People are acting like this economy isn't happening. I won't be surprised if Ron Artest gets something close to the MLE or possibly even less. There just aren't a lot of teams out there that are going to throw big money at a 29 year old potential headcase in this economy. I expect Morey to wait and see what market value for him in this economy is before he offers him anything.
If I put myself in Ron's shoes, even if I love the team to death and know they can pay me and give me a chance to win a ring... I'd still tell everyone that I'm looking at all my options, no reason to show your cards too early in the game.
Yeah, pretty much. He has to keep his options in case things do go wrong, especially at the early stages. Nothing wrong with him saying this, and hopefully we can resign him.
Basically, Artest as a player he stays, but his agent is telling him to say this, so that he'll have better leverage. And he wants to start, so TMac, or Battier has to go to the bench. If he put up his house for sale this summer, it is all over.
I don't think T-Mac will start right away. He'll be bench player until he's back to form... whenever that is.
Maybe we re-sign artest in 11m and trade to detroit for rip or prince. Then, detroit will have a guy to fight with james. XD
The key point I see from this article is Yao having his first ever full summer of rest before a contract year. I expect Yao to go off next year.
What team would offer Ron Artest anything more than the MLE? Teams with cap room are terrible and couldn't really use him, teams that are good can't offer that much for him. Please invite Ron to look around the market place, then we'll give him a little more than the best deal he could get out there, that should satisfy him.
Artest isn't going to command more than the MLE. the question is number of years. that is a potentially large sticking point.
There aren't that many teams could offer Artest more than the MLE, but in reality, if ONE team offer him that, he is very likely to walk..
What I think is the Artest doesn't have as many options as one would think. First of all the only teams with cap space are not going to be needing a player like Artest at this point. All are rebuilding and a player of Artest's caliber is not really on their radar. Second, if Artest wants a better deal somewhere else he'll have to facilitate a sign and trade which the Rockets would benefit since I doubt they take contracts they don't want to compensate Artest.
An interesting note, the current financial crisis is global. It's not just limited to our own shores. This could hurt Ron's leverage, because there's probably going to be less interest coming from European ball clubs, and you can bet that his agent plans to explore that option.
Not only does Ron need to worry about the economy, he's never gonna shake his rep and teams are not gonna want to commit to him beyond 2-3 years. Not to mention the fact that he looks as if he has lost a step or two.
Artest (sign and trade) + Landry to Phoenix for Amare. If Artest gets a first year salary of $9.4 million, added to Landry's $3 million, this would be within 25% of Amare's $16.4 million cap figure to make the trade work. This gives Phoenix a team salary break of $4 million for next year, enough to probably get under the luxury tax, a huge selling point to Phoenix as it is cash strapped. Plus Phoenix gets a starting SF and PF to pare with Nash/Shaq/JRich/Barbosa and maybe Grant Hill. Amare would be our starting PF and backup C, give Yao a lot of rest, leaving Scola to be instant offense off the bench.
he shot like crap, the whole series, and he was one of the big reasons why we played poorly in the games we lost.
seriously, stats ain't going nowhere, i promise. he's the best young talent on that team, they'll get rid of shaq and nash before getting rid of amare
i wouldn't go as far as to say he's lost a step or two, he's not the player he was a few years ago, but still a borderline allstar player. if given the right role, would thrive. just shot the ball way too many times, and probably cost us a game or two in the series with his decision making. i'd really like to see him sign just for the MLE here, but i doubt that'd happen.
