2:04pm: Aldridge tested his thumb out and made the determination on his own that he wanted to play, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link).
SATURDAY, 1:34pm: Aldridge is delaying having surgery and is expected to play this evening, the team has announced. (Twitter link). The forward has elected to wait until after the season to have the damage to his thumb repaired, Jabari Young of CSNNW.com tweets.
THURSDAY, 8:17pm: LaMarcus Aldridge has a radial collateral ligament tear in his left thumb and will miss six to eight weeks, according to the Blazers’ twitter feed. He will undergo surgery but it’s unclear when he will have the procedure.
The forward injured his thumb in Monday’s win over the Kings and the injury forced him to miss the game against the Suns on Wednesday. The Blazers are thin in the frontcourt, already missing Robin Lopez and Joel Freeland due to injuries.
The Blazers sit at 31-12 on the season but are only five and a half games up on the Suns, who reside in eighth place in the Western Conference. With such a competitive conference, the team may look to add depth via free agent signing or trade, although that is just my speculation. In any case, Portland can’t apply for a disabled player exception, since the deadline to do so passed a week ago. The team doesn’t have an open roster spot, and only three injuries isn’t enough for the team to warrant a hardship exception to sign a 16th man. If the Blazers manage to open a roster spot through a trade or release, they have a prorated sliver of the mid-level exception left that’s worth close to $437K, but that’s not much more valuable to them than the minimum-salary exception, which is always at their disposal.
Tough break for Portland…They’re used to that though…In all seriousness, I hope he comes back as the same LA he always has been. They could really use one of their young players to step up in his absence and maybe eventually provide the help they need from their lack of a bench
Brook Lopez?
what would u offer the nets if you was the blazers gm
How about Andray Blatche as he is available in free agency? Another option is acquiring A’Mare Stoudamire and Carmelo Anthony from the Knicks if Phil Jackson and the team want Myers Leonard, Van Cleaver, Will Barton, a player that’s expendable, and a draft pick. What players are the Knicks interested from the blazers if the deal becomes a hot rumor?