With multiple media outlets reporting that the top prize in free agency, LaMarcus Aldridge agreeing to a four-year, $80 million deal to join the San Antonio Spurs, there is a new ‘Texas Three’ both in San Antonio and the Lone Star State itself.
After turning down pitches from the Los Angeles Lakers twice, the Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat and his now former team in the Portland Trail Blazers, Aldridge single-handily altered the balance of power in the entire Western conference in teaming up to form a new “Big Three” of Kahwi Leonard and Danny Green.
Couple that with DeAndre Jordan leaving the Los Angeles Clippers at the altar and Dwight Howard already in Houston, and you now have three of the top NBA big men playing in the state of Texas, with two of them in Jordan and Aldridge both being natives of Dallas respectively.
How this affects the Spurs is simple. With future Hall-of-Famer Tim Duncan as a mentor, playing in his last year, the proverbial big man torch is set to be passed from Duncan to Aldridge, the same as it was passed from ‘The Admiral’ David Robinson to a young Duncan.
In landing the biggest fish in free agency in the form of Aldridge to pair with newly re-signed sharp-shooter in Green, and a former NBA Finals MVP in Leonard, not only did the small-market, quiet and boring Spurs pull the biggest ace in free agency, but are now a real threat to the defending champion Golden State Warriors and title favorite Cleveland Cavaliers as well.
By himself, the former Texas Longhorn has ushered in a championship era on the Riverwalk, and a three-way battle of elite big men in his native state at the same time.