I think that... what would be more likely would be for CD to get involved in a multi-team deal in which some other team gets Artest and the rockets end up with a different player.
getting croshere would be a good fit and an upgrade over swift and jho. his contract is killer but it's only for one more season.
See, now something like that sounds more likely. Les might be willing to bite the bullet with his wallet for one season in order to get the team back into competition.
Only reason I haven't broken out my trade-buster form yet is that I actually like the idea of bringing Artest to Houston.
i completely understand the concerns with artest. however anyone who wouldn't trade head/swift/howard/yourmom to risk it...has absolutely no gauge of talent. head is good but he will never be a star. plus players like head/howard can be replaced. swift has so far turned out fairly disappointing. plus howards contract is very very long. artest is a two year risk. worst case we clear up some room on the cap. best case...we have our version of rodman who can score 15 and shut down or at least significantly limit nowitski/duncan/gino/amare/marion/brand.
Funny but do you remember Rodman? Wedding Outfit !!!! Public display of sheer idotics.... But most importantly do you remember the rings
I could not agree more. Sometimes I wonder when people make Luther Head sound like he is destined to be an ALL Star. He is good- but we are talking of ROn f****g Artest. J Ho is a great guy- but his long contract and age will definitely be something you need to keep in mind. I doubt Indy will bite on J HO, I think we will have to take back Austin C for a year- which is not really that terrible.
Oh, I'm not saying we shouldn't get Artest. I'm just saying we probably won't get Artest because of the "no knucklehead" policy the Rockets are following.
One thing: You don't NOT make this deal because of Luther Head. That's ridiculous. He's a good kid and a breath of fresh air for an otherwise putrid draft history for this organization, but let's be honest with ourselves. If you think you can make the playoffs this year, Luther Head should not be a deal breaker for Ron Artest. I think I would make the deal. McGrady only has 2 or 3 elite years left in his body. You have to take a risk like this.
I agree ... I've had a hard time deciding on this one too, due to the character issue, which is the only reason he's available. But, if we can actually pull it off with any players but McGrady and Yao, you have to do it, if nothing else from a trade standpoint. The risk is that he blows up again ... but, I'm not sure his trade value could get much lower than it is now. So, worst case, in the off-season, we could trade for a package deal like the Warriors are offering, and still improve the team more than Head, our draft pick and Wesley's expiring contract. I seriously doubt we'll end up with a high draft pick, even if we don't make the playoffs, unless we have McGrady and Yao rest the remainder of the season., and I don't believe that draft pick would impact our championship hopes. Artest would. I think if JVG believes he could coach him, and that he doesn't fit into the knucklehead category, his value could go way up. Its similar to the Alston trade. If he does well, and we still don't believe he fits with these players, we could get a lot more in trade than if we kept Head, Wesley and a draft pick. I expect the team will come back healthy, but I'm losing confidence that even if they reach the playoffs, they won't go far. The team we had last year had great chemistry, but that came from players like Sura, Wesley and Barry who are a year older, and don't have the same juice left. If Artest worked, from a chemistry standpoint, we could go far in the playoffs, if we get healthy. If he doesn't fit, we trade him this summer. Worst case, we get what we traded back, and best case, get a lot more that might fit. He does fit what we need, especially if Alston comes around as a PG and Swift at PF. We need some intensity, toughness and more talent. We need more defense, and there's hardly anyone better available in that department. He's a top 10 player in the league with a cheap contract. I'd get him even so we could trade him, and if he fits, he might be the piece that takes us to a championship.
Very true. And with Artest taking the toughest perimeter defense assignments that T-Mac is asked to do right now, we might just squeeze even more elite years out of T-Mac.
This is probably why we signed up John Lucas III to begin with; finding some sort of replacement for Luther Head. Ron Artest is looney-tunes, to be sure, but he has guts and drive and he just might be the only guy to actually show up for the Rockets when we play in the godd***ed Toyota Center. Here we are a month into the Ron-Ron b.s.; the first trade I ever proposed (right off the bat) would have involved Luther and Howard and a pick to Atlanta, Al Harrington to Indiana (why not? he'd fit right in) and Artest to the Rockets. I don't want to give up Luther and Swift. Granted, Atlanta would need a power forward (still); I don't want to give up too many of our young players. But when we have a healthy T-Mac, Yao, and Artest....? That would be one scary lineup. If nothing else (as someone else mentioned), if this doesn't work, we can have 15 teams lining up for us in the off-season, ready to deal for Artest. But I'd like to think we would at last have our third scorer and defensive stopper. As far as Ron Ron not liking JVG's offense, doesn't it seem JVG is always exhorting the team to run....to no avail?
That's probably one of the best reasons to get him, and I feel dirty even saying it. What a crap shoot! We're so far behind that you're close to looking at the team we'll have next year, as opposed to what will help us this year. Artest, with a modicum of sanity, matched with a healthy McGrady and Yao, would be close to illegal. We could just drive opposing coaches nuts. With any kind of decent supporting cast, we could do some serius damage.
This team needs a spark...Toughness and thugnessthat we really miss from Sura. Artest could provide that...
