you can't beat a 3 mill/year quality pf.. remember j ho? he was making over 10!! and he was crap!! there are a lot of expensive crap out there and I don't want any of it. and plus we don't have the money to resign artest. He's going to bounce as soon as someone offers him more money once his contract is up. No thanks man! I'll take the cheap quality pf over expensive feces any day..
Juwan Howard never made 10 million per year playing for us. He was on an MLE deal the entire time he was with the Rockets.
So where would u put al jefferson? What about al harrington and a healthy K-Mart? Like I mentioned, a lot of people dislike howard, but when yao went down last season, he was like 14-8 with 46% fg. He was easily the 2nd option. It like always, overblowing a player on this team. When Francis was here, it was he's better than davis,miller,bibby, and terry. Many talked about how bibby and miller are producing on losing teams, davis is in the east. Now many want to rewind the clock on francis and most would love to have those others as pg's. Personally, if get a chance to get the 3rd or 4th best wing in the western conference behind kobe,tracy, and all u have to give up is scola? Almost every gm who has a chance at a title would do it. We've seen this inflated opinion about francis,battier, and now scola. If the Kings want him and say jackson for a signed Artest, Turiaf/landry or millsap/landry or Wilcox/landry will give the rox the same production as they get now if not more. Not to mention ur getting a guy that is a mismatch headache for opposing coaches.
Scola is one of the missing pieces for our championship run, which should start next year if Mr. 11 can stay healthy.
Who cares where I have em. You have Scola as 10th best PF in west and I noted that there are 6 allstars so it´s not very surprising that Scola is a below average starting PF in west. As I said PF is very strong position in West while swingman is very weak. Still having Artest as 3rd or 4th best is reaching big time.
Czar - the poster you were addressing also failed to realize that we also have one of the best centers in the league (one of the best top3 or possibly best center period). Add that with 10th best center in the West, it is pretty formidable front line.
Yes but even if we don´t take Yao in this everyone he has over Scola is likely making 3 times the money. PF in West is by far the best position in the league at the moment.
What ur not adressing is to get a top talent/player, it makes the game easier for tracy,yao and everyone else. The situation is no different than Detroit when they got wallace. When u get difference makers, the scoring slumps are less and the game is more fluid. Scola is a good bargain, but artest is a great player. A game changer/difference maker on both ends. Scola will always be a hustle guy,limited skill guy. That's not a bad thing and on a team like the spurs who have 3 legit scorers, but on the rox team that have 2 legit options and a bunch of average to below average offensive players, Artest is the difference between winning a title and winning one rd. This team isn't young enough like Portland or N.O. that they can try to keep building or advance 1rd per yr. They made the decision to win now when they traded rudy gay. Now that they are on this 3 yr course, they need to take every step to insure they have the best team possible to win the title. If scola is that pawn, so be it.
Just what I was thinking. Anyways, here are the reasons why we should not trade Scola for Artest (some have already been said by other posters): 1. Scola's contract makes him almost untradeable for equal value, unless it's in a package. 2. Upgrading the starting SF spot is not our priority. 3. Related to #2. Getting Artest almost means getting rid of Battier (unless you are thinking about a bigger splash that involves McGrady). Where are you going to play Battier when you have Artest? Off the bench? PF? So you are pretty much gutting 40% of your starting lineup. Bad move for a team that is already contending if healthy. 4. Artest is a big risk. He has reached his peak. He might stay productive for some more years. Or he might quit his basketball career tomorrow. With Artest, there is no certainty. The only certain thing is that he is not going to get better than what he is now. 5. Scola, on the other hand, still has upside. Although he is an "old" rookie, he is still a rookie. He has adjusted faster than most of us expected. He can only get better. And unlike Artest, Scola is reliable. He is emotionally stable and is not a malcontent. I'd only trade Scola in a package if we can get a top flight PG. But our biggest priority is solid backup swingman. And I wouldn't trade Scola for a backup swingman.
What ur not adressing is to get a top talent/player, it makes the game easier for tracy,yao and everyone else. The situation is no different than Detroit when they got wallace. When u get difference makers, the scoring slumps are less and the game is more fluid. Scola is a good bargain, but artest is a great player. A game changer/difference maker on both ends. Scola will always be a hustle guy,limited skill guy. That's not a bad thing and on a team like the spurs who have 3 legit scorers, but on the rox team that have 2 legit options and a bunch of average to below average offensive players, Artest is the difference between winning a title and winning one rd. This team isn't young enough like Portland or N.O. that they can try to keep building or advance 1rd per yr. They made the decision to win now when they traded rudy gay. Now that they are on this 3 yr course, they need to take every step to insure they have the best team possible to win the title. If scola is that pawn, so be it.
In what ways do u see a 28 yr old limited skil guy getting better? Artest is a 9 scola is a 6 at best. Is he going to get longer? Maybe he'll start to finish layups or easy dunks. I guess seeing Battier after his 22pt game average 7 pts per doesn't make a 3rd scorer a need to you.
It's easier and cheaper to find a skilled 2/3 than it is a solid 4. Scola may not be an All Star, but he is solid. He was the second best player for us in the playoffs against one of the better forwards in the league right now and a guy that killed us last year. Yao is never going to make it through a season consistenly healthy. We can't afford to give up the one guy on this team that can score around the basket and has some low post moves. If you can move Scola for a guy like Artest and then replace Scola with someone that can do the same thing fine. But we can't be undersized at the 4 spot and continue to think we have a chance in the West.
Scola is not a "limited skill guy." He would not be "the best player outside of NBA" for nothing. He can shoot the midrange shot. He has moves to get to the basket. He gets loose balls. He gets offensive rebounds or tips it to his teammates. He takes charges. He flops. He scraps. This is his FIRST YEAR playing in the NBA, for goodness sake. Give him some credit. Ginobili took a couple of years to get adjusted and he was considered the best player Argentina had. So you don't think Scola will get better? Artest is not a 9, if you are measuring with a scale of 10. Kobe is 10. Chris Paul is 10. Lebron is 10. Yao is probably 10 or 9. T-Mac is 9. Are you saying Artest is as good as McGrady? You are seriously overrating this dude. Artest is at best a 7 or an 8. Scola is a 6, alright. I am not saying Scola is a better player than Artest now. I am saying you can trade for Artest and then lose him the next day. Scola, you know he is going to get better. He is very likely to get to the level of 7. So are you willing to trade Battier + Scola for Artest? Are you comfortable having Landry/Hayes as your PF tandem? If you do, you are as crazy as Artest himself.
Comparing international ball is similar to college ball, maybe a step up. We've seen these so called great overseas players be scrubs or avg over here. Just lik we've seen avg guys overseas become very good over here. The statement about best man not in the u.s. isn't that relative. Scola is a good player and yes artest is a 9 type of player. To get a 20ppg guy that is the best defender in the entire league isn't a common player. I never said trade both for artest, but if they ask for scola and jackson, with the mle or using battier as trade bait, they can get a combo forward spot with landry. Just my opinion, the only thing keeping landry from taking that spot is health. He does the same thing as the invaluable scola. People want to bring up the scola factor as the reason why the rox start winning, but anyone is a upgrade from hayes. Not to mention landry started getting consistent minutes. I know how much people really like scola because somehow hayes was manning the 4 spot, but to turn down artest for scola would be kinda foolish to me.
Using Battier with Landry as bait alone won't work IMO.Landry's injury and relative inexperience might scare them off and Battier by himself is obviously not enough.Artest is a crazy guy but the Kings can get more for him in a trade. There is no doubt we need a 3rd star even with Scola at the 4.I know I'm might sound hypocritical because we do need to take risks since our salary cap and trading assets are limited. It's also possible that the Kings would want Luis too because of their long standing problems at the 4. I feel that the Kings will want more than Luis because Jackson is just an expiring pick right now.They might want the 25th pick and maybe Battier along with it and Scola too. If Artest didn't have so many issues with him and if we had some more depth I could think about it but I don't trust him.
Manu wrote an editorial a while back where he stated that Scola was only playing at around 50% of what he was capable of. By your scale that would make him a 12 once he adjusts. Seriously, anybody who watched the games this season saw that Scola had a lot of problems adjusting. On the defensive side he picked up so many fouls that it interfered with his playing time. Scola genuinely does have a high bb IQ and I fully expect that he's going to play a lot better next year with his rookie season out of the way.
What a no brainer! No way scola for artest! Just look at potential and attitude! Too much of a risk i would say!
