Artest was nearly traded to the Clippers during 05/06 season

Post #1 » by **mkwest** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:56 am

Did yal know when I got traded to sac that I was in a meeting with the clippers!! Elgin accepted the Corey magette trade! I was a clipper for ten mins. Then in the middle of our conversation with me , Elgin , coach dunleavy and mark stevens my agent...Right in the middle of the our talks about how we gonna bring a ring to the clippers Donnie Walsh called mike and said Corey failed the physical then I went back on suspension with Indiana. I was in LA for three months. Then two weeks later sac town traded Peja for me. Kings were in last place after allayed brake then I got there and we went to the playoffs!

Ron Artest via Twitter

If this trade went down, Dwyane Wade may be ringless just like his super friends.

:sigh:

Corey was obviously a better offensive player, but Artest would have been a beast on the defensive side where we were already pretty good. Corey missed most of the season with injury and primarily came off the bench in favor of Ross. Damn.

Post #2 » by **mkwest** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 6:20 am

regarding @ronartest posting about almost Clipper trade - Maggette told Pacers if trade, he'd have season-ending surgery

Eric Pincus via Twitter

Post #3 » by **thanumba2clippersfan** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 4:57 pm

I remember hearing that we were close to getting Artest, but I thought it was just a rumor. We could have really used him that season. I guess another what could have been

Post #4 » by **loflin3hree5ive** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 11:04 pm

Yup, I remember this. What a heart breaker.

playaloc916 · Post #5 » by **playaloc916** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 1:39 am

Who could forget this? IIRC, Maggette rolled his ankle after stepping on Chris Wilcox's foot, and that injury plagued him for a long time. I was all for the trade. Who knows what would've happened if it went down.

Post #6 » by **mkwest** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:20 am

I remember the rumors, but didn't know Maggette's part in it not happening. They both had similar contracts (Artest may have been slightly more).

playaloc916 wrote:Who could forget this? IIRC, Maggette rolled his ankle after stepping on Chris Wilcox's foot, and that injury plagued him for a long time. I was all for the trade. Who knows what would've happened if it went down.

If my memory serves me correctly, Jasen Powell and the training/medical staff misdiagnosed the injury as a sprain. They reevaluated a couple of weeks later and realized that it wasn't just an ankle sprain as they initially thought but a separation of something (ligament?) on the top of his foot. They essentially wasted a couple of weeks by not treating the injury properly.

donemilio21 · Post #7 » by **donemilio21** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 4:42 pm

mkwest wrote:If this trade went down, Dwyane Wade may be ringless just like his super friends.

how does this trade relate to Miami's 06 run? I think I'm missing a point here. :-?

Post #8 » by **thanumba2clippersfan** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:28 pm

donemilio21 wrote:
mkwest wrote:If this trade went down, Dwyane Wade may be ringless just like his super friends.

how does this trade relate to Miami's 06 run? I think I'm missing a point here.

We would have been a better team. We had a nice playoff run in 2006, but we could have potentially gone further. We beat the Nuggets easily, took the Suns to Game 7, and that year we matched up well with the Mavericks. It's really just what if, but with Artest we could have potentially gone to the NBA Finals. I can't say that we would have won, but there's a chance we could have.

Post #9 » by **mkwest** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:36 pm

donemilio21 wrote:
mkwest wrote:If this trade went down, Dwyane Wade may be ringless just like his super friends.

how does this trade relate to Miami's 06 run? I think I'm missing a point here.

This trade would have gone down the season that we went to the playoffs, which was the same season that Miami beat Dallas for the championship. It's a strong possibility that we could have been in the mix. We were already a win away from the WCF that could have been avoided if Dunleavy didn't make the poor substitution in game 5. If you add a 1st team All-NBA Defensive player to what we already had (a top-10 defense) then our defense is ridiculous. Ross was nice, but he wasn't Artest. We've would have given serious problems to Mavs and Heat imo. It would have been really interesting.

playaloc916 · Post #10 » by **playaloc916** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 6:16 pm

thanumba2clippersfan wrote:We would have been a better team. We had a nice playoff run in 2006, but we could have potentially gone further. We beat the Nuggets easily, took the Suns to Game 7, and that year we matched up well with the Mavericks. It's really just what if, but with Artest we could have potentially gone to the NBA Finals. I can't say that we would have won, but there's a chance we could have.

mkwest wrote:This trade would have gone down the season that we went to the playoffs, which was the same season that Miami beat Dallas for the championship. It's a strong possibility that we could have been in the mix. We were already a win away from the WCF that could have been avoided if Dunleavy didn't make the poor substitution in game 5. If you add a 1st team All-NBA Defensive player to what we already had (a top-10 defense) then our defense is ridiculous. Ross was nice, but he wasn't Artest. We've would have given serious problems to Mavs and Heat imo. It would have been really interesting.

And being former Bulls teammates, Brand and Artest would have some good chemistry between them. That whole season, we really came out of nowhere and took the league by surprise.

I think I'm going to silently cry thinking about this tonight.