Extension Talk for Smush & Luke Yesterday on the radio MT (Mycal Thompson) brought up the subject of contract extensions for Smush Parker and Luke Walton. He said the Lakers are estimating Smush is going to cost around the same price they paid for Brian Cook, which is around $3.5M and Luke will probably take a hometown discount and sign for $5.5M to $6M (similar to Radman's contract). He didn't mention any plans for the Lakers to re-sign Chris Mihm. I think these are fair deals, but I was hoping Smush would go for closer to $2M per season. However, the going rate for most backups around the league are about $3.5M.
<div class="quote_poster">Kafiah Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I can see why we would look to extend Luke but... why Smush?</div> What other options do we have? We can't put Farmar in yet, he's still developing into an NBA player. On the offensive end, Smush is decent, he could be a better playmaker and shoot a higher FT% but appart from that, he's good enough. However, he needs to improve his D. He has shown he can defend, if he can somehow put more effort in on a regular basis, he'll be good enough. We don't need a 20/10 PG.
<div class="quote_poster">Laker_fan Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">What other options do we have? We can't put Farmar in yet, he's still developing into an NBA player. On the offensive end, Smush is decent, he could be a better playmaker and shoot a higher FT% but appart from that, he's good enough. However, he needs to improve his D. He has shown he can defend, if he can somehow put more effort in on a regular basis, he'll be good enough. We don't need a 20/10 PG.</div> I'm not asking for a 20/10 PG. I'm asking for a PG that can defend on a consistent basis and can help set up the offense. Smush isn't a playmaker, he's a playbreaker and he needs to learn how to stay under control.
Smush isn't a bad player, he's just inconsistent. Why wouldn't we want to resign him? He's a good role player when he's consistent. He's a scoring threat, the only thing that hurts us majorly is he's a defensive liability. Then again, who on this team not named Kwame Brown isn't?
Personally I don't think Smush has earned this type of pay raise from the Lakers. He hasn't improved from last season, and I still don't like his attitude. I imagine his attitude will be worse once he gets a multi-million dollar long term deal. He had the excuse of not being able to play basketball because he couldn't find a gym. I don't think there's a single team in the league who would pay Smush $3.5M to be a backup PG for them. The Triangle offense hides his shortcomings of not being a good ball handler or decision maker.
