Chron: Yao or not, Artest and agent still confident in the team.

Not interested if aint coming down to the 6-8 mill range.

 

Not interested even if he was willing to take a pay cut.

Cap relief is king!

 

Hahaha, that really is pretty funny.

Or might just be part of his strategy (or more likely just a forgetful moment, hell I even forget he's part of the team sometimes), if Ron's agent says that he thinks Tracy is a great contributor (as he is saying with the other guys he listed) than the Rockets can come back at him with that and say, "why would we give Ron all this money? You said yourself it's not about just Yao, and Tracy is pretty good like you said right?"

 

Maybe it's because Tmac will likely be injured to start the year? He didn't list Landry, Lowry, or Wafer either.

 

The Rockets might not know when Yao Ming will play again, but they can be certain about where they stand with free agent guard Ron Artest.

Hours before free agent negotiations can begin, Artest's agent David Bauman said Yao's condition has not changed Artest's desire to return to the Rockets next season.

"Our first choice is to do a deal with Houston, Bauman said. Yao's situation doesn't change that. It has not affected us one way or another.

He's concerned more for Yao than anything."

With Yao, Artest had considered the Rockets to be contenders and cited that potential as one of the reasons he hoped to sign with the Rockets as a free agent this summer.

Bauman said that he and Artest are confident that if Yao does miss much or all of next season, the Rockets have the depth and roster flexibility to make moves without stepping back to rebuild.

"The beauty of what Daryl (Morey, the Rockets general manager) has done, is the Rockets are not just Yao Ming," Bauman said. "They are Ron. They are Aaron (Brooks). They are Shane (Battier) And they are (Luis) Scola. That's the great thing about this team. They can fire on five or six different cylinders."

Bauman would not discuss contract demands. Besides the Rockets, who can exceed the salary cap to sign Artest, there are few teams that have the salary cap room to offer Artest a contract larger than the mid-level exception, worth $5.6 million last season.

When the Rockets traded for Artest last summer, Artest and Bauman asked to put off contract negotiations because the maximum extension at the time, four years and $37 million, might not have been market value.

"We know what we want," Bauman said. "I think the market will support that. Our first choice is to sit down with those guys. He wants to come back to Houston. That's his first choice. We have to balance all those considerations as does Houston."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com

 

nice article. Thanks

 

RON IS THE ROCKETS AND SO CAN YOU!

 

WHAT??

 

Stephen Colbert reference.

 

Above $9M per? Not interested. Not if we're going to rebuild. Not unless McGrady becomes Chris Bosh before October.

Evan

 

I think 9M over 4 years is perfect. Even freaking Battier is going to be making 7M his last year in '11.

Maybe we could grade it to make you guys feel better. How about this:

8M in '09, 8.75M in '10, 9.25M in '11, 10M in '12? By then he will probably be reduced to an enticing Ron Artest's Expiring Contract, but at least you know he won't quit on you like a certain someone else...

 

Exactly....
Rebuild, Retool its semantics

 

Unless he's promoting rap albums...

 

Sign Artest and trade Battier or keep Battier and let Artest walk.

Neither of them are legit SGs, offensively, and both are starting-caliber SFs. Investing all that money into 2 players that play the same position doesn't make sense.

 

most teams that are contenders will only offer MLE for ron. Ron needs to stay in houston at 6-8 mil.

 

i don't want ron as our best player. no way in hell. either get another star or make brooks/scola our main guy.

 

Here is what Feigan has to say:

Seems the front office will try to bring Ron back, but won't overpay him any more than they would before the injury news.