zero chance to make the salaries match up. even if we trade away alston and battier we are still like 10 million short of making the salaries match.
Do not need him...we solved our major problem. A third scorer and another defensive player all in one.
No AI needed. Ron Artest is the the perfect 3rd scorer, Rafer is actually good at everything else a PG is required to do. He'll dish and Yao/Mac/Ron will score. Easy as pie.
The whole basis behind that AI rumor was that the ticket people were going to have to work overtime because of a big trade - I'd say that this Ron Artest trade was the big trade that they were talking about. AI wouldn't work on this team, especially now. We need a point guard that distributes - like Alston - not one that cares about his shot over all others. We're not going to get AI, at least I hope we don't...
now that we have so much offensive power ... please no A.I. Please. No disrespect to him, but players of his caliber are too good in a way to be our starting pg with our new big 3 ... He's an awesome player, just not right for our team.
Artest is just as likely to cry as much as AI. If Ron keeps his head straight,he can help us out a lot more on defense than Iverson but not as much as on offense. The answer to the question of getting AI without involving Yao or Tracy is no.
Even if the Rockets could make a deal where contracts match, it's likely another team would offer the Nuggets more just to keep AI from teaming up with Artest and Yao.