Shannon Brown agreed to a two-year deal with the Lakers, with a player option for the second year, worth $4.2 million.  Allegedly, he got offered with a more lucrative contract from the Indiana Pacers but decided to stay with the Lakers.

Good choice Shannon.  You have a short contract.  You can work on your game in a year or two, and when you have vastly improved, that’s the time you expect the Lakers to offer you a bigger contract.  Wise man, unlike Trevor Ariza and David Lee (the agent).

Speaking of Trevor Ariza (man, I really regret the Lakers not re-signing the Cobra), here’s an interesting quote from Travis Heath from one of his chats on Hoopsworld:

I don’t get this whole disrespect card Ariza’s agent is playing.

So the Lakers were willing to offer him the full MLE.  He didn’t take it.  He then decides to take the same contract from the Houston Rockets.  How in the hell is that disrespect?

It seems to me to be pretty clear what happened here.  David Lee (Ariza’s agent, not the Knicks’ restricted free agent) thought he could get Ariza $8-10 million per season, so he told the Lakers he wanted more than the full MLE.  The Lakers then called his bluff, and as it turned out, the Lakers were right.  There was no team on the market willing to give Ariza more.  This made Lee look foolish, and the only card left to play was the “you don’t respect my client” card.

Very weak.

And from what I understand, Ariza was plan A while Artest was plan B.

Trevor, could we start again please?