You can argue all day if Ariza is better than Posey, but i still think they brought the same value to both teams. They were both 6th men. Towards the end of his time in LA, he showed what he was worth, but in 08, and the majority of 09 he was not a HUGE piece to their team, not like Turkoglu was to the Magic. I personally have thought he should've been starting all this time, but apparently the Lakers themselves didn't find him that valuable. It'd be one thing if they TRADED Ariza for Artest. But they lost him to FA and they went out and replaced him with a better player. How can you not call that a good move? It's what we should've done last year.
how do you figure ariza was there 6th man? he started for at the 3 for them all year when he was healthy. he was the starting SF, not a bench player. he averaged 34 minutes a night.
Odom was their 6th man, he rested ariZa at the 3 and played the four when they sent gasol/bynum to the center position to rest the other.
and at this point in thier respective careers, im not sure ron is all that much of an upgrade. He's better, no question, but not by much.
Ron's been steadily dropping off over the last 2 seasons, i don't expect that to halt in LA. meanwhile ariza has no where to go but up.
It's only a "wash" or upgrade if they also get odom back to play 6th man, if not, its a big loss.