Lakers deal Cook, Evans for Ariza
The Los Angeles Lakers know they can score. The still-evolving defense got a gift Tuesday that ideally isn't just for the future.
Los Angeles native Trevor Ariza — a 6-foot-8, 210-pound small forward who played one season at UCLA — was acquired in trade for what the Los Angeles Lakers believe are expendable, offensive-minded parts in shooting guard Maurice Evans and power forward Brian Cook.
"He gives us a dimension we don't have, which is a defensive player at that position," Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said of Ariza, 22.
The trade allows the Los Angeles Lakers to get out from under the contract extension they gave Cook, who has remained a woeful defensive liability, with three years and $10.5 million still due. The net result for the Los Angeles Lakers is that they save about $2 million salary for this season — which is really $4 million because they are over the NBA luxury-tax threshold of $67.865 million. The trade — which works salary-wise because Cook was a base-year compensation player and Orlando held a $2.6 million trade exception — leaves the Los Angeles Lakers paying just $1 million in luxury tax.
"I'm excited," Ariza told The Orlando Sentinel. "I'm going home."
Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson envisions Ariza, a limited shooter, as a defensive helper who can relieve Kobe Bryant against some bigger perimeter scorers such as Tracy McGrady.
Jackson said Sasha Vujacic, who had an outstanding training camp, is "perfectly capable" of playing Evans' normal backup minutes to Kobe Bryant. Rookie Javaris Crittenton also will get occasional looks in that spot.
"I'm ready, and they know that I'm ready," Vujacic said. The relatively young Los Angeles Lakers wind up even younger with Ariza, but their hope is that Ariza — in his fifth NBA season — is ready to offer, in Jackson's words, "a little bit something different" on a roster with pretty much everyone else fully literate in the triangle offense.
"I'm not going to go out there and say he's going to be our lockdown defender," Kupchak said. "He might not play. It might take him a while to get acclimated to what we do."
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