“Putting it simply, David Lee made a mess out of this entire situation and screwed Ariza over. If there is any similarity between the agent and the soon-to-be ex-player from the Knicks (also David Lee), it’s that both love to scramble for rebounds. In Agent David Lee’s case, the Houston Rockets became their desperate rebound option, and sadly for Trevor, it was his agent, not him, who let the ball slip with the Lakers. David Lee betrayed his client and ironically tried to pull a Trevor Ariza and ‘steal’ some extra cash from a Laker front office that simply wasn’t going to budge. He should have known that the Lakers had an ace in the hole in Ron Artest and that he couldn’t win in a bluffing game with Mitch and Jerry, one that he initiated.”

Had the Lakers waited until the end of the season, Bynum would have been a restricted free agent. The Lakers could match any offers to him. Given his most recent injury, however, I doubt any team would have been willing to spend more than $10 million/year for his services. The savings could have been used to sweeten offers to Odom and Ariza, both of whom were key ingredients in their run to the NBA title.

I’m not really too high on Kupchak. Case in point: giving $5 million a year for 3 years to none other than Sasha “I Haven’t Seen A Shot I Didn’t Like” Vujacic.

Either way, I’d have thought Ariza would be easier to re-negotiate than Odom. Now, at least, we need to re-sign Odom.