which was part of the objective with Millsap and Lee in RFA and Aldridge looking for an extension. POrtland has had a rough go in FA the last 2 years with the Darius Miles ordeal costing them huge cap space and then the eventual player they got (Andre Miller) not looking good. Now they have no cap space so the team is the team. People love to talk about how good Pritchard is but he got out played this off season. It will be interesting to see if Sam Presti in Oklahoma learns from this mistake and pulls the trigger faster. He might regret not signing Lee this offseason. That’s why the Hedo signing was a good one. He was the best FA available and if we didn’t spend this summer we won’t be able to next summer do to the Bargnani extension kicking in taking us over the cap.

That being said LA is what we are hoping for Bargnani to develope into. He is not there yet. He has the potential to be better but the odds on that happening are a lot less than 50/50.

Long story short LA earned his contract Bargnani didn’t. If he doesn’t live up to the deal after not living up to the 1st pick status. BC will look bad and Bargnani’s confidence will hit an all time low.

By: Raps Fan

Raps Fan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:59:28 +0000

Aldridge plays much better defense and rebounds better then Bargnani, there is no doubt about that.

By: Raps Fan

Raps Fan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:58:35 +0000

Had that article bookmarked, but missed putting it up. Thanks for reminding me about it. It’s here now.

By: Ol' Dirty Raptor

Ol' Dirty Raptor — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:56:42 +0000

It seems around half of people complain that Bargnani’s extension was excessive at 5yrs/$50million. But is LaMarcus Aldridge really worth $15 million more? Put Bargnani on that Portland team for the last three years (surrounded by some real talent and depth – highlighted by Brandon Roy), and do you think his contribution would be any worse than LA? I have my doubts. Heck, Bargs would probably even be playing PF which I feel is a much more “natural” position for him. Bargnani’s deal is fine, IMO..

By: Raps Fan

Raps Fan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:52:28 +0000

I actually linked to it as a joke. 6am humour and all, my bad.

By: MC B-Rad

MC B-Rad — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:27:17 +0000

and why is there no link to the forums from the main rr page??? or am i just blind and dumb???

By: Hardcore Raps

Hardcore Raps — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:16:17 +0000

yep that one gave me a good laugh to.

By: Marz

Marz — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:05:16 +0000

And what’s with the Raptors Report article? Please stop linking blogs that can’t even look at a current boxscore of the Raptors before they make statements like, “Crazy bench rats like Hassan Adams… got some serious minutes”. It’s disheartening to say the least.

By: MC B-Rad

MC B-Rad — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:57:15 +0000

still cant log on to forums to post anything and cannot reset my password…please assist

By: Marz

Marz — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:50:55 +0000

The heelsonhardwood link isn’t put up here, where it discusses Raps vs New Orleans as a matchup. Here’s an interesting quote,

“As far as the matchup with the Raps goes, last year the Hornets won both games. David West and Chris Bosh usually both play well and cancel each other out. Also the Hornets usually shoot the three very well against Toronto for whatever reason.”

For whatever reason indeed. It’s sad when other teams’ fans start recognizing that they’ll be hitting a lot of outside shots when they face the Raptors. Let’s hope this season it won’t be so damn easy.