One more week of coverage of Lakers’ season is coming up, if you haven’t had enough of me.
Not only is the championship parade Wednesday, but the team’s usual season-ending individual meetings for players with Phil Jackson and Mitch Kupchak are being held Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I’ll be checking in with the various guys as they roll out of the El Segundo training facility for the final time this season.
Trevor Ariza is one of the Lakers scheduled for Tuesday, so we’ll have a little more from him on his free-agent future soon. But to address in brief the already hot topic of Ariza and Lamar Odom’s free agencies, only Jerry Buss knows how deep he’s willing to dig into his pockets to retain both of them and pay luxury-tax millions, too. And even Buss doesn’t know really what that entails, because it’s unknown how the free-agent market will be in this economy and with most of the clubs with cap space being small-market also-rans.
The Lakers’ basic philosophy in such situations is to tell the player how they feel about him and say they want him back, if they do, and suggest he go see what his open-market value is. Then come back to the Lakers with additional information so they can or cannot move forward in-house.
If Odom doesn’t have a huge market — he is soon to turn 30 — or if he really, truly refuses to leave Los Angeles, then maybe Buss can keep them both. Ariza, about to turn 24, is someone the Lakers want to be a long-term fixture and will be fine with offering a long-term deal, but it’s a little sketchy when you start to think about how long you want to commit to paying Odom in future years.
I hope Kobe Bryant come up with a statement in public that he expects the Lakers management to re-sign both Ariza and Odom..
This will surely have an impact on coming negotiations involving Ariza and Odom..
Would be nicer if Kobe decides to opt out of his player option and renegotiate a contract with the Lakers taking a couple mil less each year for the sake of salary cap. I know, fat chance on that happening but it would help quite a bit.
I was actually thinking along those same lines. It would be nice if he “gave back” a few million to the organization as a way of showing that he really wants the team to stay together, but in these days and times you can’t really expect him to offer to take a pay cut when he’s possibly in line for a max extension. Gilbert Arenas took less than the max in his most recent deal, but he never really earned that deal in the first place…who opts out of their contract after coming off micro-fracture surgery and not even playing that season, and still gets a max deal offer?? Anyway, I don’t care who does what…I hope this Laker team stays together for the forseeable future. Trade that first rounder if that helps…they don’t need it!!
All this talk about having to choose between Ariza and Lamar is over blown. Ariza will probably get $7-8M and Lamar will have to take a cut no matter where he goes so he’ll get about $8-10M. That means between teh both of them the Lakers would pay $15-18M for both of them. That is only $1M over what they pay them now, worst case scenario. The Lakers know that there is no way they win another finals without those two guys. Good news for Lakers fans is that the Buss family actually cares about rings so i’m confident they will win both and Jackson will be the only coach to ever win 4 sets of back to back to backs. Here comes another Lakers Dynasty!!!!
OK the title is secured so I can change my name. I wish same thing J-Dizzle, but from everything I hear Kobe won’t do that. I do think though LA should go 5-6 years on Trevor and even at his age I hope they go 4 on Odom. A few things, he gave up starting in his walk year. That has to mean something. He is insurance if Drew or Pau goes down. In fourth year from now he would be an expiring K so he would be a trade asset if needed. I hope they keep all 3 FA’s, try to trade some group of Farmar, Sasha and Morrison for Kirk Hinrich or some similar PG if possible. Powell could also be included too. Some PG to start and allow Fish to come off bench. I hope they use the draft to get a good young player in first and then maybe two Euros to stash in second (think Gasol and Sun).
Matt that is just one million more than they are paying them now, but Bynum got a huge raise so they have to consider that too. I agree though, they have to bring them back and I hope you are right that it’s overblown and not an issue. Go Lakers!
I definitely hope that we can keep them both too, but the math isn’t that simple. The biggest change in payroll from last season to next will be that Drew’s contract extension kicks in, raising his salary by $10 mil. That, plus standard raises of ~10% in other players’ contracts, brings next seasons’ payroll to just $1 mil less than last seasons’, before new contracts for Ariza and Odom, not to mention end of the bench guys (DJ, Shannon Brown, etc.). Hopefully these Finals runs have been profitable (and enjoyable) enough to convince Buss to bite the bullet and resign both, despite the tax, but the fact of the matter is that the tax situation means he will be paying double for either or both players (i.e. $15 mil to Trevor and Lamar, $15 mil in additional tax). Buss has definitely shown a commitment to winning, but if he thinks the team can win again without resigning both players, that might be what happens.
Can we trade KOBE, BYNUM and get Lebron?
It is hard to argue against giving TA $6M when Luke/Sasha/(Adam!?) get around $5M apiece! If the players want to collectively stay together, then Kobe could opt out and take a few Mil less (since he gets most of his annual income from endorsements, which will rise a lot as Finals MVP for next year - but I am also one not holding my breath for that), and get LO, TA, SB to figure out that championships will mean more to their legacy and cumulative income in the long run. (Rick Fox was languishing in Boston, for example before joining Shaq-Kobe-etc. Lakers). I have no idea what they are worth on the open market, seeing how some organizations out there will throw money at LO/TA/SB, just to mess with the Lakers chemistry (see: Ronny Turiaf). So, these 3 (4 if we include Kobe in the calculus) need to decide whether one title is enough for them or not. $23M for Kobe, $6M for TA, $8M for LO, $3M for SB, would get us to about $91M, then dump SY & AM & SV for nada/sturdy big, which gives about $5M to spread around to the practice guys, each of whom have their positive chemistry and value (Powell & Mbenga have value for power inside when the 1st/2nd bigs go down as they have historically, recently). Jerry needs to decide whether he wants to try for a dynasty thing (still needs a sturdy big) and man up for 2nd highest league team salary (BTW, that still leaves him in the black!).
Congratulations to the Lakers, hard earned and well deserved especially the way they played the final game against the depleted Houston Rockets, a thoroughly efficient games against Denver and the Finals against the Orlando Magic. To keep the core players, one can take the example of Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs. Kobe is the same or above a little bit of Tim Duncan who signed and sacrificed for less money to keep the key players. Will Kobe opt out of contract and take a couple of millions less so that we can bring the core group of Lamar and Ariza of the victorious Lakers? I know Kobe is not happy with his 4th ring and will want more and he deserves more. But will he openly come out and tell the Lakers management that he needs Lamar and Ariza back and take pay cut. If he does that then it will be a golden line in his illustrious NBA career.
Vish Sherman
you guys are right , only can kobe share some of his mils to get these two back (lamar & trevor)..he can be sure that he will win more championships the way these plays..i know kobe will be generous enough..more power LAKERS..