LaMarcus Aldridge asked to be traded from Spurs before season tip-off
What's the story?
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich disclosed on Thursday that LaMarcus Aldridge asked to be traded before the start of this season.
In case you didn't know...
Aldridge last season averaged career low point (16.5), rebounds (7.4) and blocks (1.0) in the postseason including the lowest score of his career - 4 points.
The heart of the matter...
Popovich was asked recently about what helped the resurgence of Aldridge this season. In his usual style, he replied back "When he said, 'I want to be traded.'"
"It's as simple as that," Popovich said. "I said, 'Whoa, nobody's ever said that to me before.' It's my 20-whatever year, and nobody's ever said that like, 'I'm not enjoying this. I'm not confident. I'm not sure you want me here. I want to be traded."'
"So, we had some dinners and meetings and laughed. I was very candid with him. I told him, 'I'd be happy to trade you. You get me a talent like Kevin Durant, and I'll drive you to the airport. He laughed you know, that kind of thing. I said, 'But short of that, I'm your best buddy because you're here for another year, and you ain't going nowhere. Because we're not gonna get for you talent wise what we would want. So, let's figure this thing out.' And we did. That's what we came to."
After sitting down with Aldridge over the summer, however, Popovich realized he had actually played a role in some of Aldridge's struggles.
"He'd been playing in the league for nine years. I'm not going to turn him into some other player. I could do some things defensively or rebounding wise. But on offense, I was going to move him everywhere. That was just silly on my part -- total overcoaching. So, we took care of it, and he's been fantastic."
What's next?
Aldridge would like to continue his good form as the Spurs play the Denver Nuggets on Saturday.
Author's take
It is good that Aldridge and Pop had a candid conversation to clear all the problems. The result of the ease of tension certainly shows in the team's results, even without Kawhi Leonard for most of this season.