As one of the best face-up shooters in the NBA, LaMarcus Aldridge wants to step back a few more feet this season.
The All-Star Portland Trail Blazers forward says he’ll be hoisting up more threes – Aldridge (a career 48.6 percent shooter) has attempted 125 long-distance bombs through eight seasons, and connected on just 22.4 percent of them.
Portland was the fourth-leading team in the L in threes made last season with 770, and finished 9th overall in percentage at 37.2.
Per the Blazers’ website (via Sirius XM NBA Radio):
LaMarcus Aldridge: “I’m definitely going to shoot more threes. Coach [Terry Stots] has been trying to get me to shoot them for the last two years. I think I’m the last player who didn’t want to shoot threes. I just wanted to wait until I was more comfortable with it. I definitely worked on it this summer and I feel more comfortable with it. Coach has already put me in plays where I’m in the corner more, I can down the three. I think that’s going to be one of the things I bring to the team this year.”
The other interesting item comes at the end when the discussion turns to the new lucrative television contract the NBA just signed with Turner and Disney, which is reportedly worth upwards of $2 billion. Some have hypothesized that maximum contract players going into free agency in the 2015 offseason, a list of players that includes Aldridge, might put off signing long term contracts until 2016 when the salary cap is expected to increase dramatically thanks to the infusion of cash from the new television contract.
LaMarcus Aldridge: “Yeah, that’s the reason why I didn’t sign this summer. It makes more sense financially to wait one year and play it out and be a free agent and then re-sign here where I can get double the money and it just secures my future here in this organization. So that’s why I didn’t sign. Definitely I want to be looking for that maximum contract. I don’t think I’m going to hit that. I think that money kicks in in 2016, so I’m going to miss it by one year. So, that’s sad to know, but for all the guys in 2016, happy for y’all.”
