Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 am  |  36 responses

Trevor Ariza Could Be a Goner from L.A.

Word out of Laker-land is that Trevor is about to bolt out of town: ” Trevor Ariza may be on the verge of leaving the team after his agent emerged from a lengthy phone conversation with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak on Wednesday convinced that the team isn’t as interested in re-signing his client as it claims to be. Agent David Lee said Kupchak did not make a firm contract offer, nor were the Lakers willing to pay him more than the $5.6 million mid-level exception. ‘I think I’m being optimistic when I say it’s not going anywhere,’ Lee said. ‘Actions speak louder than words.’”

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  • wilz Posted: Jul.2 at 9:31 am
    dang..

  • wilz Posted: Jul.2 at 9:32 am
    enter Artest

  • rav Posted: Jul.2 at 9:36 am
    sadly for ariza the pistons have used up all their cap space

  • Cmac Posted: Jul.2 at 9:45 am
    if he does he will regret it. i don’t know if he understands how good it is to play for a contender. i like trev so i don’t want to see him playing for a lottery team for more money

  • Marco Posted: Jul.2 at 9:57 am
    don’t worry laland. we still have THE MACHINE!!
    Speaking seriously, if he bolts la doesn’t have a chanche of repeating

  • Logan Posted: Jul.2 at 10:02 am
    I think Trevor should stay put in LA. Mitch is worried about a max deal because of Bynum’s deal. Lets hope they can work out a mutually beneficial deal….would hate to see Trevor leave…

  • James the balla Posted: Jul.2 at 10:19 am
    Marco, are you kidding me. Kobe and Pau can’t repeat … and they will sign someone else. I love Ariza. Great player. But we have no idea if he just had a good season. Let’s see how he plays this year and we will go from there. If they get rid of Ariza, Artest could be a possibility. The Lakers don’t want Dj anymore, and Sasha is probly on his way out!!

  • Z Posted: Jul.2 at 10:22 am
    oh, he’ll play for a contender. cleveland is snatching him apparently.

  • Canuck Posted: Jul.2 at 10:25 am
    For the life of me, I cannot understand why someone would leave a championship team offering close to 6 million per year, for a worse team offering maybe 7 million per year, as I don’t see him getting more than that.

  • James the balla Posted: Jul.2 at 10:28 am
    Canuck. I agree 100 percent. He is great but in the playoffs he played amazing. And still only did ok. He is a solid piece for the Lakers but why not stay with the contending squad. And Bron should just try and get everyone Kobe played with lol.

  • Canuck Posted: Jul.2 at 10:28 am
    @Z: Correct me if I’m wrong but can the Cavs not also only offer the full mid-level?

  • Brad Long Posted: Jul.2 at 10:29 am
    After hearing what his agent is saying, this sounds more like someone trying to scare a GM into action than anything else. I love Ariza and what he brings to the Lakers but if Mitch pays him more than 7 million a year it hurts the franchise, and even that number is pushing it. Word is Artest is just licking his chops hoping for a shot at playing with Kobe.

  • Z Posted: Jul.2 at 10:43 am
    from what i’ve read, he wants LA to pay up for more than the MLE since he’s their own player. i don’t know why he wants to move out for an equal salary but apparently he does. this might be personal, athletes get real sensitive when they don’t feel loved/respected. the real question for LA (and the Cavs): who’s better at this point between ariza and artest? i dunno.

  • Freedom Fries Posted: Jul.2 at 10:54 am
    Well they’re in a tough spot –can’t feasibly keep Ariza and Odom and right now you gotta go with Odom. That said, they pr’y had more consistently quality minutes with Trevor. You never know which Odom will show up.

  • Tarzan Cooper Posted: Jul.2 at 10:59 am
    ariza to the magic, perfect. jameer, vc, ariza, shard, dwight. and pietrus can get large mins off the bench. vc and ariza are a huge improvement over hedo and lee. get it done otis.

  • Eboy Posted: Jul.2 at 11:01 am
    Uhm……….am I the only one who remembers Trevor basically winning two series for the squad with timely late game steals in the playoffs this year. The jump he made from 08 to 09 was big and you need role players to be successful. Ron is not going to be near as effective as Trevor would be in the Lakers system. That’s a pipe dream.

  • Tarzan Cooper Posted: Jul.2 at 11:03 am
    la made sure to lockup the highly coveted josh powell.

  • Freedom Fries Posted: Jul.2 at 11:07 am
    Yeah, Trevor is the better choice, but they pr’y wont stick with him.

  • Z Posted: Jul.2 at 11:07 am
    ron could be disastrous in LA if he forgets the pecking order too much and jacks up 20 shots in too many games. ron can do all the dirty work but needs to be rewarded by being allowed to take some wtf?! shots. can lakers live with that?

  • Statik Posted: Jul.2 at 11:55 am
    Why would they call out being aggressive to keep Ariza who was more solid as a starter/6th man than LO and not lock him up before all the offers start pouring thru? Cavs could use him at the 3 and play Bron at the 4 instantly making them a quicker team

  • Krishan Posted: Jul.2 at 12:29 pm
    I CAN SEE INTO THE FUTURE! ARIZA WALKS! ARTEST WILL AVERAGE 37 SHOTS A GAME! KOBE BRYANT WILL JUT HIS JAW AND POP HIS COLLAR SIMULTANEOUSLY AND CAUSE A RIFT IN THE HATE-TIME-SPACE CONTINUUM! THE LAKERS WILL BE SO BAD THAT NOT ONLY WILL THEY NOT WIN ANYMORE CHAMPIONSHIPS IN THE FUTURE, EVERYTHING LEADING UP TO THIS FORESEEN ABYSMAL SEASON WILL EVEN INVALIDATE THIS YEAR’S CHAMPIONSHIP! BELIEVE!

  • riggs Posted: Jul.2 at 12:33 pm
    lakers will make the james posey mistake that the celts made last year and let trevor walk. which will be great for me because i hated him in a lakers jersey.

  • Sarah Posted: Jul.2 at 1:19 pm
    They really shouldn’t underestimate what he brings. As a Spurs fan, I’d love to see him leave LA.

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Jul.2 at 1:24 pm
    Artest, stay in Houston my man, stay in Houston.

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Jul.2 at 1:24 pm
    Where else will Trevor fit? N’awlins?

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Jul.2 at 1:27 pm
    @ Z: When Ron gets hot, he’s a great offensive presence. Not to mention I think he shot over 40% from 3 last year. I watched him a lot and he’s a great person to have taking shots.
    What I think happens when he goes cold, is when he overexerts himself on defense. A lot of times he just isn’t focused on the offense I guess. Remember Game 6 vs. the Blazers? Adelman told Ron he wanted more offense from him, so he turned on the jets and kicked some @ss to bring the Rockets past the first round.

  • Z Posted: Jul.2 at 1:27 pm
    bron at the 4 would be devastating. we all saw what he did to pietrus in the high post at the end of game 5: 32 consecutive points scored or assisted. the thing is, is he feeling the move? does mike brown have the balls to impose it to him. my guess: nope and nope.

  • Marco Posted: Jul.2 at 2:07 pm
    James the balla I was just kidding with that Sasha line. But it’s a proven fact that trevor this year has been really important to lakers’ successes, especially during the playoffs. The difference between the 08 and 09 Lakers was basically him, and we have seen the results

  • Josh D Posted: Jul.2 at 2:48 pm
    Trevor Ariza 2 the T’Wolves

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Jul.2 at 4:43 pm
    Trevor is great on the Lakers, but I don’t see him fitting in anywhere else… He’s never been a really prolific scorer. I head he’s been talking with the Rockets, though. But if the Rockets were smart, they’d keep Ron Artest. Offensively, Ariza isn’t even close to Artest. Defensively, they are pretty similar, but Artest is much stronger. Ariza’s stats were pretty underwhelming over the season, too.. I don’t see why the Rockets would want Trevor if we already have Shane Battier for our perimeter lockdown purposes.

  • seven deuce Posted: Jul.2 at 5:21 pm
    Unless Ariza is capable of being a 2 guard, Cleveland’s pursuit of him is dumb. They need an adult sized shooting guard with range and let smurfs come off the bench. When they re-signed Gibson a while back I knew they were really in a rut.

  • Ken Posted: Jul.2 at 5:29 pm
    If I were Trevor, I wouldn’t trust my agent. This summer David Lee is only looking to help out one free agent forward…himself!

  • MagicChicken Posted: Jul.2 at 7:51 pm
    ARIZA’S MID-LEVEL EXCEPTION TAKEN BY ARTEST! Thanks to KLAC 570 for the report

  • aL Posted: Jul.2 at 9:26 pm
    it’s the agent that’s talking,not trevor..i think mitch should talk with trevor and not with the agent..trevor wants to play with kobe next season,his agent just wants the money..

  • JoNaBo Posted: Jul.2 at 10:44 pm
    Do what you gotta do Trevor. Ron Ron welcome to L.A.

  • HighYE Posted: Jul.2 at 11:57 pm
    Lakers won’t be as hungry this upcomming ’09-’10 season to win every game with the same cast. Everyone knows that the lakers have built leads then take plays off, including Ariza. What Artest will bring is the drive for a ring.

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