Comments on: The Great Book of L.A. Sports Lists: A Link-tastic Review

By: passerby

passerby — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:49:37 +0000

ariza verbal commitment to houston espn reports. so some kind of a trade that gains us some more flexibility in talent and experience plus some change in exchange of a budding talent that hopefully in 2-3 years time doesn’t haunt us at caron butler levels. well, do best to move on and let the games begin!

shannon, take that next step and be the pg of the future. lamar, time to meet the board and sign on for one promising run. reading fan reaction across makes the fan in me giggle. how could they have not seen this coming? how now could they top this? sheed to celtics? if it clicks, it is a scary proposition. but this move (coupled with re-signings) somehow makes me feel better about our positiion
BTW I love your blog!

By: passerby

passerby — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:11:28 +0000

By: ladlal

ladlal — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:03:10 +0000

As much as I would like the Lakers to keep Ariza, this has to be placed on agent David Lee’s shoulders. He was the one who prematurely burned bridges. I find it hard to believe that he has never encountered a GM that didn’t want to just throw money at a free agent. His aggressive tactics are going to cost Trevor someday. Unfortunately, the media world is running with Lee’s story.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:34:32 +0000

I’m going to miss Ariza a lot.

“”I understand that they did sign Ron Artest,” Ariza said. “They did what they had to do. I understand it’s a business.”"

If only Ariza had a different agent, maybe things would have turned out differently

By: passerby

passerby — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:53:31 +0000

i hate to see ariza go and i hope there was some way to keep him. contrary to others, i don’t think this is pau gasol heist 2.0 unless i see this team execution with LO in the fold and dominating. but i don’t get the expressed sadness of some bloggers around the net…. utter disappointment with the franchise.

you play with the cards you deal with. i still believe mitch knows what he is doing and he has been playing to keep everyone happy, save for ariza obviously but that was because it ended that way. the lakers are keen on keeping this thing going for 3 more years. they got kobe, artest and hopefully lamar for that long on the fold with a budding ab. worry about nick van exel days a bit later.

as for future nucleus, too early to say. goodness, bynum might not even be part of the new laker team pushing the run. or maybe a re-signed brown suddenly explodes. or what if sasha gets his groove back before he gets moved? so many variables. a lot of us are keeping the faith should this be inked. i suggest we wait and see. i think mitch is avoiding another overpaying session here. plus, he has made some choice to keep our versatile nightmare forward here it seems.

if we are stuck with artest, then it doesn’t really sound to me like we’re “stuck”. from some point of view of winning now, this can be an upgrade or a replacement at worst.

one thing to me is clear or some: we sent a message. we’re competing. we’re playing smart. and we’re not done moving yet. GO LAKERS!

By: DirtySanchez

DirtySanchez — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:53:10 +0000

Can’t wait to see that LA RonRon’s barber puts in his head

By: go0db0i

go0db0i — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:50:36 +0000

While it would have been preferable to have Ariza, in order to guarantee his services, seems like it would have cost up to 6.5 to 7mm to keep him, and it would have the lakers committed for 5 full years.

So to compare:
Ariza = 7mm for 5yrs = 35mm.
vs.
Artest = 5.6mm for 3yrs = 18mm

If you make the worst case assumption that Lakers pay luxury tax every year, then Lakers at least save 3mm a year for the first 3 years (9mm). And have cap flexibility 3 years from now.

Seems like Lakers got an upgrade in talent, downgrade of character, at least with a net savings of 9mm over 3 years. I would take it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:49:19 +0000

Artest and Odom played basketball together in New York when they were growing up. (Alston too)

By: kwame a.

kwame a. — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:48:27 +0000

Wondahbap-Start wrapping your head around it bro, I think this is true. I think Lee took the negotiations past the point of no return.

By: aB

aB — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:48:13 +0000

My heart hurts….there goes my Cooper 2.0.

This is mind boggling…..Artest? Seriously? I think he’s smart enough to pickup the triangle, but can he trust the triangle?

Plus, P Jax is not young anymore. Can he handle him?

Sad day for me…