NBA Rumors: Why Each Team Linked to Gilbert Arenas Should Avoid Him

The Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat and the New York Knicks. What do these three teams share in common?

They should all have the same sentiment when it comes to the prospect of signing free agent Gilbert Arenas: to not do it. The high-scoring, All-Star combo guard has listed those three teams, as well as whichever team picks up Dwight Howard, to be his most favored destinations after getting waived by the Orlando Magic.

It was only four seasons ago when Arenas was averaging 28 points per game with the Washington Wizards and he now finds himself so unwanted that the Orlando Magic are actually willing to let him loose so they can shed his contract from their records.

It was the smartest thing for the Magic to do with Arenas as he was making $17 million to have little impact on a team where he came off the bench.

Gilbert was averaging eight points per game on 34 percent shooting to go along with an even more abysmal 28 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

While it may seem that Arenas' career has taken a turn for the worse, he claims that he isn't performing well because of how the team is playing him. Apparently, he needs to either start or immediately come off the bench as a sixth man in order to get it going on offense.

The Magic aren't going for that, and neither should any other team. Arenas isn't the same player he was with the Wizards in the mid-2000s and he's not going to be a No. 1 or 2 scoring option on any team, contender or not. Even at 29 years old, Arenas is going to be a liability to pick up and would be a terrible fit for any of the teams that he mentioned on possibly joining.

Each of those teams already have a few scorers to rely on. Adding Arenas would only complicate things and add an unneeded source of scoring, as well as a distraction off the court.

He just hasn't been the same since the developments came out that he was holding an arsenal of unloaded weapons in his locker room at the Verizon Center. He even went as far as drawing the weapons in the locker room on a teammate over a gambling debt.

To show how dangerous that could have actually been, that teammate, Javaris Crittenton, is now being accused of murder.

The fact that Arenas has actually been charged with hoarding weapons in his locker at a stadium where 20,000 people attend 41 games over a six-month period is going to be enough for teams to not want to sign him. They don't want the headache, or the risk, that comes with signing a player that had to spend a month at a halfway house in order to fulfill his debt to society.

Why else wouldn't a team want Arenas? Maybe because his knees are shot too. A number of knee surgeries have impeded Arenas' progression and have made him sit out a great deal over the past few seasons.

In a three-year period between 2007 and 2010, Arenas was only featured in 47 games. This past season, however, he managed to play in a total of 70 contests.

For a three-season period, Arenas was one of the league's top players and even earned three All-Star appearances. He was one of the league's most volatile perimeter players, especially in the clutch, and was averaging as much as 29 points per on a Wizards team that also sported the likes of Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison.

It was with these teams that Arenas did the majority of his damage as he'd make it as far as the second round.

After averaging 28 points per game in 2007, however, injuries would begin to play their part and Arenas would only play in 13 games the next season.

Now he has an actual wish list. Superstars are granted a wish list, players that bring weapons into a stadium and have an old Western stand off in their locker room don't. Let's just go through the reasons as to why the Knicks, Lakers and Heat shouldn't even bother to take a chance on the combo guard and former MVP candidate.

First off for the Knicks, they barely have any money to spend after the acquisition of Baron Davis. Speaking of which, it's going to be difficult enough for the team to integrate Davis into a starting lineup that includes Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, as well as possibly adding Arenas into a scorer's role.

There's only room for one shot-jacker from the perimeter allowed on each team. The Knicks already have their one.

For the Lakers, it seems like it could be a good idea to possibly bring in Arenas as a third scorer next to Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. However, tensions are already high in the Los Angeles Lakers organization and adding Arenas to that mix could only heighten that already noticeable tension.

Adding a shooter like Arenas next to a player like Bryant would only cause more frustration from arguably the league's top player.

The Miami Heat seem like the most likely choice if Arenas does end up signing with one of those three teams. They only have enough money to sign a player for the veteran's minimum, but it seems that Arenas is pleased with the money he has already made and is willing to take a significant pay cut in order to join a contender.

Miami has already proven that they're willing to take chances on fallen stars, as they recently signed Eddy Curry to the veteran's minimum. The Heat are lacking in the backcourt off the bench, so maybe a spot for Arenas could be waiting if he's willing to take a back seat as a fourth scoring option on a championship-bound team.

However, this could also cause so many problems. The core three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are just getting acclimated with each other, the organization may want to leave that alone by not adding a player like Arenas who could disrupt relations in the locker room.

If Arenas is willing to play the role as a spark off the bench, this might be the best idea for the Heat. However, the team needs to be extremely careful in doing so as not to possibly cause any sort of tension or strained relations between players. These are four incredibly large egos in the same locker room and with a young head coach leading the way, maybe it would be best for the Heat to allow this one to get away.

Arenas would be perfect to play as a quick boost of energy off the bench. Unfortunately, he was playing that role somewhat in Orlando and he was clearly unhappy with the way the coaching staff was handling him.

Even with age and being cheap on his side, signing Arenas may be one of the riskier moves for any contender or pretender to make this offseason.