Wojnarowski: Blazers Offer LaMarcus Aldridge 3-Year Max Contract Extension, Aldridge Unlikely To Sign This Summer
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
The Portland Trail Blazers have formally offered All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge a 3-year maximum contract extension worth over $55 million according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
Wojnarowski writes Aldridge’s chance of agreeing this deal are “remote,” however.
Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen and general manager Neil Olshey formally presented the representatives of three-time All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge a maximum contract extension in Los Angeles last week, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
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With only a remote chance that Aldridge will agree to the three-year, $55.5 million extension afforded him this summer under the collective bargaining agreement, the Blazers are determined to keep Aldridge on a five-year, $108 million extension that he can sign upon reaching free agency next summer.
In exit interviews, Olshey said Aldridge was the “number one priority” which we wrote about in The Columbian back in May.
“The most important thing is everybody including LaMarcus knows he’s the number one priority in the organization right now,” Olshey said. “These are all things that will be worked out with LaMarcus and his agent. I think the big thing is that LaMarcus wants to be here and clearly we want him here. That’s the challenging part, the economic part will take care of itself.”
As we addressed back in May and Wojnarowski did today, Aldridge would be better served financially to wait until he becomes an unrestricted free-agent to re-sign with the Blazers.
Nevertheless, Aldridge is a big loyalty guy and admittedly is very careful with whom he trusts and according to Wojnarowski, the significance of going to Los Angeles and meeting face-to-face to present the offer “wasn’t lost on Aldridge’s camp.”
Happy draft day! Even though the Blazers don’t have any picks as of right now, stay tuned.
As the draft proves every year, there’s a lot of time for a lot of stuff to happen.
Erik Gundersen
Erik Gundersen is the Trail Blazers beat reporter for The Columbian. He's a graduate of the Allen School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in addition earning a degree in Spanish. He's covered the NBA for four seasons. You can also occasionally find his work on ESPN.com's NBA section for their TrueCities series. He also fist-bumped with Kanye West once. Follow @BlazerBanter on twitter for more Blazers and NBA news.