[h2]Barnes signs with Lakers[/h2]
ESPN.com news services
Veteran swingman
Matt Barnes, one of the most coveted free agents left on the open market, is headed to the
Los Angeles Lakers.
The seven-year veteran announced the move via his Twitter feed on Thursday, and the Lakers confirmed the deal.
Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Barnes agreed to a two-year contract worth $3.6 million.
Barnes
"Its official IAM A LOS ANGLES LAKER. I wanna thank u for all ur patients andunderstanding. This is a dream come true!!! Good lookn Kobe," Barnesposted on his Twitter feed.
The deal is significantly less than the one he reportedly agreed to with the
Toronto Raptors on Monday.
Barnesannounced Monday night via his Twitter feed that he was headed toToronto. But that deal quickly unraveled when it became apparent thatthe limited sign-and-trade options available to Orlando -- Barnes' lastteam -- would not allow for the contract that Barnes was anticipating.
Underthe impression that he would be receiving a two-year contract worthroughly $9 million, Barnes tweeted his thanks to Magic fans afterannouncing that he'd be "playing for the Toronto Raptors" next season.
TheMagic are prevented by salary-cap rules from starting a sign-and-tradedeal for Barnes at higher than $1.9 million, because Orlando doesn'thave Barnes' full Bird rights after employing him for only one season.A sign-and-trade deal would also have to span at least three years,although only the first year is required to be guaranteed.
Since Toronto recently spent the bulk of its $5.8 million mid-level exception to sign
Linas Kleiza, it did not have the available funds to sign Barnes outright to a deal that starts in the neighborhood of $4 million.
Barneswill be joining his eighth NBA team in returning to Los Angeles wherehe played for four years for UCLA. He has averaged 7.3 points, with acareer high of 10.2 for Phoenix during the 2008-09 season. Barnesstarted 58 games last year for Orlando in his only season with theMagic after a hard recruiting push from center
Dwight Howard,averaging 8.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. The 30-year-oldoriginally signed a two-year deal with Orlando but exercised his optionto become a free agent after playing for $1.6 million in 2009-10.
Shannon Brown'sagent, Mark Bartelstein, told ESPNLosAngeles.com's Dave McMenamin thatBarnes' signing does not change things in Brown's negotiations with theLakers but with 11 players now under contract for the Lakers and theremaining two roster spots considered earmarked for the team's twosecond-round draft picks, it would appear that Brown will not bereturning to L.A.
Information from ESPN.com senior writer Marc Stein was used in thisreport. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
