Would there be any reason NOT to extend Artest's contract?

[McGrady2Head]

we will never get a better 3rd scorer than him. It was a complete steal. Hes an unbelievable defender, hes a great offensive player, he loves rick adelman, he seems to really love and respect yao ming. while reading those interviews sometimes i thought to myself that artest would date yao if given the chance haha. But he seems to have ALOT of respect and love for Yao, and T-Mac also. Hes also only 28 years old. I dont see any reason not to extend his contract

[CableKC]

The only reason not to extend him in the 2009 offseason ( not now ) is if you can't afford to keep him. Thanks to Mullin overpaying of Maggette..... Artest will likely go for that much....a $10 mil / 5 season contract.

That's the question...can the Rockets afford to pay him that much next season?

[Charcoal Filtered]

For the PTI interview, you got the Good Ron.

However, saying and doing are completely different.

Wait till you see the Bad Ron before making any long term contract offers.

[RayStats34]

Well he said he's not gonna change but hopefully since Adelman is coaching he will be on his best behavior.

[Optimism Prime]

we will never get a better 3rd scorer than him. It was a complete steal. Hes an unbelievable defender, hes a great offensive player, he loves rick adelman, he seems to really love and respect yao ming. while reading those interviews sometimes i thought to myself that artest would date yao if given the chance haha. But he seems to have ALOT of respect and love for Yao, and T-Mac also. Hes also only 28 years old. I dont see any reason not to extend his contract

Well, let's see. This offseason alone, he was planning on opting out. Then he said he was ready to stay with the Kings. Then he publicly stated that he wished he'd opted out. Then apologized to the management. Then told them that he wanted to go. Then got traded. Then got into a verbal skirmish with his new team's franchise player...

That's in the course of one month. One. Freaking. Month. 31 days. Who knows what he'll do over the next year? It's possible he'll wear out his welcome, the same as he did in Indiana (brawl, asking for time off to promote a record deal, demanding a trade after Larry freakin' Bird gave him his support) and Sacramento (see above, plus domestic and animal abuse).

I'm with Charcoal Filtered. Let's not prepare an offer until we see what he's like on and off the court in Houston.

[KiDdFrESh]

Why the hell wouldnt we?

[moofs]

See above?

[BaYBaller]

The only reason HOU had an interest in him is because it's his contract year. He's going to want a long-term deal and I can guarantee Morey will not give it to him. This is a one year lease, the best we can hope for is good production from him next year and to work out some sign-and-trade deal to regain back some value we lost in the intial trade to get him.

[ShaY]

It all depends how much succes we will have in the playoffs , if we do well he will get resigned and payed.
If we don't we won;t add salary to the T-Mac and Yao experiment , we will probably blow the team up.

[Optimism Prime]

See above?

Thanks moofs. Nice to know someone has my back.

[moofs]

See above?

Thanks moofs. Nice to know someone has my back.

No problem. Remember, I was against getting Artest right up till when we got him, easy to understand why someone would still be reluctant in general, and DEFINITELY easy to understand why they'd be against a long term contract.

[Optimism Prime]

See above?

Thanks moofs. Nice to know someone has my back.

No problem. Remember, I was against getting Artest right up till when we got him, easy to understand why someone would still be reluctant in general, and DEFINITELY easy to understand why they'd be against a long term contract.

Here's what it will take for me to really get behind this deal.

-We wheel Artest out onto the court in the Hannibal Lecter mask and a straitjacket before every game. Just as a warning. Maybe sometimes we can mix it up, and put him in a cage. Or, I know--remember the big fight in Gladiator when the lions spring up out of the pits in the ground? Let's install one of those in the Toyota Center! The Jazz come out for warmups, Boozer and Williams are making layup, when OHMIGOD, ARTEST COMES SHOOTING OUT OF A HOLE IN THE GROUND, ROARS MENACINGLY, BITES KIRILENKO IN HALF, MARKS HIS TERRITORY IN FRONT OF THE JAZZ BENCH, and then calmly trots over to our team's basket to do warmups. We've just acquired an animal. Let's play this **** up.
-We assign him a chaperon and bodyguard 24/7. Preferably two bodyguards, each MUCH larger than he is. That way, if it looks like he's about to do something stupid, they can carry him out kicking and screaming. Not to sound too much like the guys on the OTB, but chloroform wouldn't be such a bad idea. He gets that glint in his eye, bam, knock him out and take him back to his room... preferably with padded walls. Remember Bill Simmons' idea of the "Vice President of Common Sense", who would do a reality check for all personnel decisions? Um, yeah, let's hire one for Artest. Is there someone out there both brave and convincing enough to calm Ron-ron down? It's sure as hell not me.
-As I said before... we mark off the first five rows and call it "The Artest Zone". Like Sea World.
-We don't let him speak to the media. Ever. There will be no press conferences. If I were CD, I'd make this deal with him: "You don't speak to the media, I pay your fines. Deal?"
-If we win a championship, then this was, of course, a fantastic move and I've been saying so ever since day one, right? And I'll see you guys at the victory parade.

Look, from a basketball standpoint, this is a brilliant move. It puts us over the top, we put a volatile player in what seems to be the best situation for him in the league, and we acquire one of (if not THE) best two-way player in the league. I get the talent part of this deal, and it's fantastic. But--I try to look at all sides of things, y'know? And having such a loose cannon... frightens me a bit.

One other thing I'll point out--I find it utterly fascinating how much people on this board jumped to the support of the new guy on the team instead of trying to see what Yao meant. Kind of odd that everyone's first reaction was to defend the guy who's known for being crazy (when all Yao did was bring up the thing Artest is most (in)famous for) than take the side of our level-headed franchise center who's generally known for being TOO NICE. I'm baffled, guys, seriously.

[moofs]

Heh yeah, a friend of mine called me up and bitched at me for almost 30 minutes about how "Yao needs to shut up!!"

I'm sitting there the whole time telling him, "Man, it's really no big deal. It impacts nothing and no one directly involved seems to care. There've already been retractions"
"I haven't read them! Yao needs to shut up! He's an idiot!"
"No really, there are links to the retractions all over the place."
"Yao is an idiot! He's supposed to be the leader of this team! You don't talk about stuff like that, he's going to ruin everything!"
"No seriously, Ron already said he's ready to jump off a building for Yao. Did you even read the interview? Yao didn't say anything bad."
"No." "..." "He said he was going to mess up chemistry!"
"No he didn't."

Etc, etc, etc.

[jove9]

we will never get a better 3rd scorer than him. It was a complete steal. Hes an unbelievable defender, hes a great offensive player, he loves rick adelman, he seems to really love and respect yao ming. while reading those interviews sometimes i thought to myself that artest would date yao if given the chance haha. But he seems to have ALOT of respect and love for Yao, and T-Mac also. Hes also only 28 years old. I dont see any reason not to extend his contract

Never? Who knows. Morey sure is crafty.

What I do know, is that it won't be too hard to get someone more sane than Ron Artest. His behavior / sanity this season will determine whether or not we re-sign him.

[Dinky Bits]

He's bi-polar. Seriously, that's the reason.

[Jase]

I'm wondering if Houston would even WANT to resign him if he goes on that "I want to play for the Knicks" thing he was on a few years ago...

[Guy986]

If Artest goes bat **** crazy on us, we'll trade him to the Magic for Turkuglu. If he behaves, i would give him 10 million a year for the next 4 years.

Its on Artest.

[Jase]

If Artest goes bat **** crazy on us, we'll trade him to the Magic for Turkuglu. If he behaves, i would give him 10 million a year for the next 4 years.

Its on Artest.

But if he goes bat**** on you, what makes you think Orlando would want to give up a borderline All-Star for him?

[Guy986]

If Artest goes bat **** crazy on us, we'll trade him to the Magic for Turkuglu. If he behaves, i would give him 10 million a year for the next 4 years.

Its on Artest.

But if he goes bat**** on you, what makes you think Orlando would want to give up a borderline All-Star for him?

He went bat**** crazy on Indiana and Sacramento still traded the then one time MVP candidate Peja for him. When you have as much talent as someone like Artest, teams will always be willing to take a chance on him.

[jove9]

Wait. Peja was an MVP candidate?