NBA Rumors: Trevor Ariza Considering Cavaliers Afterall?
Written By: Rick | Category: Cleveland Cavaliers | Comments: 59
The Internet has made the world a very small place. In the last few hours, rumors have swirled that Trevor Ariza might now be having second thoughts about his deal with the Houston Rockets. The source of the rumors isn’t exactly known, but ESPN radio in Los Angeles had Ariza’s agent on and asked him if there was any truth to the rumor. He answered “no comment.” Is it a coincidence that Mike Brown and Danny Ferry are in Los Angeles today?
This brings up a question- when is a deal a deal? The Houston Rockets had a verbal agreement from Ariza (or at least that is what was reported) to play in Houston for the next 5 years. His compensation was reported to be $34 million dollars. The first day that teams are allowed to sign players to new deals is July 8th. Technically, Ariza is still a free agent. Until the ink is applied to a contract he may speak to whomever he chooses about his basketball future.
Again, these are rumors- but if Brown and Ferry flew to Los Angeles to meet with a player that already had an agreement with another team would you have a problem with that? Isn’t this the same thing that Cleveland fans hate Carlos Boozer for? Didn’t Boozer have a verbal agreement and decide to take a bigger payday with the Utah Jazz?
Perhaps the better question would be this- if the Cavs had a verbal agreement from Ron Artest to play next year in Cleveland for the MLE and Phil Jackson flew across the country to talk him into signing with L.A. would you have a problem with it?
Author: Rick
Rick is a co-founder and editor of WFNY. His love of Cleveland sports is surpassed only by his faith and love of his family. Follow him on Twitter- @rickwfny.Rick has written 743 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
Double-standard time: I only have a problem with it when it’s to my team’s detriment.
Ditto, Ben. Cognitive dissonance aside, I have no problem thieving from other folks.
Justification? 45 years.
wow…this is an interesting twist! I would have a problem with it if it happened to us…and it may not be completely ethical…but from a lawyer’s standpoint, there is technically nothing binding that happens until the contract is signed. It is ferry and brown’s job to persuade free agents to come here. Its on ariza if he second guesses his original verbal agreement.
Boozer Karma. And in this case, 2 wrongs could make a right.
I think it would greatly suck if that happened to us (ala the Ron Artest example) and I’d probably be pissed about it for a short time but at the same time it is a “verbal” agreement. The sentence you wrote pretty much sums it all up:
“Until the ink is applied to a contract he may speak to whomever he chooses about his basketball future.”
I would say in most of these cases it’s mainly due to another team stepping in when they know they can and throwing more $$$ their way. Whether it’s right or wrong for the player to do that is their call and left to each individual’s opinion but personally I can’t fault them if they choose more $$$.. I just may not agree with it.
i dont have a problem with it. this is comparing apples to oranges. boozer “supposedly” had a verbal agreement with the cavs, but part of the issue was any supposed verbal agreement they may or may not have had was illegal under nba rules. in addition, assuming there was an agreement, the cavs let boozer out of his contract in order to re-sign a larger one with them. the cavs absolutely did not have to do that and simply could have kept him on under his very very bargain priced rookie contract.
what you are comparing this to is totally different. these verbal “agreements” are not illegal per se (as far as i know). plus, none of the teams are letting anyone out of contracts that they dont have to get let out of. a verbal agreement in these instances isnt an agreement so the player is still technically up for grabs. maybe there could be some credibility issues at stake with the agent or maybe the fans might think the player is a jerk, ariza going back on houston (if true) wouldnt even be close to what boozer did.
I wouldn’t get my hopes up or think too much into this. This is all speculation and rumor.
Didn’t Hedo also have a verbal agreement with Portland before backing out and making a verbal agreement with Toronto?
I agree that this is distinguishable from Boozer – the Cavs had Boozer under contract. They would have never let him out of that contract unless they knew they could resign him.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with the jockeying, I don’t see how you can compare Ariza’s situation- possibly stiffing a team whom he has neither ever played for or signed with- to Boozer’s- stiffing his own team, the only team that he had had a business relationship with up until that point
The source is Mo Williams twitter feed-I’m sure Denny can use his badge on that one.
Please……..there is NO agreement until the paper is signed. Maybe Jim Paxson should have taken business management 101 along with many of the fans. Verbal commitments mean nothing…….ever hear of commit date in NCAA college football? Take ethics out of the discussion for crying out loud………
If this is the case, bring it. Until the ink’s on the paper, go for it Danny.
Maybe Ariza called the Cavs and told them he was wavering, in which case the Cavs did nothing unethical. Its only shady if they went to talk to him without him talking to us first, in my opinion at least. This sort of thing happens in college football all the time, guys decommit and then go someplace else. Rarely happens in college basketball though unless there is a coaching change, for what its worth
hey smrtazz……..who was it that let Boozer out of a iron clad contract with a wink and a nudge? cmon man…….get real.
I have a problem with it, but only because Trevor Ariza stinks and the Cavs would regret this signing about 20 minutes after the ink dried. It figures that only a Cleveland team could dodge a bullet (Ariza signing with Houston) only to somehow manage to get itself back into the bullet’s path.
Hey, while we’re at it, maybe we should see if we can trump Dallas’s offer for Jason Kidd!
@ #8- so if you back out of an agreement with someone you just met that is better than backing out of an agreement for someone you have known for a long time?
@ #5- I’m not sure I understand your point? Are you saying that because the verbal agreement wasn’t ‘legal’ under NBA rules Boozer shouldn’t be kept to it?
I CHOOSE BUSINESS…. ETHICS!!!
NBA is a business afterall. If its one thing I’ve learned about the business world, it’s that people will undercut eachother and screw anyone over they can in order to succeed themselves. That doesn’t make it suck any less when it happens to you, but bottom line is those kind of things happen. Any person commenting here would leave their current employer if a rival company offered you double or tripple your salary. If you wouldn’t, well then I’ll start campaigning for your sainthood. My concerns about getting Ariza is less about who he screws over and more about where he plays. Would the Cavs put him at the 2? Or put him at the 3 and move LeBron to 4?
I never had a problem with the Jazz, only with Boozer. Utah offering a contract to Boozer was totally legit.
So, I have no problem with Ferry going to Ariza and saying “Hold on. Do you really want to play for a rebuilding team missing their star player for a year? Listen to my offer…”. If he takes it Ariza might have something on his chest, but not the Cavs organization.
i would say no – you cant enforce an illegal verbal agreement (like in boozers case). on the other hand, there is nothing that i am aware of that says these verbal agreements are illegal. apparently they are not since everything is wide open.
@ #14- Ariza does not stink. He may not be Ron Artest, but he is still very young, has tremendous athleticism, and a great upside. Who else would you have us get with the MLE?!?!
Denny do you have a real job or are you still in college? Business ethics definately never leaves the classroom.
I don’t have a problem with the morality of it, but Trevor Ariza isn’t worth 5 years and $34M.
i have a problem with the moratorium because crap like this can and does happen whether it’s the case here or not.
I don’t understand why anyone would have a problem with any team looking out for their own best interests. Would I have a problem with Phil coming after Artest after Artest gave a verbal to Cleveland? No way! His job is to help the Lakers, not the Cavaliers.
But I would DEFINITELY have a problem if Artest verbally agreed to Cleveland and then signed with the Lakers. The Lakers never agreed not to negotiate with free agents, and until July 8th, every single player is a free agent.
@ Tron – I have a real job, but I’m in graduate school. Business ethics is only something I’ve heard mentioned while watching Billy Madison.
Haha good point, I think comedy movies might be it’s only applicable place. I have no problem with Mike and Danny going after free agents, verbally committed or not. If you think about it the team could just as easily back out of their verbal committments too.
Man, think of these poor Rocket fans. Yao’s gone, McGrady’s still injured, they lost Artest but at least they got a championship guy in Ariza… oh wait, it CAN get worse.
Sorry, I have this flaw where I am always putting myself in other’s shoes. And I know how this felt before, thanks Boozer.
@20, at 5 years, $34 million, he stinks. $34 million for a guy who averaged 9 and 4 and shot 32% from 3? I get that he can defend but you can find crappy offensive players who can defend for a lot less than $34 million. You’re basing your evaluation on one small sample of games (the 09 playoffs). If that’s the way you evaluate players, then maybe the Cavs should trade for Jerome James.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
We all know The Four Letter is never wrong.
Cough, cough….right, Kirk Herbstreit?….cough, cough….
No. No. No. No. Do not pay this man.
What I’m reading in Twitter land suggests this rumor is not true. The “Mo Williams” Twitter account appears to be where it originated at it’s not clear that account is actually owned by Mo Williams (i.e. it’s not “verified” like Shaq’s, CV’s, etc)
@AMC: But it does say “THE” Mo Williams.
@ Scott – that means it’s legit and the best.
See: Ohio State University, THE
This Twitter bs is really starting to piss me off. Number 1 why would anyone want the whole world knowing what you are doing at every moment of your day. Number 2 things like this always happen. Ppl decide that it’s funny to play with the emotions of Cleveland sports fans and impersonate Mo Williams. I say we make a fake Bosh acct and tell everyone that he is being traded for Z and Boobie and let ESPN get ahold of that!
In all seriousness, does anyone think that Atl would match a MLE offer for Josh Childress, this is considering they want to sign Bibby, ZaZa and Flip Murray.
Wouldn’t we be more upset if Ariza did contact Ferry about possible second thoughts and Ferry did nothing about it due to ethics or morality or whatever?
Think of this as a cooling off period where you can listen to offers, maybe verbally agree, and back out after some reflection and other input. Especially in the case of Ariza, where this is essentially his first Free Agency swim and his first time getting alot of money in his face. Most of us would jump at the first offer worth 34 million from any one.
(By the way, I don’t buy this story at all. This is just mere rumor and we won’t see Ariza in a Cavs uniform, which makes this whole thread just theory.)
I saw a report at lunch today that Bibby is close to signing with ATL, or did (I don’t remember which it was). I don’t know if they’d let Childress go, but it doesn’t seem like they’d be able to hold onto him with even two of those guys coming back.
@ Cribbage- I agree 100% that the likelihood of Ariza playing for the Cavs this year is probably only slightly better than me playing for the Cavs this year. But this is a theory post. And I’m kind of amazed that most people would have no problem what-so-ever with Ariza deciding to dump his verbal and sign somewhere else.
I promise you that if the Artest scenario I laid out would have happened the comments calling for his head would be in the thousands. And someone would call out the Lakers for tampering’ with a player we had an agreement with.
@Rick: That’s the beauty of double standards!!
guys – i don’t think THE_MO_WILLIAMS is the real mo williams…have you guys read his tweets?? there is no way an NBA player is talking like that. Plus, he’s repeating the things that Windhorst says in his tweets!
his 3rd post was: “how do i get other athletes to follow me,do i have to make some phone calls to them?”
Windy now reporting a meeting with Channing Frye. I wouldn’t object to signing Frye (for part of the MLE or bi-annual) but I hope that’s not what compelled Ferry and Brown to travel out West. If so, that kind of smacks of desperation to me and suggests the Cavs realized they didn’t have enough of a personal touch with some of the more premier names.
Frye is decent but is pretty soft and is a poor rebounder. He can hit a mid range j though. I say give him the bi annual for a couple seasons and I guess they would have to start him if Andy doesn’t come back, (not something I would look forward to) also there is no way I could see him checking KG or Lewis so he would have to come off the bench. Then I guess see if Childress will go for the MLE. Andy has to realize, with this economy, there is no way he is getting more than 6 mil per year. He should have opted in and got some money next year when everyone is much more willing to spend.
The Boozer case is different because he played here for a couple of years and we believed we could take him at his word. This is more like a guy signing a contract with a new team and immediately getting buyers remorse.
The Cavaliers organization is really desperate right now. They lost out on every single free agent they were after thinking that just because Lebron James is on the team that players will automatically want to play there. Everybody knows that Lebron will opt out next year and Shaq is one and done. Who in their right mind would want to be saddled in a Cleveland uniform for an additional 4 years with Mo Williams and Delonte West!!? The Celtics, Magic and Pistons have all improved with great acquisitions and its not a given that the Cavaliers will make it to the finals.
Whatever. But that “whatever” comes under one condition: not a five-year contract.
Nope…don’t want to be a part of it. Boozer was my favorite Cav because I wanted to avoid the Lebron band wagon…plus I loved his style of play. If Arize comes, I will not root for him. Unless he is shooting the game winning free throw in the playoffs that is. Will never be a personal fan of his though.
Ariza will 100 percent be a Rocket. This is all BS.
The BIG difference between what this situation would be compared to the Boozer situation is that Cleveland could not offer the same money as Utah and Cleveland let Boozer out of a contract for that year that would have paid him around 800K to be able to sign him to a more lucrative contract. The Boozer situation and the Arenas situation are what has allowed teams to hold on to their successful second round picks now.
@TR How in the world did the Celtics get better? Because they got an old washed up trouble maker Rasheed Wallace? Along with not getting younger KG and Ray. Not to mention they are getting rid of Big Baby. Sorry but I don’t buy that. I also don’t think that the Magic got better, and IMHO they got worse. They got rid of Hedo, Lee, Alston, and Gortat. All they got in return was Vince. C’mon, Delonte can check him.
interesting stuff
yeh totally agree #48….national media thinks Sheed to Celtics makes them the team to beat ….come on’ the cavs stopped being scared of him like 3 years ago hahahahahhaa…
Orlando got better. Haha.
Nothing personal…just business.
As an attorney, some of you should learn how to spell prior to leaving your long winded comments.
On another note, Channing Frye had a confirmed visit in Cleveland today and made several comments suggesting the Cavs were at the top of his list (he has 3-4 suitors, at this point). If Ariza did indeed back out and signed with the Cavs, these two players would give the Cavs incredible versatility on both ends of the floor. A solid Plan B would be Kleiza from Denver. He is another versatile player that can hit shots from the outside.
I just read a very funny response to Chris Broussard strange article on it on ESPN. The response accuses Chris to simply be laughing at his audience. It’s the second item here:
http://www.pandalous.com/nodes/chance_in_sports_and
just read on espn saying that Lebron told Ariza he was staying in Cleveland when Ariza asked him last week.
he even said, “of course” according to one of their mystery sources
Can someone please tell me why Ariza is considered a top line free agent and Channing Frye is not? Without Kobe Ariza will be unheard of next year. Frye with Lebron will be up for comeback player of the year award.
That same ESPN article that steve is referring to also states that Brown and Ferry were out in LA to meet with Ariza, but have been told that Ariza is going to honor his commitment to Houston.
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