I wonder if your thinking of the blow up Ariza and Phil had earlier in the year? They had one earlier, Phil got in Ariza's ass (no homo). Or was it recently?
if he wants to stay he'd have to settle for around 7.5 IMO, we'd use part of the money we saved to sign ariza (from 2.5 to 3.5 or 4M for him) maybe it was simply fueled by his desire to shut boston down (he hates boston right? LOL)
I doubt we resign both. It's gonna be either Ariza or Odom, and personally, I'd rather keep Ariza. Lamar doesn't really have a role on this team. He seems to me like the type of player who plays well when he's starting, but struggles off the bench. Look at his play this year, and you'll see that my analysis is not quite off. Ariza on the other hand, is probably the most important player off the bench (not to mention he'd resign cheaper), and beyond him, who else do we have at SF who can play defense? No one. At least we have Powell who can hustle/D up/grab the board to replace Lamar. But yeah, best case scenerio is we resign both, but if I'd have to chose between Lamar or Ariza, I'm keeping Ariza. I realize Lamar played well against the Celtics, but one game does not erase the entire season, which he has underperformed.
I think Lamar is much more important for this team actually, just look at his peak production last year when we got Gasol. He underachieves but he's important for us with Bynum down. However the reason you're right is because of money, nothing else. Odom is not a consistent dude at all but he's essential for now.
