Who knew the first day of free agency was going to be this crazy? News broke last night that “Ariza leans towards leaving LA” and the @LakersNation twitter blew up (almost playoff level – 4th quarter levels).
- Some fans were begging Trevor to stay – “Please don’t go Trevor! Please! Please! Please!”
- Some fans were guilting Trevor to stay – “Why are you going to leave your teammates and lessen their championship hopes?”
- Some fans were threatening Trevor to stay – “Man, if you go, you’re going to end up a nobody like James Posey!”
- Some fans used reverse psychology to make Trevor stay – “Fine! Go ahead and leave! We’ll just get Ron Artest for cheaper and whoop your ass!”
When you hear players say, this is a “business,” this is the part their talking about. Negotiations like these always start off where Party A throws out a number and then Party B throws out their number.
When you NEGOTIATE, you try and meet in the middle after presenting all your viewpoints.
What’s the situation right now you ask?
Trevor and his agent, David Lee is asking for $8-9 Million a year for about 5 years right now.
Lakers are responding and saying that they’re only going to pay the mid-level exemption (the average salary of all NBA players) of $5.6 Million.
They’re really not that far off from each other if you think about it. Trevor knows for sure that he’s not worth $9M in this tough economy and the Lakers know for sure that Trevor is not your “average” NBA player.
If Trevor stays, then I say that they meet in the middle and he gets paid $7M a year for 5 years.
Now, if Trevor leaves, these are the possible situations he has to consider:
1) The teams that have the most money right now to pay Ariza are the Toronto Raptors & Portland Trailblazers if don’t sign Hedo Turkoglu (the really ugly guy from the Whorelando Tragic) first.
Toronto means high taxes and Chris Bosh leaving in 1 year, so a team stuck in mediocrity, freezing cold and crappy taxes.
Portland, on the other hand, is an up and coming team with young exciting players like Greg Oden and Brandon Roy. The only problem is that they have 5 billion Small Forwards on their team – Rudy Fernandez, Martell Webster, Nicolas Batum and Travis Outlaw. Seriously, do they need another Small Forward like Trevor?
2) If Trevor is considering the Cavs, Boston, Detroit or basically any other team, all they can pay him is the same amount the Lakers can pay him – $5.6 Million a year.
Basically, it just sucks to be a free agent right now with the poor economy and everyone saving their money for the big free agent crop next year – Lebron, Bosh, Dwayne, Dirk, Amare – so hopefully, Trevor makes the best decision for himself.
If we lose Trevor, then yes, I will definitely be a sad Laker Fan that day, but knowing that we can probably replace him with Ron Artest gives me some sort of comfort. Also, if Trevor leaves, this means that the spotlight is going to slowly move back over to Andrew Bynum and he’s going to have to earn that contract and give us numbers that a $12M a year player gives us. We still have a great team and this salary cap situation is a perfect example of why there is a salary cap in the NBA: so we can’t just buy all the best players and always have the best team. Wait, we always have the best team. We’re the Lakers!
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