In what essentially became a swap of free-agent forwards, the Lakers agreed to contract terms with former Houston Rockets forward Ron Artest while the Rockets reached an agreement with Trevor Ariza on a Thursday that proved to be as unpredictable and impulsive as, well, the Lakers' newest acquisition.
Artest, who will be 30 in November, is a formidable defender with scoring skills who enjoys the Los Angeles lifestyle almost as much as the Lakers took pleasure in bringing him into their fold.
He agreed to a three-year deal worth about $18 million, giving the Lakers two of the NBA's top defenders: Kobe Bryant was a first-team All-Defensive selection last season while Artest was second team.
Artest was a presence in the courtside seats for some of the Lakers' games in the NBA Finals, sticking out among the actors, producers and business moguls who will now presumably cheer for him when the Lakers resume play after winning the franchise's 15th championship a few weeks ago.
He averaged 17.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists for the Rockets last season and didn't seem upset about taking a pay cut after making $7.4 million last season.
"I am very excited to finally be going to L.A.," Artest said in a statement. "For years now, the Lakers have expressed interest in having me play for them, but we could never get the stars to align. I'm finally a Laker and I can't wait to get on the court with Kobe, Pau [Gasol] and the rest of the team, and play for Phil [Jackson].
"I look forward to helping the Lakers defend their championship, and it will be great to finally not get booed in the Staples Center."
Artest cannot officially sign the contract until the league's weeklong moratorium on announcing free-agent signings ends next Wednesday.
The Lakers can't comment specifically on signing free agents until the moratorium ends, but the addition of Artest ended their pursuit of Ariza, who agreed to a five-year deal worth about $33 million with Houston a few hours after the Lakers came to terms with Artest.
"I am happy with my decision," Ariza told The Times. "I'm glad this all worked out. The Rockets are going to give me a chance to improve my game and that's all you can ask for."
Ariza played in all 82 regular-season games and stepped up his game in the playoffs, averaging 11.3 points while shooting a stellar 47.6% from three-point range. He also had memorable steals of two inbounds passes late in Games 1 and 3 of the Western Conference finals against Denver.
