Cole Aldrich

Aldrich signed a three-year, $21.9 million contract with the Timberwolves in the summer of 2016 as a part of the large 2016 overspend, mostly on big men. Up until that point in his career, Aldrich had been a very productive reserve post player in limited minutes, sporting a strong rebounding rate, a natural affinity for shot blocking and a good-enough interior finishing ability, and was coming off the back of the two best seasons of his career for the New York Knicks and L.A. Clippers respectively. With the Timberwolves, though, he barely played, managing only 580 total minutes, only 49 of which came last year, before being waived to start this summer. As with others above, the league has somewhat moved away from Aldrich-style players in those two short years, yet having been healthy in that time, it is hard to imagine that Aldrich somehow stopped being effective in that time, especially as he has yet to hit 30.

Cole Aldrich
C, 6’11, 250lbs, 28 years old, 7 years of experience

Not a good year from a man who has long been an underappreciated back-up. His shooting efficiency was down, the rebounding was down, the interior defence down, and the fouls were far up. The defensive de-cline was the worrying part. It was known that Aldrich could be run off the court, yet he all too often looked lost, especially on the perimeter, and nor was his man-to-man play in the post as effective as usual. A finish-er only on offence and never going to be one for the small ball style, Aldrich needs to be an effective interior defender and quality rebounder to stay in a rotation. This year wasn’t that.

Player Plan: Two years and circa. $14.26 million remaining, only the first year of which is guaranteed. Really needs to prove next year that he deserves the final year to be anything other than a trade chip; nevertheless, it could prove to be quite a good one.

New York - Cole Aldrich and Toure Murry: Murry has shown flashes in limited minutes, particularly defensively, and merits a longer stay. Aldrich meanwhile has had scant little opportunity on the court, but at least theoretically provides the interior defense and rebounding the Knicks sorely lack outside of Tyson Chandler, which works in his favor. Note that recent signee Jeremy Tyler's contract status is hitherto unknown.

The Knicks rather put themselves in this situation by assembling a roster with only five recognised big men. They never gave themselves enough ammunition to weather a storm of injuries, and they especially needed to do so in light of how injury prone their big man rotation is. Included in those five are Chandler (who once failed a physical exam, rescinding a trade that would have affected the outcome of at least one NBA championship), Kenyon Martin (who gets injured so often that his contract this year becomes unguaranteed if he misses more than 15 games due to pre-existing knee injuries), Andrea Bargnani (66 games combined over the last two seasons) and Amar'e Stoudemire (so famously fragile he's on a minutes limit).

New York therefore has only one big without an injury history, Cole Aldrich, who has managed only 89 games in his NBA career not because of injury, but because he has simply not panned out. Now, he might have to shoulder part of the responsibility for the Knicks’ season.

- Because of the 2010 free agency bonanza, there's considerably more teams with cap relief than there are teams that need it. This is a far cry from the usual fare, where many teams have to bite the bullet and pay some tax, because there aren't enough teams able to take on their excess salary (nor enough dead salary to dump). Oklahoma City were the beneficiaries of this system last year when they took on Matt Harpring's dead weight contract from Utah, receiving Eric Maynor as the sweetening incentive for doing so. Oklahoma City also did a similar deal on draft night when they agreed to take on Mo Peterson's deadweight salary from New Orleans as a vehicle for obtaining Cole Aldrich's draft rights; in return, they sent the #21 and #26 picks the other way.

In making that trade, the Thunder took themselves out of the free agency running. Their cap space, which could have otherwise been significant, was bludgeoned to a dollop by the presence of Peterson's redundant post-trade kicker salary of $6,665,000, money which could otherwise have been spent on free agents. Of course, the Thunder knew this in advance, and did the deal anyway. They clearly felt that Aldrich was a better player and a better fit than anyone they could realistically land in free agency.

Based on what transpired, they were right. Three of the biggest free agents landed in Miami. Three more re-signed. David Lee went to a team without cap space. New York and Chicago bagged only one each; New Jersey, L.A. Clippers, Sacramento and Minnesota came away with none. There remain very few decent free agents now - Louis Amundson excepted - and yet some teams out there still have money to spend without anyone to spend it on.

Pick 11: New Orleans are on the clock, but not for long. A few minutes after they draft Cole Aldrich, and seconds after he finishes an interview in which he wears a Hornets hat and describes how nice it will be to play with Chris Paul, Ric Bucher comes on and announces that Aldrich is being traded, along with the dead weight salary of Morris Peterson, in exchange for the 21st and 26th picks in the draft. This means the Hornets can add two young pieces to better their team in both the short and long term, which also dodging the luxury tax, which will prevent them from having to gut their team any further. It's ugly that it came to this, and Aldrich would have been particularly nice on the team that gave up the worst field goal percentage at the rim last year; however, in a vacuum, this is not a bad trade.

This is highly significant for Oklahoma City, too. Partly because they add a defensive big man and shotblocker with actual centre size - although Serge Ibaka is great, he doesn't have that - but also because they just burned up all their cap room to get it. If anyone harboured any belief that Oklahoma City could be in play for someone like David Lee, then you can pretty much write that dream off, barring a very difficult sign and trade. This was it for them. Unless I'm missing something, most of their offseason work was just done.

Was it worth it for Cole Aldrich? Probably. If Marcus Camby ever loses his athleticism - and despite his age and the decade of injuries, it seems he'll always have some of it left - Aldrich would be his achromic vanilla equivalent. He is slow to react offensively, doesn't like to post, and can only do it if he's turning into a right handed hook shot. Yet in spite of his slowness offensively, Aldrich is quick defensively. He reads the game well, has the athleticism to get to the right spot, and is big enough to take any matchup. He can throw the outlet pass, too, and even make some jumpshots in that really weird way of his (just like Camby does.) Nick Collison can play help defense, but is sometimes simply overmatched down low, and Nenad Krstic is overmatched even more so. With Aldrich in the fold, Oklahoma City scratches an itch.

It doesn't look it, but it's a good trade for New Orleans too. Even in spite of all their salary saving deals in recent season, they were destined to be quite a long way over the tax this year, with an insane amount of money tied up in not-very-good players. They're not cheap; they spend a competitive amount of money. They just don't spend it very well. In this deal, though, the Hornets just dodged the tax and gained assets in the process. That's a first. Normally, it's just the former. In that respect, it should be a good deal.

Right as Stu Scott says that Aldrich has never replaced a tooth that was knocked out when he was playing as it made him look tougher, Cole flashes a big toothy grin revealing a replacement gnasher right where Stu says there wasn't one. Spending his rookie contract early and wisely.

[...] The brim on Aldrich's hat is freaking enormous. And straighter than a Mafioso's set square.



[...] We might as well call Cole Aldrich "Old Ridge," since DeKevin Harlan is destined to call him nothing else.