Lakers guarantee Metta World Peace and Thomas Robinson’s contracts

Saturday afternoon was the last day to waive players whose contracts were not guaranteed before they became such and the Los Angeles Lakers did not waive anyone, giving Metta World Peace and Thomas Robinson have plenty of reason to celebrate.

Before I get into analyzing the lack of a decision on those two, I do want to point out how cool a moment like that must be. So, congratulations to both Peace and Robinson on what just became a pretty cool day. Now, with that out of the way...

Metta World Peace should not be on an NBA roster in 2017. There’s no other way to say it. Mentorship is great, but that could be provided from Peace as an assistant coach. And when you hear people say something along the lines of “well he doesn’t want to be an assistant coach”, that isn’t his choice to make. I’d like to weigh less while not exercising and eating the way I do, but that isn’t how the laws of physics work, unfortunately.

Look, I’m the first to point out how flawed the thinking is when people ignore things that cannot be tangibly quantified. Without being in the locker room at all times, I can’t speak to how valuable Metta’s mentorship might be. But the question does beg asking: What such leadership does Metta offer that, say Luol Deng does not?

The difference between those two is: Luol Deng is not an unmitigated disaster anytime he’s on a basketball court in the NBA. So when you hear about how players value his lessons because he’s a player and not a coach, simply respond with: “He’s only a player, still, because the Lakers overvalue people who were at one point valuable Lakers. See Scott, Byron.”

Lastly, if the argument for keeping him around is basically that he can be waived at any time, I’d like to ask how that’s an argument for keeping him around in the first place? That sounds an awful lot like putting off a tough decision that should have been made already.

But again, the important thing here is congratulating guys on the accomplishment of being valuable enough to stick around in the NBA. So, Thomas Robinson, I say congrats.