Here's a little tidbit out of Sac-town today in the local paper. (Mind you it's almost just an opinion) ------------------------------------------------ http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/sports/kings/archives/007364.html What about that draft pick? Question: Do you know which man the Kings are leaning towards with the upcoming draft pick? Have you heard anything regarding any talks Kings are having in regards to trading Mike Bibby or Ron Artest? - Julie, Lodi As for the draft, I get the feeling they'll snatch up Chinese big man Yi Jianlian if he falls that far. He was impressive in his Los Angeles workout on Wednesday. Otherwise, they seem to be very high on University of Washington center Spencer Hawes, Florida State forward Al Thornton and possibly Florida forward Joakim Noah - although he canceled his Friday workout with the Kings. Another unlikely freefall who would be quickly nabbed is Ohio State point guard Michael Conley. On the trade front, it appears Bibby is more likely to be moved than Ron, but both are available. And in both cases, Kings hoops prez Geoff Petrie will not be had and will be plenty stubborn to get fair value in return. Cleveland and Dallas remain possibilities for Bibby, and I'd put Miami atop the Artest list. Because of the Maloofs-Rick Adelman history, I just can't see the Kings sending Ron or Mike to Houston just to watch the familiar pieces recreate the success of the 2005-06 Kings team with the help of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. - Sam Amick
Can you read by any chance? I said in the very first post that I would welcome the trade for our rumored package, that I was all for it. Artest just isn't the ideal PF, just like you agreed with in the quoted portion above. What's your beef? You seem to be on the same page as I am. Complaining? I'm pointing a legitimate weakness in a basketball team. Unless you think the rockets are perfectly constructed, you've probably had a few complaints of your own (*cough* Alston). As for solutions, maybe you should re-read my first post. I clearly stated that if you want to start Artest we can trade Shane for a shooting PF. A 3pt shooting PF would be ideal, but one that can rebound on top of that is hard to find. Probably out of our price range, too. You want the real solution? Bring Artest off the bench. His defense and face-up game will be more appreciated as energy on the second unit. Yes, that means we start Shane and Hayes together. We never had any problems with Hayes being in the starting lineup. Don't blame our woes on him. We had two major issues last year: Rafer's erratic shooting and our lack of bench production. Starting Mike James solves the first problem (hopefully), while having Artest on the bench solves the second in a major way. I'd rather have Artest be our perfect sixth man of the year candidate than be our starting not ideal PF.
You know what those stats say? Artest gets outrebounded by real PF's, while Hayes and Haslem don't. And if you think Artest's PER is going to be as high as the third option behind Tmac and Yao, it's not. Artest outproduces opposing players by 3.5 in PER at the SF position, where he should be.
http://www.82games.com/0607/06SAC8C.HTM Artest's productivity at PF and SF are not much different. At SF, he outrebounds opposing SF by 0.3. At PF, he gets outrebounded by 0.6 per 48 minutes. His PER is 3.5 higher than opposing SF, and is 2.7 higher than opposing PF. Opposing SF shot 50.4% eFG against him, opposing PF shot .498 eFG. In any case... no he is not a real PF, but he's versatile enough to play one productively for part of his minutes. The same goes with Battier... neither are ideal solutions, but a rotation of Hayes, Battier and Artest at the 3/4 spots would not be one that opposing offense enjoy facing.
The most realistic trade is to move Battier and his salary for a real PF. Artest can be had for #26, Sura, Vspan, and JL3. That leaves Artest at the 3 not the 4 and still room to bring in the Franchise.
That's trading battier's four year contract for a potential one year rental then having to use the MLE to fill that talent void a year after. Francis at this point of his career is a backup not a starter. Rockets have filled that position.
Since you don't know who we'd trade Battier for, then how do you know that we'd be trading him for a potential one year rental? The quote that you referenced didn't suggest that we trade Battier for Artest. What if we traded Battier in a deal for Zach Randolph or Rashard Lewis? Those guys aren't one year rentals. I'm not advocating trading for either guy, but at this point you certainly can't say that if we trade Battier, then it's for a potential one year rental.
It seems from all that is written by ESPN's hoops guy, Sac media etc etc Artest will not be Adelmaned by the Maloofs. Assuming it's true, and I do, then Ron - Ron is a non - non 'starter' this Rocket summer.
I am pretty much on the same page as you, except I cannot think of a better solution for our team than Battier at SF and Artest at PF in the starting lineup. Who is this "shooting PF" we trade Shane for? Playing Artest off the bench is definitely the way to cause him to blow up. I am definitely not blaming Hayes for our woes. He is probably my favorite player on the team. He can play h,alf the minutes at PF, allowing Artest to play some of his minutes at SF and thus, reducing Battier's huge amount of minutes. Please tell me a way to get a shooting PF for Shane because I am open to suggestions.
So you want rebounding? I thought you wanted shooting. I mean it would be nice to have both, but then we are talking about Kevin Garnett. Artest = good shooting PF with mediocre rebounding. He even has 3pt range like you wanted.
That has merit. I read that the Maloof's don't want to turn the Rockets into the 2002 Sacremento Kings in the West. They wouldn't mind giving Artest to the Heat because it's out of the West.
I hope they have one more bad decision in them. Please stay aloof Maloofs and trade us Artest you goofs. It would be smart for them to trade him to someone like Miami. Same with Bibby to Cleveland. Somehow I have a feeling they won't make either good decision and will make the worst decision of all - not trading them at all. They really need to admit they screwed up and rebuild.
I wasn't talking about rebounding and shooting in one player, I'm talking about in a lineup. A lot of teams have one or the other. With Shane and Hayes in the lineup we have both. I hope James can be our third scoring threat while being a sharpshooter, unlike Rafer. If he can, Hayes serves our needs more than Artest as starting PF. If you want a shooting PF for Shane, there are some about. Not a lot of 3pt shooting bigs, but lots of bigs who rock the mid-range. Haslem is a candidate. McDyess is old but good. Murphy is a solid shooter, but I don't like him. Channing Frye and filler. Kristic might be on the block if they trade Jefferson for Randolph. Camby (yeah, right). There are possibilities that we'll need to explore if we replace Battier with Artest.
Some more Artest news....kinda http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.d...est?urn=nba,36963ORTS04/706190379/1247/SPORTS http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/rumors/post/Kings-cool-on-Heat-trade-offer-for-Artest?urn=nba,36963
Artest says he wishes he was still playing for Rick.... bad new for the Rockets fans is the Rick in question is Rick Carlisle.
