SAN ANTONIO -- LaMarcus Aldridge slowly packed away gear as his young son intently watched cartoons on a handheld device, feet dangling off the edge of a stool by Aldridge's locker.
Every few seconds, Aldridge glanced over at the boy and smiled.
"Family," he'd say later in describing the culture of his new team. That's part of what lured Aldridge to his native Texas during free agency in the first place, and the foundation on which San Antonio's perennial success is built, according to the players.
So when the boos cascade at the Moda Center, where Aldridge takes the court Wednesday (10:30 p.m. ET on ESPN) for the first time as a visitor after spending nine seasons as a Portland Trail Blazer, he'll lean on his new brethren to navigate what's expected to be a hostile environment.
"Yeah, here it's different," Aldridge told ESPN.com when asked to describe the difference between Portland and San Antonio. "It's a family. You feel the family type of atmosphere here right away. I've done more team dinners in this first part of the season than I've done in most of my seasons in the NBA put together. We've done team dinners, and I've hung out with guys more than I've ever done in my career."
Obviously, hanging out doesn't win games. But it certainly sets the stage and eases Aldridge's transition from being the man in Portland to just one more cog, albeit an important one, in an already star-studded lineup in San Antonio.
"Playing for your teammates, sacrificing for your teammate, whether it's on the bench supporting everyone, being genuine toward everyone's efforts, it goes a long way," said Patty Mills, Aldridge's former Portland teammate and now a guard for the Spurs. "It's both on and off the court. I really think it starts off the court, on the team plane, on the team bus, at hotels in the way we can bond and gel together as a group. That's when you start to find you're genuine toward your teammates and you want the best for them. You want them to go out feeling good. You want to do stuff because you know it makes them feel good. There are things that come when you get to spend more time with each other."
The Spurs know those things as victories.
Aldridge often uses three words to address any questions regarding his adjustment to San Antonio, the team, the offensive system and how the Spurs have implemented him into it.
"It's a process," Aldridge has said at some point during nearly every media session of his young San Antonio tenure.
But it really is.
Aldridge returns to Portland, where he played nine seasons and made four All-Star teams, holding Trail Blazers records for rebounds (5,434) and double-doubles (234) and ranking second in points (12,562) and third in minutes (22,972). Aldridge was Portland's most dominant force the majority of his career.
But in San Antonio, Aldridge won't be used the same, considering the team's ability on any night to tap major contributions from a variety of sources, such as Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Kawhi Leonard.
"We're approaching LaMarcus like we did Tim Duncan when he came," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Tim spent four years in college. He was already pretty accomplished when he came. So it seemed pretty senseless to me to try to coach him and tell him we're going to teach him the drop step, we're going to teach you this, and we're going to do that. We just sat back and watched Tim play for a while and got a feel for who he was and what he could do.
"When we realized that, then we could jump in and try to do something to add to his game. So it's the same with LaMarcus. I'm just watching him play right now. He's fairly uncomfortable trying to figure out where to be on the court in relation to the other players and where I want him to be in the system. That's enough for him to handle without me trying to coach him. So as time goes on we'll look at what we think we can add to his game, but right now we're just observers."
"It's just been a joy being able to see him in Portland and see him now. He's made the All-Star team, and he's been the man in Portland. But from when I first came into the league to now, he's the same person. He's all about family. He's all about friends and being genuine. That's who he is. He definitely fits in [with] everyone else here." Patty Mills
In a sense, Aldridge is, too.
"It's been different for me as far as learning how to get my shots and learning how to play off other guys when I was normally the guy that everybody else played off of," Aldridge said. "So it's been a process of learning how to play off other people. But I think the second part of that is they brought me here to still be a main focal part in the offense and still be aggressive at times. So I've been trying to learn that balance."
Heading into a matchup Monday at Sacramento, on a per-minute basis, Aldridge has actually received more touches in San Antonio than he did last season in Portland, according to ESPN Stats and Information. While Aldridge's minutes per game (30.2 so far this season versus 35.4 in 2014-15) and touches per game (56.3 this season compared to 63.4 last season) are down for 2015-16, his touches per 36 minutes are up (67.2 through the first six games, compared to 65.5 last season).
"I think he's getting more comfortable both on and off the court," guard Danny Green said. "He's still learning everybody's personalities. Everybody's a name tag right now. So he's just trying to figure out who is who. But off the court, I think he's starting to feel more comfortable, which is going to make him gel more with the system on the court.
"It's frustrating for him. For some reason, he thinks there's pressure on him. But there's no pressure on him to learn it this fast. But he's picking it up faster than I expected him to. We're still talking him through it. He's getting shots up. He's still learning each day, watching film, and I think he's gonna come along sooner than we expect him to."
Parker thinks so, too, calling Aldridge "a great guy" who "fits our team perfectly."
Mills, who played two seasons with Aldridge in Portland, described him as "the same person" he was as a Trail Blazer. On the court, Aldridge is experiencing "a different ballgame here than it was in Portland" as he adjusts to San Antonio's extensive ball movement, according to Mills, but he said he expects Aldridge and the team to completely adjust to one another soon.
"It's just been a joy being able to see him in Portland and see him now," Mills said. "He's made the All-Star team, and he's been the man in Portland. But from when I first came into the league to now, he's the same person. He's all about family. He's all about friends and being genuine. That's who he is. He definitely fits in [with] everyone else here."
Manu Ginobili described Aldridge as "always in a good mood" and "always fun" to be around.
That probably wasn't always the case for Aldridge in Portland. While Aldridge experienced plenty of personal accolades, overall sustained team success proved elusive. And while he never clashed personally with Blazers star Damian Lillard, the two didn't really socialize.
In San Antonio, Aldridge can't avoid breaking bread with teammates on a regular basis. It's a major component of the team's culture, which the players say results in victories.
"Everybody here is great. It's a great atmosphere, a great team," Aldridge said. "We've had countless dinners together already, and the season just started. Personally, I think I definitely get along with and click with everybody. It's a process. I know I keep saying that, but I think those types of things pay off in crunch time, the playoffs.
"If you get to the Finals and things like that, that's when those [social] moments pay off, because you know that guy a little bit more. You might know his favorite move a little bit more. You might know his personality a little bit better. So then you know how to get them going and things like that in tough games. Those things pay off later in the season."