NBA: The best rebounder of all time from every NBA team

Best rebounder in Portland Trail Blazers history: LaMarcus Aldridge

It’s kind of fitting that LaMarcus Aldridge left the Portland Trail Blazers to become something of a successor to Tim Duncan with the San Antonio Spurs. Both men share a lot of the same traits and tendencies as players. In particular, they both play an efficient but unexciting brand of basketball, which can make it tough to write about them, unless you’re a fan of the respective teams that they play for.

Aldridge had made his money as a traditional back-to-the-basket big man, who can get his own shot and can occasionally space the floor with his 3-point shooting. His 6-foot-11, 260-pound frame allows him to back down defenders with ease and crash the boards effectively.

Aldridge has been a solid rebounder with the Spurs, but he really excelled at cleaning the class during his nine seasons in Portland, especially in his final two years with the team. In nearly a decade with the Trail Blazers, Aldridge averaged a respectable 8.4 rebounds per game. However between 2013 and 2015, he hauled in 10.7 boards per contest.

Sure, those averages aren’t as impressive as Bill Walton’s, but Aldridge has the cumulative totals that show how important he was to the franchise (and why the fans were so saddened when he left).

Looking at the Trail Blazers’ all-time lists, Aldridge sits atop the defensive and total rebounds leaderboards. If nothing else, that speaks to how dependable he was when he donned the red and black.

During an era of Trail Blazers basketball that saw several potential stars’ hopes get dashed by injuries, Aldridge was the glue that held the franchise together. His spot on this list serves as a memorial to his reliability.