I've been reading a lot of posts here claiming that Ron will want $10M, or that Ron taking less than $8M is unlikely, and that there's no way he signs for less than he's making now. Let's check out the competition before making these claims: link - As per RealGM's list of salary caps for the '09-'10 season, these are the teams that may be under the cap enough to sign ron for more than the MLE, and their Current cap figure. I say "may" because I'm not sure what the exact salary cap number is for the upcoming season. If anyone knows, please post! Atlanta $42.8m Detroit $35.4m Memphis $33.1m Minnesota $51.4m New Jersey $53.0m Ok City $38.1m Portland $39.7m Sacto $46.6m Toronto $45.9m Which of these teams is motivated to sign Ron for more than MLE money? Category 1: Teams that are hoping to have cap space in 2010 (Detroit, New Jersey) will not sign Ron this summer. Category 2: Young and rebuilding teams (Memphis, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Sacramento) will not be interested in Mr. Artest being the veteran leader on the team. That leaves Atlanta, Portland, and toronto. Atlanta - they would have to choose not to resign bibby, williams, and pachulia if they want to have more than MLE money to offer ron. Toronto - They need wingmen like they have a date with Megan Fox only if they find a date for her friend rosie o'donnell. Still, Bryan Colangelo has said they will look to sign and trade bosh next summer and rebuild. That puts them in Category 2. Probably not interested in spending money on a vet this summer. Portland - The one and only threat. they need a SF. Nate has called for some vet help. Ron just seems to fit there really well. He doesn't seem to be too high on their list of targets. We've heard Hedo & Kidd. I can imagine Bibby and Andre Miller being options as well. However, if everything else fails, they may make a decent offer to ron. If Portland spends their money elsewhere, Ron's highest offer might be MLE money from teams not on this list. I think if the Rockets offer such an amount it would have to be heavily considered, with the possible counter offer of a 1 year extension of his current salary. The extension might help Ron find a larger offer when more teams are willing to spend, but it would put us right at the LT, which means Von would most likely be a gonner. At the end of the day I see Morey holding out for an MLE level deal for Ron, saving money under the LT to make a competitive offer to Von. Thoughts?
One thing working for us with Portland is that they have turned over a new leaf as an organization and seem to have an allergy to guys with questionable character. Personally, I think Ron has come a long way and he plays hard so I don't think he's a problem, but the Rockets were never the jail blazers and Portland is trying hard to shed that image. My understanding is that they will only go after high character guys, and Ron might not be on their list if for no other reason than he has a less than stellar past.
First of all, very well thought out thread. You have to realize though, the offseason is not over. Teams can still make moves and such, especially starting July (8th?), when teams can talk to free agents such as Ron. If Portland is TRULY the only threat to us getting Ron back, I'm not sure he would sign with the Blazers. Reasons: 1. We beat them last season. Any ego would not jump ship from one team to a team they beat last season, even if it IS more a bit more money. 2. We have a core group of guys that Ron is already familiar with. Not sure how it would go down if Ron was asked to take a leadership mentality. Leadership...not the "I'm the first option" option. 3. Ron has already won with us. He's already seen how far we can go if stars are out of our lineup. With this team getting younger, wouldn't he want to be on a more experienced team, rather than a growing power? 4. Loyalty. That's all I need to say about that. The only way I could see Artest moving to another team is if that team stupidly overpays for him, like the Magic did for Lewis. (Rashard is worth a lot...just not that much)
I think the best course of action is to offer Ron an incentives based deal since he believes he is better than he is. Base pay 8 million, then offer 500k incentive spots for effeciency stats up to 12 million. Win win situation imo.
You laid it out very well. Some teams have positioned their cap space to be open for the Lebron Sweepstakes in 2010. When they fail, they will target other veteran players like Ron. He has 2 choices. 1) Go to europe for a year and come back after the other teams are ready to talk. 2) Sign a smaller contract for 1 year with a 2nd year player option. When McGrady's contract expires, Artest can negotiate a larger contract or look at the other teams.
This is an aside, but Memphis should prepare a big offer for Odom just so they can screw with the Lakers, get a little revenge for being on the wrong side of the trade of the century.
I like your idea of a one year deal for Ron, even if it puts Les in luxury tax land. It keeps Ron on his best behavior, and keeps us with cap space next summer if we want to make a run at J Johnson or Bosh.
With veterans, especially ones that you NEED to keep, there's a tendency to keep them happy. If negotiations linger and we try to "low ball" him, Ron might sign elsewhere just because he feels insulted (Bonzi?).
LOL Bonzi is the wrong example to cite. Walking away from Sac's offer was definitely a bad move on his part, he wasn't able to get an offer over 2 Mill after all the waiting he did. To top it off Sac was the one who got insulted, they signed other guys to take his place so he had no where to go back to.
Portland is going to sign with Turkoglu? I don't think Hedo has the cap space to be honest, but I could be wrong
Very true but at that the same time I still feel we have the leverage in contract negotiations. As already mentioned: the demand for a player like Artest is going to be rather limited. Plus, Artest is the type that values respect and appreciation just as much as money. Given that Adelman transformed him from damaged goods into a legit piece on a winning team, I think we have the loyalty edge too. I'd be shocked if he's not a Rocket next year.
There aren't that many teams that can sign Ron Artest? But if you try and Jew him into signing something like a 7-8 million dollar contract using the lack of competition to your advantage, then Ron could get offended by the offers and opt to sign for the MLE for a 2 year deal, player option on the 2nd and try again next year when more teams have room.
Then, two years later, he will be older and would have to sign a worse contract, like Bonzi. btw, I think 7-8 m is the right price, no offend!
