If Ariza goes elsewhere, the Lakers could make a push for Houston free-agent forward Ron Artest, who was all but signed, sealed and delivered to the Lakers according to some Twitter dispatches and Facebook pages that cropped up Wednesday night under Artest's name.
They were all phony, though.
"I've been made aware that there's some fraudulent impostors using Twitter and Facebook, but he's not agreed to terms with anyone," said Artest's agent, David Bauman. "Nor has he turned down anybody."
The Lakers also spoke Wednesday with the representative for free-agent guard Shannon Brown, but there was no movement there.
Mbenga and Powell will be back
The Lakers made two moves Wednesday, picking up team options for DJ Mbenga and Josh Powell that will pay them $959,111 each next season. The deadline for the options was Tuesday.
The Lakers have now allocated $75.9 million next season toward 10 players with guaranteed contracts.
Mbenga, 28, averaged 2.7 points in 23 regular-season games as a backup center. He had two points in seven playoff games. Powell, 26, averaged 4.2 points in 60 regular-season games as a backup power forward. He averaged 2.1 points in 14 playoff games.
The Lakers have until Aug. 1 to decide whether to exercise a one-year, $736,420 option on guard Sun Yue. Sun had six points in 10 games as a rookie.
Bryant's contract
It wasn't surprising to see Kobe Bryant return to the Lakers, particularly after his championship-parade proclamation that, "This is my home."
What he chose to do with his contract status Tuesday was the only real surprise.
Instead of terminating the final two years of his contract and asking for a new five-year, $135.1-million deal, he decided to keep the remaining two years of his contract at a guaranteed $47.8 million and took a small gamble on what a three-year extension would be worth when it kicked into gear in 2011.
The Lakers and Bryant are expected to reach agreement on an extension later this month in the range of $86.3 million to $90.9 million, depending on salary-cap figures to be determined in July 2011.
Specifically, Bryant's extension numbers will depend largely upon the maximum salary a player can earn in 2011-12, an unknown quantity because NBA owners have the right to request a new collective bargaining agreement after the 2010-11 season.
