Archive for 09.17.2010

This 26 year old,  6’7″ shooting guard from Slovenia may actually be the luckiest man on earth.  He will have a salary of almost $5.5 million this season, has 2 championships on his resume, and lives in sunny Southern California.  I wonder if his super-hot athlete girlfriend enjoys St. Tropez as much as he does and calls him “The Machine”.  Right now, life must seem pretty rosy for Sasha.  And to give him proper credit, he did hit two clutch free throws in Game 7 of the finals.  Because he is in the final year of his contract, you have to believe this could and probably will change.  My perception is he’s fallen out of favor with the coach.  His minutes played went down from 1293 to 575.  His games played went down from 80 to 67.  His minutes per game went down from 16.2 to 8.6.  With a shooting percentage of 40% from the field, including 31% behind the 3-point line last season, you could understand the dissatisfaction with his production.  His average of 3 points per game does not seem irreplaceable.  It would really help the Lakers in their quest for a three-peat for Sasha to regain his shooting form from a few years back.  No matter how well he plays as the back-up to the back-ups in the guard position, I can’t see him getting a similar contract after this season.    In fact, much like Carmelo Anthony in Denver, if Sasha is still with the Lakers when the playoffs roll around, I will be much surprised.  I think if the opportunity presents itself, the Lakers will trade him to some team looking to reduce salary for the following season.  And if that doesn’t happen, he will either return at a reduced rate, or look to sign on with some other team.  Europe is another possibility.