LaMarcus Aldridge will all the time be on of the extra underrated and underappreciated Spurs. He was their greatest free company get of all time again in 2015, and whereas his first few seasons right here had been profitable, it in the end didn’t go as hoped due to the Kawhi Leonard drama and the DeMar DeRozan period not fairly figuring out. Nonetheless, regardless of spending simply over 5 seasons with the membership, Aldridge is tenth all time in win shares with the Spurs and helped prolong their successful methods previous the Huge Three Period.
Nevertheless, Aldridge’s time right here was not with out drama. Regardless of a profitable first season that ended with 67 wins (however a disappointing second-round exit riddled with questionable officiating and unhealthy luck), a bombshell report got here out in the summertime of 2016 that he had requested a commerce. All sides denied it on the time, however we might later study that it did actually occur, the Spurs dealt with it in-house, and all was effectively by the beginning of the subsequent season between the 2 events.
Not too long ago, Aldridge appeared on the Oddball podcast with Amin Elhassan and Charlotte Wilder, and he revealed one of many points that brought on him and Gregg Popovich to butt heads throughout that first season: fourth quarter play in blowouts. Whereas Aldridge wished play only a few minutes to take care of a rhythm, Pop didn’t need threat pointless damage. Aldridge admitted he understands and appreciates the strategy at present, however he didn’t prefer it on the time.
What’s simple to overlook is the context main as much as the reply, which was him admitting he might not make a very good coach as a result of he himself was onerous to teach, with the 4th quarter problem with Pop being his instance. By now, should you’ve learn the headline of this text, issues could appear a bit backwards, however right here’s the twist. Whereas Aldridge was seemingly saying he wouldn’t make a very good head coach, he later responded to fan on Twitter X who was asking if he can be open to being a participant growth coach and dealing with Victor Wembanyama with an easy “yup”.
Aldridge is actually a participant Wemby might mannequin his mid- and post-games after. Though they’ve very totally different physique varieties, Aldridge was a grasp of submit strikes in his heyday, to not point out he has a excessive basketball IQ. He wouldn’t be the primary Spurs legend to return in and assist youthful gamers develop. Tim Duncan has been working towards with the squad since retiring in 2016 and added one yr as assistant coach to his resume, and Manu Ginobili now holds a particular advisor position and may continuously be noticed within the gymnasium.
There’s no telling if it will ever come to fruition or not, however with Pop’s ever-growing teaching tree and positions consistently turning into obtainable as his assistants construct their resume and transfer on, it’s fairly doable we might see Coach Aldridge within the gymnasium sometime, and that will be fairly cool.
