Hoops

Lakers solution to sign both Ariza and Odom

LA Boy, I hope you were just stirring when you said Boston 'bought' a championship! Boston also got KG and Ray in trades, just like LA got Odom and Gasol.

At least Boston had to give up some significant pieces for KG and Ray. Memphis just gave Pau away in exchange for his unproven brother Marc, two end of first round draft picks and a steaming heap of Brown Kwame!

Overall, I agree with what you are saying though. LA has been smart with most of its trades, and has been paying about the minimum a team can pay and still contend the last two years.

New York is the team that was trying to buy a championship, and that failed miserably of course.

The Lakers may have to 'buy' a championship next year though - losing either Ariza or Odom will hurt them a lot - even more than losing Posey hurt Boston this year. If they want to keep both for the kind of money you just mentioned, the payroll will almost certainly be the highest in the NBA (depending on whether the Knicks are going to get under $90 mill this coming season - haven't checked).

Johnson - I was being optimistic with those figures. As a Celtics fan, I am fervently hoping they like money more than playing for championships! ;-)

SKUX, they cant 'just cut' Morrison to get his salary off the books. If they cut him, they still have to pay him and his salary still counts against their cap. It has to be a trade, and even then, the Lakers can't actually save much money until the season after next, so they will take a big financial hit in 09/10 to sign both Ariza and Odom.

SKUX, the problem the Lakers have is that Bynum's contract extension kicks in next season. So he will cost them about an extra $10mill. Kobe will cost them a couple mill extra and another mill each for guys like Gasol, Farmar, Morrison.

So, at least according to Hoops Hype, the Lakers wage bill for next year is already at $74 mill ($1 mill less than this year) without signing Odom, Ariza plus at least two others (min roster size).

Say Odom would take $8 mill and Ariza $7 mill, you're already talking $89 mill with a couple more minimum contracts. So something is going to have to give there, unless they can unload other salary.

I'm sure the Lakers would love to move Vujajic's $5 mill per off the books, but they will probably only find a taker for Morrison's expiring $5 mill.

If they can lose Morrison's salary, they might just afford both Ariza and Odom, but Jerry Buss is going to have to fork over a lot of luxury tax money to other teams if he does.

Lenny Wilkens was also player-coach for a few years

Yeah, they can't sack Phil! Who would buy the movie tickets after a bad loss?