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

The question really is what the market for Artest will be after the end of the year, not who his agent is.

Ron is a known commodity in both good and bad aspects, his contract value will be affected primarilty by (1) whether he helps the team get deep into playoffs, and (2) whether he does anything stupid and get into the news in a negative way. Having a good agent mainly means that you'll have explored every possible opportunities, but the fundamentals for your value will have to be there for you to get paid (unless you run into a unusually eager, or dumb, GM).

We'll see how things unfold, but my sense is he gets something akin to what Chauncey Billups got, maybe with a slight "behavior worry" discount if he has a good year.

 

Given the choice of locking Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, and Ron Artest into a long-term contract, which 2 would you choose, since it's unlikely you'll be able to do all 3 because of the salary cap.

I would pick Yao as a strong first, Tracy second, and Ron as a distant third. Artest's personality is much too volatile to consider as a long term solution with a big payday, which he will likely ask for and receive if his agents history has anything to say about it, especially if the Rockets have a good season like we expect them to.

Unfortunately, chronologically, you have to make the decision about Ron first since he's up this year.

How would you feel if 2 seasons from now you have a team built around Ron Artest and Yao Ming, having lost Tracy to free agency? You may be able to pull off a sign-and-trade because of bird rights, but the cap is always looming. This isn't baseball, it's very hard to "buy" yourself a great team in the NBA, (see the Knicks) you have to carefully build it through shrewd management of your cap and talent.

 

How would you feel if we had a team built around Luis Scola and Shane Battier due to losing Yao, T-Mac, and Ron to free agency? Yao and Tracy both love Houston and are desperate to win so I don't see either jumping ship unless they were entering a better opportunity which would be very hard to find. You are correct when you say it is hard to buy a great team, but if Morey has shown us anything it is that he is quite shrewd when it comes to managing both our cap and our talent. If we were to win a ring or come close to it we would be foolish to simply allow Ron to walk despite his volatile behavior. In today's NBA it takes having three all star caliber players. Anything less than that and one is merely a pretender. Don't worry though for Artest will not become a max player even if we were to win it all.

 

By the way, the reference to David Falk has been removed from the SI article--so maybe they're no longer partners (one can hope!).

 

If Artest leaves next year. I will be so pissed. And will also be so dissapointed.

 

That doesn't matter. His new agent will try his best to get as much money as he can.

 

Simple question requires simple answer.

Lets say Rockets don't win the championship this season but make it as far the Conference Finals, so now would you re-sign Artest and if so for how much?

I would do a sign and trade get a bigger fish if I can.

 

Everybody has been talking about having Deke, Dorsey, or Hayes to keep Artest from running wild. This is who has the power to keep him in check. A strong freakin agent. A guy that doesn't care how ghetto Artest is. He'll walk into the Tunnel and scream at Artest, "This is tens of millions of dollars on the line Ron! Now get your @$$ back in that locker room, kiss TMings @$$ and show you can freakin play well with the others, d@mn it!

 

I'm not worried about having to pay Artest this ungodly sum of money. If he gets over 12 or 14 mil a year, it will be on a short deal or it will be frontloaded because Artest is getting up there in age. Guys like Bogut or Peja or Vlad were younger when they got their long term deals. I'd be fine paying him around 10-12 for 4-5 years. If we offer that, I think he takes it. You are going to be 1 year before the fabled 2010 free agency year so I don't think any team will want to spend money on a guy like Artest. Plus, 12-14 million is getting close to franchise player salary. Any team willing to spend that kind of money is basically telling the team that Ron is going to be our guy. And considering his age and his history, do you want to be the team to sign Ron for that much?

 

wow overreact much clutchfans?

guys chill out, if he does well and the team goes as far as the conference finals, Im 100% sure he will be back.

oh no ron artest hired a new agent

 

I wonder if they can sign McGrady to a less expensive extension (a la Tim Duncan) so we can retain the good players and have more than 1 year with this team. I'm no cap expert to know if it's possible.

 

Exactly!

Tracy gets 21 mill this season and 23 mill next
Ming gets 15mill this season, 16 next, 17 the one after and a player option for the fourth.
Artest gets 8.4mill this season.

We're already dropping $5.9 mill in salary after this season (Head, Francis and Reed). And if we move Battier AFTER the season (say for a mid range draft pick? We could have moved him to Portland for #13 and Webster - so I'm sure there will be takers) then we free up a further $6.8million.

That's 21.1 million that we can free up without too much hassle - the MAX we can offer Artest for 2009/10 is $17mill (I'm pretty sure?). I doubt he'd get the max, so perhaps $12million with increases over 4 years. (which would mean we could actually keep Battier, or move him for 2 $3.4million role players?)

Believe it or not, Morey has been so good that we could give Artest the $12mill, keep Battier, and STILL be about $15million under the cap in 2010. Wow.

If we wanted to keep the 'big 3' then all we'd need to do is convince Tracy not to take the max (or we could max him - but with Scola re-signing I imagine we're looking at lux tax land?) and we'd have the same core for at least the next 3 seasons.

$12mill per is a significant raise for Artest, let's see if he earns it!

 

We can sign him to a less expensive extension which starts after his current deal ends. Can't adjust the salary we're already committed to paying - but we can still pay Ron - see above!

 

I think the decision is gonna be made at the end of the year what to do with Tracy, Yao and Ron at the same time.

Ron is a FA, Yao and Tracy are both eligible for extensions at that time. If they make a successful run in the playoffs-- and particularly if they actually win the ring-- I'd imagine they'll get locked up.

But I think Morey still be aggressive not paying them excessive salaries, though. These guys are heading into their 30s, and you don't want their contract to be albatrosses when you need the money to buy them some help.

 

Guys we can pay Ron more than anyone else, so even if he leaves next year, we probably get something in a Sign and Trade deal.

Win win baby.....

DD

 

IMO, the Duncan scenario was/is vastly different. First, Duncan did that so they could primarily keep Ginobili and not be pressed too far into the LTax. And they along with Parker already had a proven track record.

The Rockets on the other hand have placed a very major emphasis on having cap space in the 2010 "Summer of LeBron" when that excellent draft class will all become FA's. Yao and Battier are the only current Rockets with contracts for the 2010-2011 season. They total ~$25m on a cap of probably $60m.

Given that the Rockets have potentially $35m in cap space for 2010 and further that McGrady is much higher mileaged than Duncan when Duncan signed the extension, and given that McGrady won't be worth anywhere near his 2009-10 salary of $23m, I'd say the scenarios are vastly different.

The bottomline is that a lot can happen between now and the summer of 2010. Including and especially how well the Rockets do in the coming season.

 

You heard him.

You head Artest, anything less than a championship would be failure.

 

This could either be a Carlos Beltran (one year rental - I still hate how he ditched us to go to New York) or... whoever we had re-signed??? (a big name player past his contract year) I can't think of one...

 

Agents do not add value to their clients. At best, they can give the players enough options and hence get a fair deal for them. It is still a supply demand market system.

Also, we have Artest's Bird Right, so we can sign him beyond the Cap space (if Les decides to).

 

Sign him to a shoe deal from china at max. Then we'll see if we can persuade him to stay...