If we are really shopping Ron, maybe we can do a Ron to Mike Miller trade (Min are looking for one year short contract) plus a pick out of another team, if they want Ron.
Why when nobody rumor of Francis trade to Memphis? 90% of rumors never comes true and the one that really happens like Gasol to Lakers or Ron to Houston never get rumor.
Gotta say Morey moves fast, this is smart. It would be smarter if he traded Battier instead but I'm sure we would just get crap in return for Shane while Artest can get a pretty good player so it seems doable. Should be interesting to see what he can manage though.
*Am I missing something here with Nash? I don't know what I found more odd while skimming this thread...that numerous people thought we could trade for Steve Nash or that the majority of those same people would actually pass on such a trade. *The intensity Artest brought to the Cleveland, Boston, and Utah games can't be replaced. We need Ron Artest in the playoffs. Given his low trade value, with the expected return, you can forget about contending this year. With him, we have as good a shot as anyone in the west. *I can understand asset management and not wanting to lose him for nothing in the summer, but not in this context. The return is so low here that it doesn't justify killing the last title hopes for this current team. McGrady is likely gone in '10 and Yao will be 30 and likely on the severe decline. I would rather go down swinging with Artest than try to net a long term marginal asset like Ray Felton, essentially wasting one of Yao's prime years. *It gives me a lot of comfort knowing it's Morey at the helm and they won't be trading Ron and another first for John Ameechi. Hopefully I'm severely underestimating his trade value.
We have Artest's Bird rights, but that just means that we can exceed the salary cap to sign him. Do you really think that the Rockets are going to go over the luxury cap to sign him? While we can theoretically pay him whatever we like (up to the max), realistically we'll be constrained by the Luxury Tax threshold. Even if you believe that the Rockets were willing to pay Artest the max, that still wouldn't guarentee that we could retain him.He's not a restricted free agent like Landry was so we don't have the right to match any offer. Artest will be free to sign with any team that he likes. He can take less money than what the Rockets offer if he wishes. Let's say Artest decides that he want to go home to NYC. He can sign with the Knicks for equal or less than what the Rockets offer and there's nothing the Rockets could do about it.
Well, Obviously it affects the 2010 plan but I was saying that Im sure the rockets would do the trade based on talent and salaries matching. If you don't think about 2010 its a no brainer in my opinion. Of course thats all GM's are thinking about these days it seems like. The only thing I don't like about the 2010 plan is that every other team seems to be doing the same thing which makes it less likely that the Rockets will even land Lebron, Wade, Anthony, or Bosh. Yeah there are other FA's but it doesn't seem worth it if you can't get one of those 4.
I thought about the Charlotte situation also. Jordan loves artest and Larry loves defensive players. They hand picked Augustine from the draft. They've already shipped out Carrol and Richardson. I would prefer to get rid of shane, so here is my scenerio. Shane and Rafer for Mohammed,Felton, and morrison. Mohammed backs up Yao,Felton is the penetrating pg, morrison is throw in. Shane is a larry brown player and rafer backs up augustine. Money works.
leebigez, it's ridiculous how much you seem to dislike Shane Battier. You just don't understand how valuable he is!
What's your logic for saying that Yao will be on a severe decline in 1.5 to 2 years? Seems to me that since Yao doesn't rely on athleticism or quickness then he level of play should drop off less with age than other players. In '10 Yao will still by 7'6" and will still be able to shoot the ball. Do you really believe that he'll get any slower? Would it really matter? Big men have a history of playing into their late 30's and early 40's (Jabbar, Parish, Malone, Gilmore). It's the guys that depend primarily on athletic ability (SF3 for example) that tend to have a sharp fall off as they get older.
I only read 2 pages of this thread before I couldn't take it anymore. The "Wafer has made Ron expendable" take is absurd. Seriously? We're comparing Von Wafer to Ron Artest??? Ron Artest is an all-star caliber player, capable of leading a team. Von Wafer has been on 5 teams in 3 years, never played in more than 21 games prior to this year and in his 21.4 minutes per game this year could be compared to Allan Houston at best. I like what Wafer brings to the team chemistry, but Ron is now expendable because of Von fricking Wafer?? You have got to be effing kidding me!
I would keep ron over tmac and yao....he is the hardest working player on this team....he is the best one on one defender in this league and he isn't too shabby on offense
I just wanted to give my opinion of a player that I hear brought up quite a bit here on CFs.net. Kirk Hinrich is a good player at best. He is still due 36.5 million dollars untill the end of 2011/2012 at a rate of about 10 mil per season. He is under performing this year and his stats make Rafer look like a All-Star. For the price tag, along with the 3 years remaining after this season, I would say he should NOT be on the Rockets radar. He underplays considering his pay, and has not lived up to his current contract. Although he would be a great bench player, there is no need to trade either Artest or Alston for him. He gives us no financial relief in 2010, therefore messing up our 2 year plan. Just say no to drugs, and HELL NO to Kirk Hinrich. That is all. This message was brought to you by bad contracts, the letter V and the number 2010.
I was half asleep when I posted that, I meant we can go over the cap to resign him. Sure he can sign anywhere else. Again, I'm more curious about the "Rockets unhappy about Artest" comment. I can understand the Rockets trading him to avoid letting him walk for nothing, but him rocking the internal boat hasn't surfaced all that much. Then again Clutch clued us in on his trade prediction.
Cap space isn't the problem. We don't need cap space to sign either one of them. As pointed out earlier we have Artest's bird rights so we can pay him as much as we like up to the max. Wafer isn't going to get huge money so we could use some or all of the MLE to sign him. The issue is that if we spend money on both then we'll be over the luxury tax and Les Alexander hasn't been willing to go there in the past. So, really the question isn't can we sign them... it's will we choose to sign them.
He is 7'6 and has been injured alot the past 3 seasons. Really big guys like Yao don't usually age well.
