UPDATE: Sasha agrees to sign with Lakers!!!! THE MACHINE!
Press Enterprise: After some tense negotiations, the Lakers and restricted free agent guard Sasha Vujacic agreed to a deal Friday afternoon.
Vujacic agreed to a three-year, $15 million deal, according to sources close to the player.
The 6-foot-7 guard is scheduled to earn $5 million per season.
In celebration of the return of Sasha, here are some new forum emotion icons created by Vaporize…
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OCRegister: Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said he expects a “resolution” to the Sasha Vujacic contract situation later this afternoon.
“I hope it’s pro-Lakers,” he said.
Vujacic, a restricted free agent, drew little interest from other NBA teams after the Lakers issued a qualifying offer of 1 year, $2.6 million. Recently though, several European clubs contacted the Slovenian, which might have prompted the Lakers to bump up their numbers.
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PE.com: Negotiations between the Lakers and restricted free-agent guard Sasha Vujacic have reached an impasse.
Because Vujacic rejected the Lakers’ offer, the team is “aware” the 6-foot-7 guard has an offer from a European team he hopes to use as leverage.
The Lakers offered Vujacic a three-year deal worth about $12 million, a salary that would pay him $4 million per season.
Vujacic, 24, is seeking a deal that will pay him between $5 million and $6 million per season, similar to what Jason Kapono (four years, $24 million from Toronto), James Posey (four years, $25 million from New Orleans) and Mickael Pietrus (four years, $25.1 million from Orlando) got.
“If there is a deal to be made, the deal will be made,” Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said in a phone interview. “If there is no deal to be made, there won’t be a deal.”
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L.A. Times: Lakers reserve guard Sasha Vujacic, a restricted free agent, is prepared to leave the team and accept an offer from a European team in the next few days if the Lakers don’t make him an offer he deems fair, according to a source in the Vujacic camp who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.
The source said Vujacic is seeking a multiyear deal from the Lakers averaging about $5 million a year. Vujacic was hoping for a six-year deal, but anticipated it could be shorter contract.
He has not received an offer sheet from another NBA team. Teams were hesitant to make Vujacic an offer because they anticipate the Lakers would match it, the source said.
RUMOR: Sasha offered 30 million from Houston?
Lakers play waiting game with Sasha and Turiaf
Sasha seeking full MLE of $5.8 million? Sasha gone?
Sasha: 1 year/2.6 mil. offer from Lakers, hires Pelinka as agent
Sasha Vujacic to Europe? It could happen.
aww great hes gone :((((((
we need to resign him
sad face
MATCH THAT OFFER MITCH, MATCH IT! Unless…it goes up to a 7-mill per year offer, then I say don’t match that…but less than that like around 6-mill or a little higher (no, not 6.9-mill, that’s not little to me, that’s a lot), but I think that 6.5-mill+ is where I might get a little queasy, that’s where I’ll be afraid…
hey, can you find someone more SUITABLE than the Machine in this Roster??? let Turiaf go now Vujacic…you should go Mitch!!!
its all about the money fuk you {Profanity isn't allowed on theLakersNation.com -- Please go back and edit your comment. Thank you.} seshi!!
YES!.. bye sasha
I don’t believe it for a second, he’s just using it to get a better offer from the Lakers cuz no one in the NBA will help him do that. He’s using it as leverage. But if he wants 5 mil a year, screw it let him walk.
This is actually good if sasha leaves. this will force mitch to trade for artest…
wow, fck Europe, NBA is suppose to be every young basketball player’s dream.
offer him 4.3, let him walk if he “demands” more
No match that offer Mitch. To good of a player to let walk away.
We NEED him.
Doesn’t surprise me, Mitch is probably still locked in his bedroom jerking his dik off while we lose players and opportunities while other GMs (yes, even Danny Ainge) is making changes.
First, the top ranked high school player skips out on the useless 1 year college rule to go make money with an Italian team, then Josh Childress, now Vujacic? NBA better change its salary cap rule so teams can sign and keep players like Sasha in the league. The reason teams can’t afford players like Sasha and Childress is cuz they already have 1 player on their team with a max’d out 80 million deal like Shaq, JO, Marbury, McGrady, Marion, etc.
get JR Smith
He might even learn tons from Kobe and be his apprentice.
cause Melo and AI arent exactly the best role models.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/18/nuggets-only-team-to-show-interest-in-jr-smith/
If the Nuggets had fears of some team swooping in to sign the restricted free-agent guard to a big offer sheet, they can breathe easier.
Smith was asked Friday if he’d heard this summer from any other teams.
“Not yet,” he said.
Wait a minute. You haven’t heard from any teams having interest in signing you?
“I haven’t heard from anybody,” he said.
Smith said he hasn’t gotten an offer from the Nuggets, other than the option to return next season for the $3.04 million qualifying offer. He said it’s too early to say whether he might take that offer, which would enable him to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
“I’m not sure yet. I’d have to go over that with my people,” said Smith, who said he plans to talk to his representatives “at the end of the month.”
we can land him if Nuggets arent willing to match
All I have to say is… which 2 players are going to replace Turiaf and Vujacic? Damn Lakers at least be decisive about something. They have been hesitant to resign players or sign free agents from other teams, but they have not proven that they can replace the players that they will lose, let alone making the team better.
i rlly like vujavic hopefully he can sign
You want to know the difference?
5 mio a year contract from NBA team will get him 2.5 mio a year.
5 mio a year contract from European team will get him 5 mio a year.
Oh woa,First Ronny now Suaha our two key players from the bench.Mitch, I Swear you better match his offer before we lose him.Right now I think it is the best time to do it.
Matching an offer from European team doesn’t matter.
BYE BYE SASHA
Ciao macchina!
if sasha goes then he’s a damn liar for saying “WE(as in the lakers including him) will win the championship next year” imma gonna choke him carmelo style if he leaves. he’s a fan favorite and i’d hate to lose the machine. hopefully he chooses a championship over money but its not the popular thing now a days. =/
I think Sasha wants to stay in the NBA, and his agent is just trying to use this an offer from a European team as a bargaining chip. my guess is that he signs an offer within a week. They let Turiaf go so that they could resign Sasha.
Goodbye Sasha. I hope Lakers sign Mo Evans n Kwame Brown for a minimum
if sasha leaves we screwed at the backup at sg.. umm we can trade vlad for jj redick..i mean i rather have sasha but if we wants lot of money then some european team will give him the money…
lol - the same ppl crying about luke’s and vlad’s contracts are begging for the Lakers to overpay Sasha . . . dude has no other offers from any other teams b/c he’s asking for too much!!! If Lakers give him what he wants, these same guys/gals will be screaming at Mitch for overpaying - rofl!!!
His fair value is 3-4 million with increases over the next several years - - he sees himself as as a full MLE guy, so him and his new agent have concocted this Euro story to put pressure on their Lakers.
Take your fake Euro offer and good luck. Otherwise, take what the Lakers are offering, and if you dont like that, stay and play for 2.6 this year and become an unrestricted free agent next year.
Enough with the fake threats - not all of us are so gullible. Note to Sasha: when Childress said he was going to Europe he presented a real offer with actual numbers from an actual team.
hahah boss.. well i like 3yrs/12mil that sounds rite for him…
do NOT offer more than 4 mil a season.. please!!!!
…I think max on offering Sasha to me is 5-mill…even though he is only a role-player, he may be the 2nd best off the bench right now (Farmar is good), MATCH IT MITCH, PLEASE!
*cry*…
thats too much for a guy who just shoot 3s trade him for gordon or hughes……… sasha THE MACHINE MONEY vujajic
He is not worth anything over 4 mil. We already have dead weight in Walton and Radmanovich that are getting paid for nothing. For 3 years Vujacic played like crap, than in the last year of his contract he finally woke up and now he dares to demand long contract at 5-6 mil per season. P..lease, show us what you can do next year and then complain, otherwise, the league is full of role players.
Good deal
Now we’ll see
MITCH YOU BETTER HAVE A GOOOOOOD BACKUP PLAN IF SASHA WALKS….LAKERNATION IS GETTIN’REALLY RESTLESS RIGHT NOW!
…if we (grindin’ my teeth) lose SASHA(DAMN)….THIS GUY,(and Tyrus Thomas,3 way trade)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aVnP9Oe_kVA&feature=related!!
Hats off to Broderick Turner at the PE. second morning exclusive in two weeks.
stop being greedy sasha and TAKE THE MONEY from the lakers
Damn boss u finally said something intelligent… I’m proud of u. I knew you had a brain in u!!!!
I think Mitch’s backup plan is to have Coby Karl as backup SG.
9, if u learned to read sooner, ud know i always write intelligently
Here we go again. Overpaying for another player. This guy ain’t worth 4 mil after averaging 8 points in a season. No way.
hes worth 4
http://youtube.com/watch?v=a8XwXeDeFJA
Check My Machine
He’s worth 4 if he plays one more season at 2.6 and is consistent.
With this hot european market is there anyway in hell that vlad and luke get offered something? I pretty sure the lakers would release them… LOL
Europeans ain’t stupid
Mitch didn’t hesitate to resign Luke and give him 5 mil. I’d rather have given that money to Sasha. Mitch quit low balling Sasha and resign him so we can move on…
I think the Lakers offer is good. Sasha still young and have to prove he is a caliber player. Why not do 3 years for 9 million and then if he indeed is the “Machine”, Lakers will raise his salary later.
Luke and Vlad are perfect examples of lame overpaid players. The last thing we need is one more like that.
Plus, playing on the NBA and with the Lakers is a huge deal of marketing and exposure for him. If he is not satisfied, then ship his ass out!
Thats a great offer he cant has to take it.
$12M over 3 years is a more than fair offer for Sasha. To make it even more fair, the Lakers could give Sasha a player option after the second year.
So you’d rather have Mitch make another mistake??? Don’t you learn from mistakes? $12M over 3 years is more than fair for Sasha.
The Machine will remain in L.A.
YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!
Tyrus Thomas(’cause Ronny’s gone) and J.R.Smith(high energy,plus Kobe can stop embarassing him and coach’em).
You guys are all totally unrealistic if you think this is a no-brainer. We can’t just sign Sasha to whatever he wants. He is worth about 3-4 mil a year. I love him, but he’s 1-dimensional for the most part.
And if someone pays him more than 4-5 mil, they are grossly overpaying for him, and will be made to suffer for it in the long term. We need cheap, hungry veterans right now. Not young, {Profanity isn't allowed on theLakersNation.com -- Please go back and edit your comment. Thank you.}y dudes looking for the payday.
good offer, i think that 4 mil per year is pretty fair for the machine.. we aren`t overpaying him and i think 4 mil is what he deserves, no more, no less…
Being in this postition of really needing to sign a guy nobody else wants just plain sucks.
If we pay him he’ll become like the other caucasians we have on the Lakers i.e. Luke/Mihm/Vlade [ i won,t include Coby K YET ] overpaid & worthless, wish teams would have players prove themself 1st and that is not even guaranteed i mean Luke was playing pretty good prior to his contract and now his game isn’t even D league worthy. Lets bring in some guys who are hungry and not want the money so they can feed their family [ Latrell / Iverson ].
Boo^
wow…just wow
Lakersfirst….you know my stance. I agree completely!
If we want a scoring machine, JR Smith will run a dozen circles around Sasha. Sasha is a streaky at best spot up shooter. He has no handles, can’t get to the rim for S-H-I-T! JR is a much more potent scoring machine than Sasha. He does it all.
which 2 players are going to replace Turiaf and Vujacic?
Kwame Brown & jr smith
they both or cheaper & mite be better role players
you can give Kwame the vet minimum
and if vujacic walks away from 4m a year give it 2 jr smith he is receiving 3.04m a season the nuggets will not match it
wut yall think?
ridiculous to compare kwame and turiaf - and if u dont know how they differ, start watching another sport
Sasha and Smith - to diminish Sasha’s worth and elevate Smith’s worth is interesting for discussion’s sake, but they too are extremely different from attitude to abilities - check stats and watch intangibles. Besides Nugs would match a 4 mil offer.
You cant fall too in love with role players and over value them and over spending. Reminds me of when Madsen left and when Lue signed with the Wiz after everyone was bananas over him in the finals. They havent done much since and were exposed as overpaid role players and the Lakers were just fine by winning another title and going to two more finals. Role players come and go and can be replaced. Managing a team, you have to look and focus a lot on keeping your core players, such as Bynum, Kobe and Pau and keeping in mind the business side of money. All other players are expendable and if they leave or are traded you do your research and get other players at the price you can afford to fit with the team. The lakers have recovered 4 years after the Shaq disaster trade and have now been drafting some serviceable rookies. I think they can recover from the “Devastating” losses of Ronny and Turiaf as I recall were really no where to be seen in the finals.
im telling u if we dont resign sasha the lakers are not gonna go deep in the playoffs next year..sasha helps to spread the floor plus he gain alot of confidence this year..people r gonna be crying where are the shooters.
fuk sasha….if he leaves 2 play n europe over the lakers then i hope he gets herpes
lakers have plenty of shooters. thats what this team is full of. D Fish consistently was better shooter than sasha. people we were crying wheres the defense this past finals and if they get eliminated again next season, it will be for the same reason if they dont get more serious about D.
Laker fans, you have to remember, the Lakers already have a salary of $75M going into next year. Offering Sasha $4M for next year brings it up to $79M, and the Lakers still need to sign players to fulfill the roster guidelines. With the luxury cap at $71M, any signings now, is basically doubled. For example, Sasha’s offer is $4M, but with the dollar for dollar tax, it is really $8M out of pocket to the Lakers.
And for you guys that want the Lakers to go after JR Smith, he’s in the same boat as Sasha, although JR’s value is higher. Teams are reluctant to give JR Smith an offer sheet because teams aren’t able to offer anything more than the MLE (unless its a sign and trade), which Denver will obviously match. I wouldn’t be surprised if JR Smith goes to Europe.
hmmmmm. either he gets resigned or maybe a sign and trade. with who?
i have no idea but i wouldnt be surprised if there was a deal in the works so sasha can get the money he wants and the lakers getting a player to either replace him or possibly ronny. who knows?
hopefully we keep him.
15 million/3 years. I don’t like the 5 mil per year but I can live with 3 years. I’m guessing this contract is backloaded.
I wish they did this with Luke/Puke in the first place.
Let’s be honest,Lakerfirst,the reason why we are our salary is tight is because of these IDIOTIC CONTRACTS OF ‘PUKE’LUKE,VLAD AND MIHM(hasn’t played in 3 seasons).
Now that we need to make trades because of the loss of Ronny and maybe Sasha,hell,we can’t get one player to say “I WANT TO BE A LAKER” AND WIN A ‘CHIP(or help win one or 3).I just wish either Mitch challenges the Buss Family,’cause they got money to lend……..
BAD NEWS LAKER FANS:SASHA EXCEPTS DEAL IN EUROPE,MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH DO SOMETHING…AND DO IT NOW!!!
Isnt’t 12million/ 3 years??
That’s old news. The dude signed with us: http://www.pe.com/sports/basketball/lakers/stories/PE_Sports_Local_S_web_sasha_signs.2ecdf99.html
Mitch gave him more money and he agreed.
My bad
I knew it all along
: ]
dont resign him sasha iz the next luke waltom, spend your money on somebody who actually gonna be good like j r smith whos only 21
YEEAAHHHHHH
The Machine ” I’ll be back….for more money.”