It's more a case of a player (Trevor) getting screwed by his agent (David Lee). Ariza went to Westchester High, played at UCLA, but has now lost the privilege of playing in front of his hometown as well as with the team that made him a star. His agent used the media to play hard ball with the Lakers, posturing in the press that Ariza was an $8-9M per year, a level at which he is definitely not yet worthy of commanding. So far in his career, Trevor has had 1 decent season (but nothing to write home about), punctuated by a very good post-season.

8 PPG and 4 RPG isn't going to get you a big contract, especially in today's economy. And Ariza is somewhat overhyped as a defensive player. Nobody is better at anticipating and cutting off a passing lane than Ariza, but his heads-up D is not all that great, as witnessed by some big game performances by Carmelo and Terkoglu while guarded by Ariza during the playoffs.

In the overall scheme of things, Artest is a way better player than Ariza at this point on both ends of the floor.

And evidently, Ariza's agent, Lee, was blind to the fact that Ron Artest wanted to be a Laker. Artest has a home in L.A., he showed up to all of the Laker home games during the Finals, and he's stated on numerous occasion that he would give up his left nut to play for the Lakers. Lee decided to take a gamble, but unfortunately, he was playing against a better gambler in Jerry Buss, who had a hole card in Ron Artest.

Ariza ended up signing with the Rockets for the same money that he would have gotten from the Lakers, but for 5 years instead of the 3 year deal that the Lakers were offering. He's going to a team that won't have Yao or Artest and possibly not Tracy McGrady who is doing his best to be the second coming of Grant Hill. He's now going to be forced to create his own shot, something that he didn't have to do playing in Jackson's triangle offense. If I were Ariza, I would have taken the Laker deal.

But I'm glad he didn't. IMHO, Artest on the Lakers negates the Shaq to Cleveland deal, it negates the Richard Jefferson deal which gave the Spurs four NBA All-Stars, and it gives the Lakers the absolute best defensive lock down player in the league.

As a big-time Laker fan and Bruin alum, I hate to see Ariza go. But if Jackson can get Artest to fit into the offense (defense won't be a problem), I predict a 70 win season and Back 2 Back O'Briens for the Lakers - they'll be that good.

BTW, Vince Carter to any team is never a good trade.