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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WTF!? You guys are acting like he’s Magic Johnson or something!
I mean, in 92 when MJ retired, sure I cried, but then I looked ahead at what we could do and I remember the teams of the 90s…. And…. Umm…. OH SHIT!
TREVOR, PLEASE DON’T GO! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STAY! I’VE GOT $1 AND SOME POCKET LINT…. PLEASE?????
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DarthKeller Reply:
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 am
Quick aside: I realize MJ retired Nov 7 1991, had a brain fart as I was writing that comment, please don’t flame me….
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Gary Lee Reply:
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:39 am
haha . . . don’t worry . . won’t flame you this time!
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This is why I hate sports agents! The only thing that sports agents want is money money money! They can’t honestly care for the player unless there’s dollar signs! If Trevor leaves for just what? 2 million more? Is it that worth it? Kobe makes his job so much easier to get those open shots! If he leaves, he won’t be the same player he was here in LA. He didn’t play like this in new york or orlando. But if he does decide to stay and they give him the money he wants, what if he starts to play lazy and not up to his contract or last year like other players? I
honestly think Ron Artest will bring more to the Lakers! So I hope we can get Artest here!
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Moby1 Reply:
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
No doubt, the thought of having Artest is exciting. And LO and Artest go way back, that should help.
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Correct me if I’m wrong but don’t you have to be under the cap to offer a MLE? And if so, the CAVNOTs ain’t in that company. Free agency is always about rumors and agent posturing and until the Laker brass (MK) come out and put an actual VERIFIED offer on the table, I’m going to assume common sense will prevail and A3za will remain a Laker. And if he does leave, the bigger nightmare will be all the b.s. talk about Artest becoming a reality!
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All the teams even if their over the cap or not, gets a 5 million level exception. And it won’t count against their cap. I think it’s so stupid that the Cavs have to try to get everbody and the kitchen sink. That just shows that LeBron isn’t the so called chosen one if they have to try to bring everyone in. He can’t walk on water!
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I KNOW THAT ALOT OF PEOPLE ARE EXCITED ABOUT ARTEST SUPPOSELY COMING TO L.A. BUT COME ON!!WHO CARES!!! I SURE DONT! WE CANT GIVE UP ON TREVOR LIKE THIS!!! WHAT HAPPEN TO ALL HIS SUPPORTERS AND FANS INSIDE THE COLUSIUM CHANTING “ARIZA” “ARIZA”!! TREVOR PLZ STAY!!! NEXT YEAR WONT BE THE SAME IF YOUR NOT A LAKER
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I FREAKING SWEAR, IF ALL THIS STRESS ABOUT TREVOR LEAVING HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH HIS AGENT BEING A IDIOT. IM GONNA GO AFTER HIM!!!!!! YALL HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH IM BUGGIN OUT. IF I WAS IN VEGAS JUST AS LAKERNATION.COM SAYS TREVOR IS. I WOULD GO OUT AND FIND HIS BUTT AND TELL HIM TO LISTEN TO ME!!! STAY WITH THE LAKERS TREVOR!!!!!!! STAY!!!!!!
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