Artest may opt out- money not as important as championship

[tkb]

I dont think anyone in the league will play for the midLEVEK.

Yup. No need to even debute that.

[snaquille oatmeal]

seems to me like reggie theus is doing just fine with artest.
as did adleman and mussleman.
it would be a walk in the park for phil.
bottom line this move is years overdue. wasted years.

but for some reason people think that artest opting out is the end of our problems in acquiring him from sacramento - so we shouldn't be trading for him now ?

far from the truth.

ever heard of sign and trades ???

THAT'S what's going to happen with artest.

sure, i believe he'll take the mle from the lakers over being signed and traded to a crappy team for more money.
BUT WHAT CRAPPY TEAM WOULD GIVE HIM A BIG CONTRACT ANYWAY ?

only a contender takes on artest, and ONLY contenders will offer sign and trades offers to the kings - with the exception of new york, and new york is the one crappy team that artest WOULD go to for more money over taking some contender's mle, because it's been his dream to play there, and because he knows (or he should know) that they will be a strong team with him on board - as will any team.
this guy is as much of an impact player as they come.

so the point is, want artest next summer ?
you still have to deal with the kings.
no way around it, because they WILL get sign and trade offers for him from some team he'd either consider a contenders, or are named the new york knicks...

and if we do decide to persue him next summer rather than now - it becomes a LOT harder with kwame off the books.

just my 2 cents.

David, explain to me how the sign and trade thing works.
I would assume that a player would have a say on weather he wanted to sign and trade. the player can refuse right? or does it work that just because he is still under contract that the team has the final say on a sign and trade?
I understand that the team can ship him anywhere, but he can still opt out once his original contract expires if he doesn't sign and trade right?

[davidse]

snaq - first of all, great to see you here. it's been a while - at least for someone like me who doesn't follow the community thread.

anyway - obviously no team can "force" a player to accept a sign and trade. it's his option to accept it or not.

thing is, in today's nba, very few teams are usually under the salary cap in a specific off season - meaning very few teams are able to offer a free agent more than the mle.
on top of that, due to conflicting agendas, or a specific position already being filled, it is very likely that some if not most of the teams who are under the cap won't have interest in a specific free agent.

for example - look at next summer and who's going to be under the cap.

clippers
bobcats
sixers
maybe wizards

right there you can see that artest's chances of landing more than an mle contract are extremely slim.
i would say that only the clippers are a remote possiblity, and all things considerred - that's extremely low odds.

so if i'm artest and i want to get a new contract for more than the mle - even if i want to go to a contending team, i NEED the king's help, and my agent will try to orchestrate a sign and trade to one of the teams that i'd like to play for.
assuming that there will be at least one such offer (from ny) and probably more, why would artest chose the lakers ?
i dont' think he will.
he'd like to play here, but there are several other places he'd like to play in, and if there's such a huge difference in money - he's accepting the sign and trade for sure.

so realisticaly - if the lakers want artest, it is my opinion that they'd STILL have to deal with sacramento for him. still have the same problems of the kings being reluctant to help the lakers when no one is forcing their hand, and we'll still have to give up value for artest - only we wont' have kwame's expiring contract to use - and that contract could be the foundation for a current deal - with either a pick or a young player being the insentive.

if we do trade for him now, i think he can sign an extention right away - kind of like kg did with boston - but maybe lakerfan10700 (sorry, i know i allways mess up your numbers dude ) can quote you the exact rule from the f.a.q.
if we don't extend him, there's very little danger in doing that.
it may even be the smarter move - because of the scenario i discribed up top of artest's options in the offseason.
- assuming we'll want to keep him and the only offers he'll have are mle offers, we can be fairly confident that keeping him is entirely up to us - even though he'll be unrestricted.
we just need to offer more than the mle, and combined with the good situation which apparently he wants to be part of - we should be able to keep him.

so if i understood your question correctly, and you're worried about trading for him now and then losing him next summer -
i think it's safe to assume that would be entirely up to us if it happend.
so much so that i'm not even sure we should extend him right now even if it is allowed (as i said - i think it is, but only 98% sure).

the point i was trying to make is that "simply picking him up for the mle next summer as a free agent" may prove to impossible, and we'll once again find ourselves having to negotiate with the kings and even be in a less favorable position than we are now imo.

[snaquille oatmeal]

thanks David, that cleared up a lot.

[Erik Eleven]

he'd be perfect. if phil kept rodman in line, he can control artest.... i hope.

There is a difference. Rodman was a bit wild, Artest has mental disorders.

His impact off the court will always be greater than on the court. Offer them a towel boy or Kwame and see if they take it. Any player of value stays, in my opinion.

Why won't the Kings extend him?

[El Hardee]

-= original quote snipped =-



There is a difference. Rodman was a bit wild, Artest has mental disorders.

His impact off the court will always be greater than on the court. Offer them a towel boy or Kwame and see if they take it. Any player of value stays, in my opinion.

Why won't the Kings extend him?

Nothing a litle Zoloft cant fix. Artest FTW

[Erik Eleven]

^ I don't think those amounts are available for prescription.

Seriously though, why don't they want to keep him in Sacramento? Isn't he like the best defensive player in the league?

[8'sReverse]

Wow... bringing in Artest would be nice, deja vu, indeed.

[Danny Darko]

I think he would take the mid level, if not because he said he'd play for free and live on the street (he might be on the street some day), but because the championship window in Miami looks closed, Champtionship in New York? not unless he joins the Yankees. so we are left with:

LA(seems most likely)

San Antonio (they may steal him, but Pops & Ron? yikes)

Phoenix(they have as good a shot as anyone, but then we get back to Marion issues both bench/starter wise and money)

Utah(He'd never play for Sloan and AK is still there)

Detroit(hilari-ass)


I'll take my chances waiting, unless we can get a center back as well for Kwame and other garbage

[TommyTheCat]

-= original quote snipped =-



There is a difference. Rodman was a bit wild, Artest has mental disorders.

His impact off the court will always be greater than on the court. Offer them a towel boy or Kwame and see if they take it. Any player of value stays, in my opinion.

Why won't the Kings extend him?

i've been against bringing in artest but with the arrival of bynum, i think artest would be a piece that would put the lakers over the top. i'd love to see kwame and his expiring go and i'd be willing to offer crit+a pick iwth him. a lineup of

bynum
odom
artest
kobe
fish

and the bench mob would do some serious damage.

[lakerlifer]

Trade ID #4428801

This works on checker and helps Lakers make a huge playoff run.

For SAC it's better than watching Artest walk away cuz they get 9mil off the books from Kwame and he can do about what Moore does for them anyway plus they get a nice 3 point shooter to keep or trade.


L.A. Lakers Trade Breakdown
Change in Team Outlook: +13.6 ppg, +3.4 rpg, and +2.0 apg.

Incoming Players

Mikki Moore
7-0 C from Nebraska
8.2 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 0.7 apg in 29.4 minutes

Ron Artest
6-7 SF from St. John's
18.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 4.1 apg in 39.2 minutes

Outgoing Players

Vladimir Radmanovic
6-10 PF / SF from Serbia-Montenegro (Foreign)
7.4 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 1.6 apg in 19.3 minutes

Kwame Brown
6-11 PF / C from Glynn Academy (HS)
5.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.2 apg in 20.8 minutes