The Lakers have waived veteran forward Trevor Ariza, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
The front office opened a roster spot in order to add a young player before the season ends on Sunday, according to Charania. The Lakers were eliminated from playoff contention this week and a major roster shakeup is expected. They didn’t wait for the offseason to begin that process.
The move was confirmed in a team press release, Dave McMenamin of ESPN relays in a tweet.
After signing a one-year, veteran’s minimum in the offseason, Ariza was expected to have a significant role. However, ankle surgery delayed his debut and reduced his impact. He only appeared in 24 games (11 starts), averaging 4.0 PPG and 3.4 RPG.
Ariza, 36, has been in the league since 2004. It’s uncertain whether this is the end of the road for the 18-year veteran, who has appeared in 1,118 regular season games.
man the lakers did him dirty.. and he was probably their smartest off season pick up too! Guy lost his love of basketball in 2020… the Heat bring it back out of him in 2021… the Lakers crush his soul in 2022… feel bad for him.. wish he stayed with my Heat
They didn’t do him dirty, he will still get paid for this season. It was 2.6 million guaranteed.
Did you seriously just praise the Lakers for giving him a league minimum veteran’s contract? lol…. he went from starting for a playoff team to nightly DNP… he would have been much better off staying in Miami or signing somewhere else.
Just like everyone else on the team I way overestimated what they brought to the table. Loved Trevor’s play the first time he was with the Lakers but he was toast this time around.
he was decent on the heat just last year
Just last year Russ was absolutely stellar a top guard in the league, this year, not so much… what is your point?
thats like comparing apples to… solar power lol.. I can’t imagine a more wtf argument there… Ariza is a stretch 4 3-D player who would be in the rotation of every other team in the NBA.. he was 10-5 coming off a major injury for the Heat 12 months ago… the Lakers never gave him a real shot to show anything.. they buried the guy.
This move is 4 months past due. Keep cleaning house Lakers.
Hes no longer able to play in the NBA. Too bad it took the LAL a season to figure that out, wasting a roster spot.
he was starting for a playoff team 12 months ago.. he can very much still play
No he can’t. I watched basically all of his games this year. He can’t run. Limping. No hip movement. No speed. Couldn’t make a basket. Simply awful.
Gotta like jeremyn’s dramatic story though!
Never underestimate Ariza’s ability to hit the corner 3 and smoke a lot of weed.
What about Bazemore and Howard?
Howard should try to sign with Orlando for finale.
And Ellington, Bradley, Bazemore, Augustin and Anthony.
If they waived these 7 players, they could sign 7 young guys on a cheap “rest of year contract” with a team option for next year.
They could then trade x-for-1 for a bigger contract and the acquiring team can then deny the team option if needed?
a lot of playoff teams would love to see all that announced today lol.. especially Carmelo
Anyone thats waived cannot play anymore in the playoffs.
Some players they might want to keep next season…
Also read that you need to guarantee money before you trade for salary matching?
Wow Lakers in tank mode smdh
At least he got a ring back in 09 with them.