Artest to Lakers

[JCSunsfan]

KTAR is reporting Ron Artest has agreed to a deal with the Lakers (3 years 18 million). Sounds like the MLE with max increases.

Does this mean Ariza will be available?

 

[Darth Llama]

Wow, this is a big acquisition indeed, but I'm not sure how much I like it. Yes, it does mean that Ariza will be available, word is that Ariza is going to leave because the Lakers wouldn't offer him more then the MLE. Ariza like Odom wants a higher payday ($10 Mil range) and Ariza is looking at San Antonio or Cleveland.

I'm thrilled to have a guy of Artests caliber in LA, but I would have rather kept Ariza.

 

[AsUdUdE]

I posted this in the other thread... but what I don't get is how the hell te Lakers are affording all this...

THe signing brings there payroll up to 82 million, and if they sign Odom to his requested 10 million a year contract they will pay 66 MILLON DOLLARS in over-the-cap money and tax...

66 MILLION... That will be more than 21 teams' ENTIRE PAYROLL... and yet it is just over-the-top tax for the lakers...

Jerry Buss is rich, but 66 million? in today's economy? But it is his money, If I were a Leaker Fan I would love it, but IMO, it is bad for the NBA...

It is called the Salary CAP, but it is so soft, that it doesn't matter, we need a HARD cap in the NBA period...

 

[az jam]

Artest to the Lakers and the Suns go after Frye, McDyess and Joe Smith after dumping Shaq for money savings.

 

[Chaplin]

If Artest is indeed going to the Lakers, I doubt they sign Odom or Ariza at all.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Artest would not have signed with the Suns for the MLE. He is worth more than that but clearly wants a ring. I think Artest works well along side Kobe.

I hate the Lakers.

 

[AsUdUdE]

If Artest is indeed going to the Lakers, I doubt they sign Odom or Ariza at all.

Man I HOPE you are right...

But knowing how these things work, I bet he re-ups with LA.. ugh...

 

[cobbler]

If Artest is indeed going to the Lakers, I doubt they sign Odom or Ariza at all.

They will resign Odom and let Ariza walk. Odom and Artest grew up together and are best friends.

As for how the Lakers can afford it, Morrison will be off the books next year and 2 years in a row now of extra revenue that comes from going to the finals not to mention the damn prices at the staples center. Dr. Buss can afford it.

 

[AsUdUdE]

They will resign Odom and let Ariza walk. Odom and Artest grew up together and are best friends.

As for how the Lakers can afford it, Morrison will be off the books next year and 2 years in a row now of extra revenue that comes from going to the finals not to mention the damn prices at the staples center. Dr. Buss can afford it.

Ofcourse he can afford it.... but the NBA allowing them too is another story...

Though I don't know how anyone could say 66 million.. eh.. no big deal... and that is just for 2010!!!

I don't understand why the NBA doesn't adopt the NFL Salary Cap, a HARD CAP, that makes it so teams like Green Bay, Indianpolis, and other small markets to survive...

At this rate, the Lakers of the World spending more in Tax penalties than 21 other teams on their ENTIRE PAYROLL, are going to ruin the NBA...

 

[dodie53]

wow.
good signing by the lakers.

next up, odom.

 

[Bufalay]

He'll kick Kobe's ass at some point. Good signing.

 

[cobbler]

Ofcourse he can afford it.... but the NBA allowing them too is another story...

Though I don't know how anyone could say 66 million.. eh.. no big deal... and that is just for 2010!!!

I don't understand why the NBA doesn't adopt the NFL Salary Cap, a HARD CAP, that makes it so teams like Green Bay, Indianpolis, and other small markets to survive...

At this rate, the Lakers of the World spending more in Tax penalties than 21 other teams on their ENTIRE PAYROLL, are going to ruin the NBA...

I hear what you are saying... but just because the payroll is huge it does not guarantee anything. Look at the Yankees the last 5 years as an example. And the league isnt letting them. The Lakers are paying a steep fine in the luxury tax. They just happen to have an owner who values winning over the bottom line and he's willing to do so.

 

[D-Dogg]

He'll kick Kobe's ass at some point. Good signing.

He and Kobe have been friends for awhile now. Kobe lobbied for him to get to LA.

Kobe has a very odd group of friends. The guys he hangs with are different.

 

[Bufalay]

He and Kobe have been friends for awhile now. Kobe lobbied for him to get to LA.

Kobe has a very odd group of friends. The guys he hangs with are different.

Kobe has friends?

 

[D-Dogg]

Not really. People he hires to hang out with him for publicity, really.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Not really. People he hires to hang out with him for publicity, really.

Like that girl he married who gives him very public "make-sure-it-is-on-camera" halftime/end of game kisses?

 

[Bufalay]

Not really. People he hires to hang out with him for publicity, really.

So is he paying Artest's contract? This may be against the rules.

 

[Renz]

EJ loves the signing.

Artest will star in L.A.
July 5, 2009 @ 7:03 am
by Eddie Johnson

The Lakers have been one of the most dominant forces in the Western Conference for decades and the last few days tell you why. When it looks like this franchise might be on an elevator going down, they find a way to re-direct it back up again.

A few years ago the Lakers were fighting to make the playoffs and in one big swoop Pau Gasol falls in their laps. And then they come upon a major find in Trevor Ariza that leds to another title this year.

Faced with another problem having to sign Lamar Odom and Ariza this offseason, the Lakers have come up smelling like roses once again. How can you go from losing one of your key components and actually get better in the process?

Well, the Lakers just did that by signing Ron Artest. Yes, he will be a problem at times, but the Lakers arguably have the two best all-around defenders and scorers in basketball with Kobe and Artest in the lineup. Artest made one of the best free agent decisions I have seen in a while not based on salary.

I am laughing at the fact most people think Artest is on the edge. To me he looks like the smartest free agent in the pool.

I have always said if he ever made it to a team with a winning culture he would explode and become an All-Star every year. I know Lakers fans are a little down about losing Ariza and I can relate to their disappointment, but don’t think Ariza is anywhere near the talent of Artest.

I will go on board right now and say this: Trevor Ariza will struggle on the island he is going to in Houston. Role players need stars to enhance their game. Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady might not even play next year and that will force Ariza to be the player he is not.

Ariza will pay the price for thinking he was worth more than the Lakers offered him and he will suffer while Ron-Ron will make less and be extremely happy for the next three years. Ariza did not think about why he excelled. Making a decision based on dollars might not ever get him to the Finals again, which might be OK with him.

Artest should fit right into the triangle offense because he is an excellent ballhandler and passer. Kobe will be able to get more rest during the regular season because of Artest’s ability to score when the shot clock is expiring. This is something the Lakers could not get out of Odom, but Artest will bring that ability every night which is huge for the defending champs.

Also don’t forget that Phil Jackson loves the bad boy mix on his teams. He turned Dennis Rodman into a cult hero and if Artest plays as expected he too will reach that level of stardom with the Lakers.

http://blogs.hoopshype.com/blogs/johnson/2009/07/05/artest-will-star-in-la/

 

[Cheesewater]

L.A. Times' Plaschke doesn't like it.

Lakers make the wrong move going with Ron Artest

Bill Plaschke
11:12 PM PDT, July 2, 2009

Less than three weeks after the parade, the NBA champion Lakers have already met the biggest threat to their throne.

Themselves.

What are they thinking? What are they doing?

They just won a title that would not have been possible without the strong defense and stunning shooting of a 24-year-old kid with a limitless ceiling.

Yet they send the kid packing for an aging nut whose greatest hits have occurred on the heads of fans.

They just won a title with a locker room bathed in the soothing light of unselfishness, teamwork and a quiet temerity.

Yet they cut the power and added the darkest of moods, a guy who has made a career out of hoarding the ball, the attention, and the anger.

Tell me again, why did they get rid of Trevor Ariza for Ron Artest?

Explain to me, please, why they wouldn't even negotiate further with Trevor Ariza before quickly agreeing to sign Ron Artest?

Artest is a better player, but that's not the point.

Ariza was a better fit, and that's what wins championships.

Artest is a strong defender, but if the Lakers need someone to quietly hound a guy during a routine inbounds pass and be willing to make a small play to win a big game, that's Ariza.

Artest is a good shooter, but if the Lakers need someone willing to stand in the shadows for three quarters and emerge to make a big three-pointer before disappearing again, that's Ariza.

Artest will supposedly make the Lakers tougher, but what is tougher than showing up every day and playing hard every play and fighting your way to a championship?

Ariza has a ring, Artest does not, so the Lakers are giving up wins.

Ariza is young 24, Artest is an old 29, so the Lakers are giving up age.

Ariza shot 48% from the three-point line in the playoffs while Artest shot 28%, so the Lakers are giving up clutch.

The one thing the Lakers are absolutely gaining here is money, which is exactly what you will be paying them in increasing increments next season.

Artest will sign a three-year deal for about $18 million, roughly the same annual salary that the Houston Rockets gave Ariza.

But Ariza was given two more years by the Rockets, pushing his total closer to $33 million.

Heaven forbid you would want to give a rising young star two more years, or spend some of your roughly $1 million-per-game playoff bounty to do it!

Jerry Buss should have opened the pockets a little wider. And Mitch Kupchak should have jogged the memory a little deeper.

Remember the last time the Lakers made a postseason acquisition of an aging star that appeared to give them an embarrassment of riches and render them unbeatable?

The year was 2004, and they signed two of them, Gary Payton and Karl Malone, and you know what happened next. By the end of the season, the fractured chemistry imploded in a Finals loss to the Detroit Pistons that was so awful, afterward seemingly half the team either quit or was traded.

Like Malone and Payton, Artest is a great acquisition in a fantasy league. But this is reality, and nothing in NBA history has ever been quite like Artest's reality.

Everyone knows how, as an Indiana Pacer, he was suspended for 73 regular-season games and the postseason after going into the stands to confront fans and later punching one on the floor.

A long time ago, huh? Yeah, all of five years.

Did you know that he has also once shown up for practice in a bathrobe, asked to take a month off because he was tired, and been jailed for 10 days for domestic assault?

Everyone said he was a changed man when he was traded from the Pacers to the Sacramento Kings, but he was suspended for a playoff game in 2006 for a flagrant elbow, and the Kings lost that series to the San Antonio Spurs in six games.

Everyone said he changed again when he joined the Rockets, but in this spring's playoff series against the Lakers, he was thrown out of two games while finishing the series hitting 17 of 61 shots in the last four games.

And Trevor Ariza has done what, exactly? Agree to come off the bench? Agree to guard the team's best shooter? Agree to take that shot when Bryant couldn't?

Ariza's only NBA mistake occurred this week, when he followed the lead of his misguided agent, David Lee. By joining the Rockets as a miscast free-agent star, the kid now faces the possibility of a career filled with disillusionment and mediocrity, not to mention anonymity.

Ariza was more valuable to the Lakers than to anyone else. This was his home, his comfort zone, the perfect spot for a supporting actor to shine from the wings.

Why didn't Ariza realize this? And why couldn't the Lakers have given him more time to realize this? This agreement occurred within two days of the start of the free-agent period.

Couldn't the Lakers have given him a chance to come to his senses?

Couldn't they have met somewhere in the middle?

But, no, a flashy guy in a funky haircut beckoned, and the Lakers bit, trading heart for Hollywood, quiet strength for false bravado, a rock for a hard place.

While Lakers fans are now faced with an unsettled title defense, there is a shining word of certainty for every other fan who recently watched the NBA's next dynasty while shouting "Break up the Lakers."

Done.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke-lakers3-2009jul03,0,1013056.column?page=1

 

[D-Dogg]

Plaschke is the worst sports writer in California, but only because TJ Simers is an opinion douchebag columnist and because J.A. Adande is at ESPN. I fired off a nice little email to Bill after that garbage article.

 

[Mulli]

Plaschke is the worst sports writer in California, but only because TJ Simers is an opinion douchebag columnist and because J.A. Adande is at ESPN. I fired off a nice little email to Bill after that garbage article.

Can I get a copy of that email?

 

[Cheesewater]

Can I get a copy of that email?

Yeah, post it here. I suppose Plaschke is still the worst sports writer in California when he writes positive Lakers articles, right?

 

[Mulli]

Yeah, post it here. I suppose Plaschke is still the worst sports writer in California when he writes positive Lakers articles, right?

Donald bashes Plaschke consistently. Has done so for years. If you know Plaschke, you know Donald speaks the truth.

 

[Cheesewater]

Donald bashes Plaschke consistently. Has done so for years. If you know Plaschke, you know Donald speaks the truth.

I live in Los Angeles (for 16 years now) and read Plaschke pretty regularly. While I'm not a fan of his writing, he does have an informed point of view. With all due respect, I believe Plaschke knows more about the Lakers than Donald does. As far as Donald consistently bashing Plaschke, show me a Donald post that bashes Plaschke for saying something positive about the Lakers, however inane and ridiculous. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but I'd love to see it.

There are quite a few bad sports writers in California.

 

[Mulli]

I live in Los Angeles (for 16 years now) and read Plaschke pretty regularly. While I'm not a fan of his writing, he does have an informed point of view. With all due respect, I believe Plaschke knows more about the Lakers than Donald does. As far as Donald consistently bashing Plaschke, show me a Donald post that bashes Plaschke for saying something positive about the Lakers, however inane and ridiculous. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but I'd love to see it.

There are quite a few bad sports writers in California.

True