[SI.com] With eye toward free agency, new Rocket Artest switches agents

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"If we don't win the championship it's a failure... what else do you want?"

 

I cringed as soon I read "David Falk."

Looks like Artest got smarter. Mr. Alexander will have to pay up if Artest is a good boy this year.

 

landry need to do the same

 

LOL yeah his agent is an idiot.

 

Nah, his agent is doing what he can for Landry......it is the restricted bit that is cocking things up.

DD

 

Ouch, anything relating to david faulk is bad news. He's the scott boras of basketball. Just a pure greedy sack of ****.

 

At worst, he'll still be ten times better than Landry's agent. I cringed as well when I read who Bauman's partner was. We've already seen David Falk the Clippers with Brand going to Philly.

 

David Falk....ugh. Looks like this'll be a one year rental then.

Evan

 

Crap, if he can get Peja 10 million a year, and Vladrad 7 million, I'm scared to see how much we re-sign Ron for..

 

Falk is Deke's agent. So he can't be a bad person.

 

I would be STUNNED if Artest sticks around after next season. He wants to get paid, and I don't see how we can carry 3 max (or near max) contracts without completely blowing our future.

He was a low cost move this off-season cause we gave up rookies and BJax.

Next off-season he'll instantly become high cost because signing him will lock us up salary-wise forever. Worth the risk? I don't know. If he, Yao, and McGrady can stay healthy and can co-exist, we can probably survive over the luxury tax using the vet/mid-range exceptions. But we'll have to live with the knowledge that playing the free-agent market are over for the foreseeable future.

 

I'm not surprised. I never thought we would be able to keep Artest for the long term. Always saw him as a one year rental.

 

If we win a championship this year. The one year rental will be worth it.

 

Ron Artest will not go from one of the league's best contracts to a max player over the course of one season given his history. Don't get me wrong, I like Ron, and love him in Houston, but teams will want to be protected given his past indiscretions.

 

I could absolutely live with that because we would be in championship contention for the next 3 or 4 years. When I say contention, I mean we would be an "elite" or "serious" contender for the title. That is all I can ask of the Houston Rockets. Outside of actually winning the whole thing, of course, but it starts with having the talent to be able to win the title and the Rockets' team with Yao Ming, Ron Artest, and Tracy McGrady would have that opportunity every year that they are together.

Also, he's not old. So I can see it being a great re-signing with him next to Yao and Tracy who are similar age wise.

 

David Bauman is Artest's new agent not Fauk.

 

Forseeable future? After this season, either Yao, McGrady or both are only under contract for like one more year.

 

^^^
Just to add to that, though, I do want them both back, but at the same time we DO have some flexibility in the near future if we don't like how things are looking.

... With all that said, I doubt that anything Artest does this year will convince me that he's worth the max or anything close to it.

 

DarkHorse I must admit I am a little confused/stunned when you talk of completely blowing our future by keeping Artest or another player with a big contract. The trade for Ron already signaled that the time to win is now. Morey spoke openly of going all in and this is it. T-Mac and Yao are not getting any younger and in today's NBA you need three stars if you actually want to contend. Boston has 3 max or near max guys on their team and I don't think that they are too worried about their teams subsequent future. Ron won't garner a max contract all of a sudden no matter how successful we are this year. Malice in the Palace assured us of that much. If things come together perfectly both on and off the court I would like to see us give Ron a frontloaded contract for an affordable price. He will not generate a max deal anywhere. I believe given his competitive nature, age(although not old by any means), and desire to win a ring that he will eventually re-sign with Houston as long as everything goes smoothly. And with Ron that is always an unknown.