How Important Is LaMarcus Aldridge to the Blazers Future?

Introductory Note: You've probably noticed that the network has been having intermittent hang-ups over the last couple days. Tech support has been working to get everything back to normal and continues to do so. We seem fairly stable right now and most functionality is restored. Bear with us and hopefully the glitches will be over soon.

Now...I spent the evening with a bunch of youth-type folks seeing the new Star Trek movie on opening day. It was quite the experience but it also left little time for writing. That makes this the perfect opportunity to introduce one of our early-summer discussion themes. Over the next few weeks I'm going to bring up various Blazer players. I'm interesting in knowing how key to Portland's future you think they are. We're not talking just this fall, but somewhat of an extended future...the next 3 years at least. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being "won't matter or won't be here" and 10 being "the absolute nexus point of Portland's destiny" how would you rate these players and why?

Today's subject is LaMarcus Aldridge. Will he be a key to Portland's future or not? Leave a rating and your explanation for it in the comment section below.

--Dave (blazersub@gmail.com)