2. Artest is indeed a better player and he is good friends of both LO's and Kobe's. Hopefully, his antics can be reined in and then he will be a huge asset playing against strong wing players like Melo, PP, and Lebron.
3. Ariza is injury prone. He played 50 something games in the two seasons before he played 35 last year.
4. 3years for 18mil is a bargain for somebody of Artest's caliber. This will for sure lock up LO, which in my opinion, is a lot more critical than Trevor.
But with all that said, it's really really SAD to see he go. Damn it, he is too good of a young guy to lose. If it is true, this comes second only to losing Eddie Jones in my book.
At the end of the day, financial matters trump everything else, I guess, EJ was let go because he was asking for max money, Trevor just followed suit.