After a solid solo workout at the Air Canada Centre yesterday morning, Aldridge firmly established himself as one of the front-runners the Raptors might snap up with their coveted No. 1 selection.

"Had a good workout," was the initial assessment of Jim Kelly, the Raptors' director of player personnel and the designated team spokesman at these workouts. "Young man came in in excellent condition, very good shape. Impressed us with his running ability, his conditioning. He's been working hard the last month or two. Skilled athlete, good footwork around the basket.

"He's making us think awful long and hard because he's a very good basketball player."

Later, Kelly added: "When we get down probably to the people we're really seriously considering for the top spot -- we're probably at five or six players right now -- and he's definitely one of them."

Aldridge and Raptors forward Chris Bosh have been practicing together at a Dallas gym, and Bosh has gone on record supporting selecting Aldridge.

"He just said the coach [Mitchell] is a very tough coach," Aldridge said Bosh had mentioned to him during training sessions. "He believes in competing and holding players accountable to playing defence and going hard every day.

"He said he loves it over here. He said he loves the town, the team and just playing for them."