Bennett's rep will no doubt rely on his playoff performance, while management will stress his regular season. But comments on a forum would never be used. For one thing, they can be manipulated (Guadreauvertime anyone?). At the end of the day I doubt 5 PO games will outweigh 82 regular season games. Plus I think Bennett's performance in the POs, despite being maybe the best on the team except for Smith, is probably overrated and looks good only in comparison to players who didn't perform well at all.
I've always thought that arbitration should be seen as a way to ease tensions between player and team when a negotiation is at an impasse. Just let a third party make the decision. As long as you can get your head around letting the process just go ahead and accept any decision, the player and team should just move on. It would be worse to be sitting in the room with the other side just arguing.
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