As far as I know Artest is not sure he wants to stay in Houston after this season, but I would say try everything to keep him, he's as the best SF as Rockets can get in this league. Plus there would be a huge paycut for Rckets anyway after 2010, it'll take three Isiah Thomas to resign Tmac with a huge contract again....
Because he's going to ask for 12 - 15 million to resign him.... ... so we're not going to resign him, he's just borrowed. So you might as well try to get some value out of it.
please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please do not trade AT
Artest's trade value is higher than Tmac this year. Tmac's trade value will become higher next year with his expiring contract.
There's something I don't understand here. On one hand, you say, Artest "We will not be able to find a player of his caliber at his contract in free agency so we are essentially losing him." On the other you argue "his play has not been very impressive and he seems to have disruptive tendencies in the locker room." The two arguments are not consistent. So is it that Artest is a player of higher caliber above Rockets can afford to sign, or that Artest isn't very good and disrupt the team, which implies he doesn't have high value? Can we have some logic consistency please?
Get rid of both Artest and TMac. TMac is just killing the team. I think this much is obvious. I don't understand the Artest love. Is it because he mentioned the board. He plays hard (so dod a lot of players), his hideous offensive game,ect...? There's a reason every team that TMac and Artest have been on eventually want rid of them. It's really not hard to comprehend
rockets are 9-2 with artest and yao. If anyone needs to be gone its tmac. I agree though that artest should not be given a long 5 yr contract. A 2 or 3 yr contract seems good to me.
this year was trial period for rockets and artest. things haven't worked out here (for whatever reason) as both parties may have hoped, so unlikely he would want to stay here and unlikely rox want him plus he has trade value, so trade him now to get something rather than lose him in offseason and get nothing.
He is a good player that is having an off year. His disruptive tendencies tend to manifest more when it is not a contract year and he is locked into a long term contract. Hope that makes it clearer for you.
Sorry, it's still not clear. Your first sentence seems to indicate he is worth he currently earns, your second sentence indicates he isn't worth long term contracts, especially at a higher price. That applies equally to Rockets and other teams. Point being, without additional information that is privy to the Rockets (locker room issue etc), or how he doesn't fit with certain player combination, Rockets have equal chance and value of signing Artest to other teams. Now your real argument may be Rockets will not afford to sign him within the cap range, which I am not sure is the case with Luther gone and Tmac being traded this or next season.
KEEP ARTEST we need him AT least he has Yao's back when someone fouls Yao hard Tracy just watches TRADE TWAC
