https://youtu.be/G583BpCT3YE
Now that LaMarcus Aldridge is “stepping away from the team” to “explore other opportunities” (basically, the Spurs are gonna trade his old ass, and they want to get a head start on having him gone), there is a major POWER VOID in San Antonio. The Spurs don’t really have any other bigs who are capable of, or willing to, score the ball, but, by necessity, some of these bigs will have to shoulder more of the scoring load. They will have to hold their breath, step boldly into the bleak blackness of the POWER VOID, and hope that they don’t die.
Drew Eubanks did his part in trying to fill the POWER VOID, contributing a career high seventeen points in a thirty-point loss to a Sixers team that didn’t even have Joel Embiid. I’m going to leave the rationalizations for the blowout loss to the people who are most capable of providing those rationalizations, that being Spurs fans themselves, and just focus on what Eubanks was doing. Eubanks wasn’t really channeling his inner LaMarcus, but he did show an inclination to score in the fourth quarter when the game was already over. Jakob Poeltl, meanwhile, has never EVER shown an inclination to score, so Eubanks is already ahead of the curve on this one. Basketball-Reference’s sharts (shot charts) for Eubanks show that he has only hit a couple midrange jimbos in his NBA career, so it’s unlikely that he’ll ever be a direct LMA replacement, but you never know. This could be exactly what Eubanks needs to break out.
In my opinion, Trey Lyles is the player on the Spurs who is most likely to adequately fill the POWER VOID, but if you know anything about Trey Lyles, you know that counting on him to be a consistent provider of buckets is like asking Ben Simmons to be a consistent provider of three-pointers. The Spurs will probably be looking to trade LMA for a young big with potential as a scorer; in that vein, I would like the Bucks to make an offer of one (1) Thon Maker for one (1) LaMarcus Aldridge. Thon Maker is going to be an MVP according to Kevin Garnett, and he’s probably still on the Bucks roster, and LMA probably wants to ring-chase at this stage of his career, so this trade should be a no-brainer for both teams.