Contract Decisions Loom for Five Lakers

Five Lakers–Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmar, Adam Morrison, DJ Mbenga and Josh Powell–are in the final year of their contracts and the Los Angeles Times is taking a look at what that might mean. Last year Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza were in similar positions and in the end Ariza left the Lakers for the Houston Rockets and Odom stayed in L.A. One year from now, Fisher will be 36-years-old; he makes $5 million this season and has already expressed his desire to play after his contract is up. Said Fisher about his future, “I’m kind of excited about it this time around. I think I’m in a more powerful position in terms of being in a contract year because I’m confident in what my choices are. I’m confident in my ability to keep playing for as long as I want to because of the way I prepare and train and my value to the team. I’m comfortable that if a higher power took basketball away from me for whatever reason, I’m going to be successful in other areas the rest of my life. So there’s no fear of next year for me.”

Farmar and Morrison, almost-23 and 25, respectively, may not share Fisher’s sense of calm, as they have less history to fall back on and have competition (Morrison seeks more small-forward time while Farmar has to compete with Shannon Brown as Fisher’s backup point guard). The Lakers could give both players contract extensions before the regular season begins next Tuesday (Oct. 27) but that doesn’t look likely–which means they would become restricted free agents next July. Powell and Mbenga’s return is on a year-by-year basis and will be contingent upon their backup play this season; they both are under contract for $959,000.

Get all your Los Angeles Lakers tickets at StubHub.

Posted in General on October 20, 2009

Leave a comment