LaMarcus Aldridge spent the first nine years of his career with the Portland Trail Blazers. This offseason, a decision had to be made regarding Aldridge’s future, and the former Texas Longhorn chose to return home to his roots, joining the San Antonio Spurs as a free agent. Aldridge’s departure, obviously, leaves a gaping hole within Portland’s depth chart, making the upcoming season a crucial one for Rip City as they try to move on without one of the best players in franchise history.
Despite Portland’s troubling offseason, which also saw the departures of two other former longtime roster members in Wesley Matthews and Nic Batum, tickets to Blazers games remain moderately priced, clocking in at $183.05 on average. With this being a new era for the organization, out-of-town fans will surely want to see how the future begins to unfold, and fortunately for them, this can be done with ease by using Hipmunk.com, the one-stop source for any basketball vacation. They have a variety of Portland flights from most major airline carriers, and for fans wanting to turn their trip into an extensive getaway, Hipmunk also sports Portland hotels, with rooms starting at just $44.
Aldridge won’t have to wait too long before making his anticipated return to the Moda Center, when the Spurs visit for the first time on November 11. Undoubtedly, this is one of the games Blazers fans circled on their calendar when the schedule was first released last week, and will be one of their key games for the whole season.
Meanwhile, Matthews, now a member of the Dallas Mavericks, will make his first appearance opposite his former employer on December 1. Batum will return to Portland the following month, when his new team, the Charlotte Hornets, travels to the Moda Center on January 29.
Amongst the games fans will be looking forward to most this season, you have to consider when the Lakers come to town, which they’ll be doing twice during the 2015-16 campaign. Those meetings take place on November 28 and January 23, and that’s worth noting due to the fact that it might be Kobe Bryant’s final season in what has truly been a legendary career. While this may be a lost season for the club, Blazers fans at least will have multiple opportunities to see one of the all-time greats in action for possibly the final time.
Additionally, the Blazers will host the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors on January 8 in what will certainly be another long-awaited bout. Every team always wants to give their best shot at the champs, and fans will see what their new-look roster is made of when they meet The Dubs soon after the calendar flips into the new year.
What once was a Western Conference power just a season ago is seemingly now back to square one. Damian Lillard, one of the best all-around guards in the league, is luckily still around to give Blazers fans some hope, while the club also was able to garner Mason Plumlee, Gerald Henderson, Noah Vonleh and Ed David during the offseason to help offset their major losses. In the unforgiving West, though, it’s going to be a struggle for Portland to even come close to their division-winning campaign of last year.
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