Jeff, I know we've been **** so far this season, but this assessment seems too harsh, especially from someone like you. Don't you think? I don't want Lakers to land Artest with a package of Odom, that would make them suddenly a lot tougher. Nor do I want Artest to go to Sonics for Lewis. And I cannot imagin Pacers trade Artest for Peja whose game is grossly overrated and who is gonna be a FA after $$$ next year. Is there any happy ending if we don't get Artest?
Say YES to ARTEST! . . .if we can get rid of hoochie norris in the process. . . and even if it means saying good bye to Grumpy. Cmon, ppl, Artest is a very dependable offensive producer and defender. We can't rely on bad back T-mac for everything. Don't get me wrong, T-mac is my favorite b-ball player of all time, but besides T-mac and Yao, we don't have any body that can win some games for us. I know the chances of acquring Artest are slim to none, but that was what I thought before we got T-Mac. I'm gonna go pray now that God will bless Htown with another star, or since it is the Christmas Season, maybe I'll just ask santa for Artest.
I make a offer they can't refuse: Artest & Carlisle for Swift, Moochie, Rafer Alston, Clutch, JVG, and Yao's firstborn.
What kind of trade value can you get for a player you admit you have to trade?: http://www.nba.com/pacers/news/artest_051212.html Pacers Moving On Without Artest By Conrad Brunner | Dec. 12, 2005 The Pacers are moving on. So, it appears, is Ron Artest. In response to Artest's very public demand to be traded, franchise CEO and President Donnie Walsh met with the unhappy star, who repeated his request privately. As a result, Walsh said today he and team President Larry Bird will work to make a deal that would result in Artest's relocation. "I do think it is a time to kind of break apart and see if he can get a new start somewhere else," Walsh said. "I think that it is important for us to put our past behind us and stop these distractions so that what I think is a fine basketball team can go on. What kind of trade is this going to be if there is going to be a trade? All that has got to be answered and we'll get about doing that as soon as possible." In the interim, Artest will not practice or play with the Pacers. He has missed the last two games with a sore right wrist and Walsh said he will remain on the inactive list through this week. Though Artest has not been suspended, he has been told not to attend practice. Walsh made it clear he would've preferred Artest express his desire privately, rather than conducting a weekend media blitz, granting one-on-one interviews to The Indianapolis Star and WXIN television. But after meeting with Artest, he said he had a much better understanding of the player's motivation. "He's a young guy under a lot of pressure," Walsh said. "I don't feel betrayed at all. I really don't. I don't want anyone to think that because I don't feel that way. I've had situations from players that either leave mad or they are mad at you and I have never taken it personally from them because I understand. "They have a finite career. There is a lot of money at stake. What they perceive is best for them you may take as, 'Oh, wow, look what I did for that guy.' Well, the guy did something for you, too. He won a lot of games here. The one thing that I would say about Ronnie is that for those people who say NBA players don't play hard, then they should pay money to come out to see Ronnie play because he plays hard all the time and I appreciated that." Replacing a player who earned All-Star status and the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year award in 2003-04 will be a challenge made even more difficult by Artest's public trade demand. Making a one-for-one trade may not be possible because Artest's salary (a reported $6.5 million) is relatively modest; players of his caliber generally earn much more. But there already are numerous reports of interest from other teams, so the Pacers will have options. Bird is on a scouting trip in Spain and could not be reached for comment but is communication with other teams testing the trade waters, Walsh said. "Whatever we think is a good fit for our team is a good fit for our team," Walsh said. "I don't think I'm going to take the All-Star team from last year and say we have to get one of those guys." The Pacers won their last two games in Artest's absence, improving their overall record to 12-7, second-best in the Eastern Conference. From those victories over Washington and Memphis, they've drawn confidence that they are in the process of developing the necessary chemistry to succeed, even without a player of Artest's obvious talents. "The best way I can say it is we've played well, we've moved the ball and played great defense the last two games so we are showing signs that we are getting the chemistry," said Stephen Jackson. "We can't put the blame on Ron. We can't say because Ron's not here, everything's flowing better. All we can say is we're starting to figure each other out, we're starting to play well together and we're starting to play like the team we know we can be." Jermaine O'Neal didn't even want to address questions about Artest's situation. "It's about the Pacers," said Jermaine O'Neal. "It's about the players that suit up every single day. I'm tired of answering questions about Ron over and over and over again. … At some point, you just get tired of all the extras and you move on. I wish the best to Ron in his career and hopefully he's able to achieve whatever he's looking for. "Our team is very good. Obviously, he helps our team win … but it hasn't just been about him. We have a good team. We have a talented team. And the business will go on. If he's traded, we will find somebody else who can help this team. That's all that matters." In large part because of Artest's past, the Pacers are well-prepared to deal with not only this latest distraction, but the physical challenge of playing shorthanded until a trade is made. "We've got to focus on the guys that are here and committed and go from there," said Coach Rick Carlisle. "It's pretty simple. We've got a group of guys that are capable and we've got to try to find ways to win. We've got to do our best find the right way to play and the right style and all those things. "You're never going to be as good a team in terms of manpower without a guy like Ron Artest. But right now, the reality is we don't have him so we're going to go with the guys we have."
I would gurantee you, Tracy will start looking for an opportunity of leaving the next year! What the hell does this trade make any sense?! Yao Ming is currently forcuse on what is his weakness for Rox defense, and he is doing pretty decent job? If Yao left, this team is no better than Magics.
Exactly. These are the factors in his trade value: Positives: Tremendous talent on both ends of the floor. Creates mismatches with whoever guards him. Can guard quick perimeter players and stronger post up players. Plays hard and with intensity. Can create his own shot. Cheap contract. Negatives: Loooonnng history of disrupting the team. Publicly requested a trade. Team says they will trade him. Pacers would prefer to trade him to Western Conference where they won't see him as often. Even though Artest is a great talent, his negatives bring his trade down severely. If Vince Carter gets traded for draft picks, The Williams's and an absent Zo, and Baron Davis gets traded for Speedy Claxton, Artest might be traded for cheap. Cheap enough for the Rockets? doubtful, but weirder things have happened.Early season trades did help us last year, and Cd has said they were looking to shake things up...
no becuase artest said is he gets traded to the west then he will not resign with them after his contract is up and will go to the east, and head we should keep he is young and showing potential, and we need our number 1 pick and wesley's contract is up and we could use that to trade for someone else or for next seasons free agency
Do you know Artest is getting $6.5 mil a year and his contract won't run out until summer 2008? Wesley's expiring contract will only get us a long term contract another team doesn't want which most likely is a bad contract anyway. I'd rather take Artest bargain contract for next 3 years then dreaming about what Wesley can get us. I take what Artest said with a discount. He's not gonna get paid huge $$$ for coming off bench for LBJ. Knicks will not have money to sign him streight up, and looking at their contracts I doubt they can convince any team to s&t Artest for them. Artest didn't know what he was talking about.
The whole thing comes down to McGrady and Van Gundy. If they want Artest, CD will go after him. If they don't want him, then CD won't. I would suspect that even though Van Gundy likes him, I don't know if McGrady really cares for him. I've read several times that McGrady is pretty close to Jermaine so that friendship may affect how he feels about Artest. I really can't see McGrady wanting the guy. But if he did, you know Van Gundy would, and you know that McGrady would have been in contact with Artest to make sure he understands the circumstances here and wants to come here. I thought Artest made some favorable comments about the Rockets when he was at Fonde playing in the offseason. Of course, that may not mean much. The whole thing is this. It's gonna go down like the McGrady and Shaq deals. If Artest wants to go someplace, and that team wants him, the deal will get done because 1) Walsh and Bird ain't gonna keep him in Indy disrupting the team 2) no team is gonna take him without him stating he wants to be there and giving them some sort of commitment that he wants to stay there for some said period of time. The thing I worry about is Artest getting traded to Dallas. If he goes there, they become a lot tougher opponent. At the beginning of this season, with a healthy McGrady, I truly felt that we were right behind SA as the 2nd best team in the West. McGrady being out for those games did expose our lack of quickness on the perimeter but in spite of that, I still feel like in a 7 game series, we could hold our own with anybody in the conference. However, if Artest gets moved to the Mavs, that changes everything. In my mind, that puts Dallas past us. I can't see us beating a Mavs team with Artest on it along with Dirk and the rest of the posse. They are already much improved defensively and will be harder to handle on that end because of Avery forcing them to lock down and defend. Now, you add Artest to that and all of a sudden they've got a potent scorer and one of the top 3 defenders in the whole league. That makes Dallas very hard to beat. I'm not so worried about anybody else. If he goes to Sacto, I don't see them being that good. I don't even think he really fits there. I don't think he makes Seattle much better with the subtraction of Rashard. Minny?? If they could get him for Wally and whatever else and pair him with KG, I think that makes Minnesota better in the long run, but it will take them another year or so to get pieces around those two. Denver?? If Denver could get him and Croshere for KMart and whatever, then they could be tough playing him at the 2 with Melo, Camby, Nene, and whatever point guard they have left. The Lakers would have to give up Lamar probably and they still don't have anything inside. Besides it will take Artest at least a year or longer to learn to run the triangle. So, I would think the Rox would be interested in him, if nothing else, because if they aren't and some other competitor like Dallas or Denver gets him without giving up much, then the Rox lose anyways. It's definitely gonna be interesting to see how this plays out.
Espn had a local reporter interviewing Artest and the dude said he didn't care where he was traded to, it could be any of the 28 teams, the best or the worst. Also Ric Bucher was of the opinion that Indiana will not get back equal value in return, and that Donnie Walsh will be interested in young talent that will be much better in a year or two, one of the reasons for this is because of Artest 6.8 million dollar contract. That sounds like a pitch for guys like Luther Head and Stromile Swift to me. I am seriously starting to think those two guys could get this thing done for the Rockets. CD would have to offer those two guys to get talks started. I'm sure he will. Ron Artest with Mcgrady and Yao...that's a championship contender right there. Nobody would fault them if it doesn't work. It's a risk you HAVE to take. I think Luther Head and Stromile Swift would be more enticing to Indiana than say a Josh Howard and Marquis Daniles if the two expiring contracts of David Wesley and Derek Anderson are offered in a package. Hell if they want Moochie's expiring contract as well they can have that too. Who do they want...what players...what expiring contracts(we have three of them)...and how many draft picks? For Ron Artest and whoever the hell else they want to throw in.
Here's the thing: Not many GM's will want a Ron Artest right now. Why? Because the only way you go after him is if you are a Ron Artest away from being a championship contender. I mean why else would you put up with the guy right now. I mean why would Atlanta or Seatlle or any of those teams put up with all that comes with Ron Artest just to win more games? So the question is, how many teams are a Ron Artest away from being a championship contender? Maybe you can count them on one hand. And out of those teams, a couple are good enough and comfortable enough with what they have, so there is no way in hell they would mess up their chemistry by adding Ron Artest. I'm talking about Detroit and San Antonio. So out of the other teams, the Rockets being one of them, who are a Ron Artest away from being a major contender, what do they have to offer that is better than what the Rockets could offer? If you narrow it down like this, there is no reason to believe that the Rockets won't be major players if they want to trade for Ron Artest.
looking at Indiana's depth chart, at the 2 & 3, they only have SJax, Freddie Jones, and Danny Granger [after Artest is traded away]. so regardless of who trades with them, Indiana MUST be getting a swingman back, probably a veteran one that can handle major minutes until the rookie Granger totally inherits the role. that being said, what exactly does Indiana want, do you think? do they want something dependable for a number of years? or do you think they'd tolerate a stop-gap if it's an expiring contract? -their PG spot looks ok w/ Sarunas & Anthony Johnson holding it down until Tinsley gets healthy -their PF spot looks decent w/ JO and Croshere, although they hate Croshere's contract -their C spot looks decent as well the reason i'm asking about the whole expiring contract thing is b/c i'm wondering how happy they'd be if someone took Bender's contract off their hands... this kid's career is over, i think, so he's just eating money, now. another question - can we trade the leftovers of bought-out contracts? for example, we have vin baker's and spoon's - just a thought.. honestly, though, the likelihood - even if we could trade those bought-out contracts - that we could pull off a deal for Artest involving those contracts is pretty slim to none considering that there are 28 other teams besides the Rockets and Pacers, and there's plenty of talent that could help the Pacers right now; room under the cap won't help them win a championship this year.. that being said.. i haven't realgm'ed this yet.. 1) DA - any deal we try to pull off will have to include him, simply b/c of the position he plays not to mention his reasonable contract 2) Wesley - his contract isn't bad, and could fit in nicely as the starting, "defensive-minded" 2 for 3) Artest this deal is totally ridiculous if you look at the talent difference. but if you look at it in terms of short-term fix, as well as long-term cap flexibility/breathing room, it's not that bad for Indiana. true, it sucks for them talent-wise, but hey, they have to trade him. and it looks like they'll have to do it soon. i think the salaries match up pretty closely: $6.5 mill vs ~$6.74 mill, if i'm not mistaken. now if Indiana wants to get rid of Croshere, Bender, or AJohnson [bad salary/productivity/unhappiness ratio] to balance out Artest [great talent/salary ratio], then i doubt the Rockets have anything to offer. our expensive assets aren't tradeable, and the ones we could put together [scrubs] wouldn't be tradeworthy.
if you read certain pacers board (I cannot name it here), some pacers fans would throw in a pick on top of Artest for SAR! That is ridiculous. CD has to give it a shot. At least give it a try please.
maggette's been the subject of a few trade rumours, ie getting shopped, lately. artest and maggette make around the same money and play the same positions. ron would make the clips that much scarier and corey would also improve the pacers. i hope a trade goes down quick.
well as reported on ESPN, pacers say they will trade artest within 10days. If the Kings over Peja, I don't see how we could top that from our end, unless Peja's contract is very unnatractive (i don't know Peja's contract details). not only would this be a good trade for Hou but it would be convenient as far as being toward the early stages of the season rather than midseason.
