Lakers News: LaMarcus Aldridge On Meeting With L.A. In Free Agency

NBA: Preseason-Portland Trail Blazers at Phoenix Suns

After selecting D’Angelo Russell at the NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers had high hopes of landing LaMarcus Aldridge in free agency. However, after meeting with each other twice, Aldridge ultimately decided to return home and signed with the San Antonio Spurs.

— Think You Know Everything About Kobe Bryant? Take The Ultimate Kobe Quiz! —

In a recent interview on The Russillo Show on ESPN Radio, Aldridge talked about his two meetings with the Lakers via Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders:

“With the Lakers, it wasn’t anything crazy,” Aldridge said. “It was just the [first] meeting didn’t go as well as I wanted it to, so I did another one. People blew it out of proportion about things happening in the meeting. That wasn’t correct. It just didn’t go as good as I wanted it to so I had one more.”

With Aldridge deciding to join a championship contender, the Lakers moved on to Plan B which featured trading for Roy Hibbert and signing Lou Williams and Brandon Bass. While the Lakers did not land their top target, general manager Mitch Kupchak and company were able to add solid veterans to their young core of Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson.

Heading into the 2015-16 season, the Lakers face a difficult challenge in the Western Conference. With numerous teams improving, the focus will be on the development of the young core and the return of Kobe Bryant from his third consecutive season-ending injury.

[divide]


Please enable Javascript to watch this video

You May Also Like

Klay Thompson Hopes To Spend Entire Career With Warriors, Believes There’s Truth To Paul George’s Rumored Interest In Lakers

The 2018 free agency class has taken a big hit as far as which star players are truly available. LeBron James is only…

Lakers News: Kyle Kuzma Unsure Of Role For 2020-21 Season

While Talen Horton-Tucker has been the star of preseason for the Los Angeles Lakers, Kyle Kuzma has also…

Lakers News: Byron Scott Says Larry Nance Jr. May Start At Small Forward

Throughout the 2015-16 NBA season, head coach Byron Scott has made a lot of tweaks and changes to the roster for the Los Angeles Lakers…

Best and Worst: History Dares to Challenge Kobe’s Achilles

There has been a lot of news regarding Kobe Bryant’s Achilles and…