Now what Happens?

[Ballings7]

Really well said, KIE and mitch...

Brad, Ron, Moore, Salmons, SAR and KT all know time is running out and should come in well conditioned.

Ron and John are still in the middle of their prime years, though.

[King Baller]

Really well said, KIE and mitch...

Brad, Ron, Moore, Salmons, SAR and KT all know time is running out and should come in well conditioned.

Ron and John are still in the middle of their prime years, though.

You are right, both those guys were born in 1979 But the big 30 is coming fellas

KB

[Ballings7]

Yeah. But still even at 30, they'll both still be in the middle of their primes... nearing the end of their prime, though.

[SacKingZZZ]

You all do realize that Ron could have left for nothing just a few days ago right? Not only that buy he basically came out and said he wished he would have. That's the risk. Take the best offer or let him go for nothing. Petrie played the field for a year and Ron is still here, good for him. Now he has to do something, there are no fall back plans. Just to free up the youth on this team in my opinion is more valuable to this franchise than any player we would get back in a trade for Artest.

[Ballings7]

Kleiza would of continued the log-jam to a lesser, but still significant extent.

Kleiza + Najera wasn't worth Ron Artest, anyway. Very far from it. You pass on that, pass on it again (like it seemingly came up a 2nd time), and wait for other offers that'll be there in the coming several months. Geoff did the right thing, because in the case of getting something for Ron, better can be had than that. Plus Ron wouldn't of made Denver a title contender, that team needs more than just help on the wing.

[SacKingZZZ]

Kleiza would of continued the log-jam to a lesser, but still significant extent.

Kleiza + Najera wasn't worth Ron Artest, anyway. Very far from it. You pass on that, pass on it again (like it seemingly came up a 2nd time), and wait for other offers that'll be there in the coming several months. Geoff did the right thing, because in the case of getting something for Ron, better can be had than that. Plus Ron wouldn't of made Denver a title contender, that team needs more than just help on the wing.

Actually it was Najera and the 1st rounder. They refused to give up Kleiza. The way the draft turned out I wouldn't have minded that trade too much. Donte Greene fell. Arthur fell. Koufos fell. And the Bobcats got Ajinca with the pick! I wouldn't have been disappointed at all with that to be honest. It's better than nothing and pretty decent return wise in fact.

Still, Geoff may have lucked out, we'll see. Like I said though, the best thing for us is merely clearing the roster space. I really don't think many possible deals for Artest are all that appealing because we kind of have a young player at just about every spot already. If we can get an unprotected future 1st that may be the best option rather than an actual prospect.

[Ballings7]

Oh, yeah that's right... well that would of been passable.

[VeeJay24]

Sure, let's sit Artest and Miller and give all of their minutes to young guys. What do you think that does to their trade value? They have maximum trade value when they are on the floor producing at their highest possible level every night. Sure we could sit them and take whatever scraps other teams are willing to give (and believe me, scraps are all that will be offered if there is any hint that the Kings are just looking to dump "useless" players). Or we can play them, showcase their abilities and shop them for a the best deal that we can get. But I guess none of that would occur to you since it doesn't fit into the mode of "fire-sale the old guys so we can watch teh yung doods".

And as for the Justin Williams talk, get over it. He had plenty of chances to show what he could do for the team over the parts of the 2 years he was on the roster and he didn't capitalize on those chances. He was not going to fit in with this team because he was 1-dimensional; he did not have the ability to consistently contribute on both ends of the floor.

I hear what you're saying KIE and you're right if they're here they need to play but that's just it they don't need to be here. I understand Petrie was trying to rebuild and stay competitive that was a reality 2 years ago, it's no longer possible. You have teams like Utah & NO who have rebuilt themselves and are standing on the cusp of contending. Even the Lakers to a certain extent have rebuilt themselves and gone to a finals. Portland has rebuilt itself and now just have to make it happen on the court. Seattle is just about half way there, if not half way certainly ahead of the KIngs. We are wasting valuable time not being sure what we want to be at this point. We don't have to hide what other teams already know. They know the Kings have no use for Artest, Miller or Salmons so there is nothing to hide.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that they need to be here (or that they even will be in November). Petrie's first priority this summer is to move Artest; second priority is Miller. I think there's a high likelihood that Artest will be gone this summer to a contending team willing to give up skilled, young prospects and draft picks (hopefully they will take KT as well). Miller will be the harder one to move, though, because he still has a sizable contract and he ended the season with some minor injury concerns...he may be here until the deadline. As I said, I'm not advocating keeping them around. I just want the best deal possible for them in a trade and you won't get a good deal for them by sitting them on the bench (if they happen to still be here when the season starts).

The time is now.......Petrie has to stop looking for the perfect deal, tell the teams what you need in return and take the best offer. If he hasn't called the Clippers then something is wrong of course none of us know if he has or not. My point is move Artest & Miller already, set a date that you want to be finish and leave no doubt and put this team on a true rebuilding course.

Let's stop the smoke & mirrors this is not a playoff team.

The trouble with setting a deadline date to move these guys and deciding to compromise on deals just for the sake of moving them is that the team could end up in a worse long-term position than they are in with them on the roster. I would rather hold onto Artest for the season and let him expire and walk next summer than take back a redundant role player with a long-term contract. After this next season Miller turns into a $12M expiring deal; that could be an attractive piece in a deal next summer. Like you said, none of us really know what he's discussed and what he really wants back for Miller and Artest. I just think it's a mistake, though, to not keep options open and enter into the summer with the mindset of "we just need to move these guys".

I wasn't saying a deadline to trade guys, that's almost impossible I was saying going to full rebuild mode and setting a more of a timeline to get the rebuilding done. My main problem and the way I see things is Petrie is sort of indecisive in how he wants to go about this rebuilding. Now, I don't know if it's him or the Maloofs but I don't think rebuilding while be competitive is going to work. Sure, if you were retooling a playoff team by lining up the contracts to give you space under the cap by a certain year that's ok but this is not a playoff team--Period Besides just because you have capspace doesn't mean you'll get that FA. The Kings are really working at a disadvantage in that department now.

There is nothing worse than a team that is just good enough to miss the playoffs every year. There is no worse position to be in. Many of you are speaking like Udrih, Artest, & Miller can get this team to the playoffs, that's just not the case.

[Smills91]

A trade that I'd like to see happen is this:

Kings deal:
Ron Artest

Hornets deal:
Mike James
Julian Wright

I actually like Wright better than Thornton personally especially for our team needs and dynamics. Also I like James MUCH better than Tim Thomas as a player. Especially when you factor in needs as well. I also think Ron makes more sense for New Orleans as they could use a perimeter stopper AND a BEAST post presence in their offense.

Kings current roster:
C: Brad Miller, Spencer Hawes, Shelden Williams
PF: Mikki Moore, Jason Thompson, SAR, Kenny Thomas
SF: John Salmons, Julian Wright
SG: Kevin Martin, Francisco Garcia, Quincy Douby
PG: Beno Udrih, Mike James, Sean Singletary

Roster in 2 seasons:
C: Spencer Hawes, Shelden Williams
PF: Jason Thompson, Julian Wright
SF: John Salmons, Francisco Garcia
SG: Kevin Martin, Quincy Douby
PG: Beno, Sean Singletary

Add 2 1st round draft picks

That's a pretty good core 12 right there moving forward.

[King Baller]

[quote="Smills91"]A trade that I'd like to see happen is this:

Kings deal:
Ron Artest

Hornets deal:
Mike James
Julian Wright

quote]
I would not mind that deal from a Kings perspective. But the Hornets have Peja at SF and under a big $$$ contract. If the Hornets could find a way to keep Ron and Peja happy and they could play together with Ron inside and Peja outside, that might be pretty scary.

With Ron being an expiring and also a really good player one of the contenders should be interested. The Spurs are considering Maggette, Artest could fit in there. Houston, Dallas, Detroit(I know ), Cleveland, Toronto or really any playoff caliber team could use Ron.

With Ron gone, the 2 and 3 postion has K Mart, Salmons, Garcia, Douby and Ewing.

PG is Beno and Sean. But due to the multi-dimensional players that GP favors, lots of guys on the Kings can handle the ball and PASS.

As for the bigs I hope Brad stays another year as Hawes and Thompson develop their game. GP should keep Moore and see what Thompson looks like in the NBA. If Thompson has a NBA game then Moore is kinda redundant. If SAR has healthy legs a team might want him for his post scoring. But SAR, man, if your legs won't let you play, please retire. If GP can find a place for KT in the league, do it, even if the Maloofs have to pay THEM. Sheldon better be working hard or he will be on the bench, just like in ATL. Lorenzen is an emergency center and probaly good during practice and in the locker room.

5 - Brad, with Hawes playing almost half the time (some nights more) Lorenzen for mop up
4 - Mikki, Jason and Sheldon
3 - John, Cisco and Ewing
2 - Kevin, Douby and sometimes Cisco or maybe even Sean agaisnt small teams.
1 - Beno and Sean, plus most of the Kings can bring the ball up and pass the ball.

And if the Artest trade brings in talent the roster fills out more.

KB

[randomhero423]

any interest for marbury?

[deNIEd]

Yes, if its Artest, K. Thomas, S. Rahim for Marbury + something


However, well, what teams would be interested in Artest, Miller, Moore, Salmons? (4 players that I don't think have a long term future with the Kings)

Ideally, what I would like is Artest traded for an replacement SF, both Thornton or Wright fit that description.

Miller traded away from expirings and a late 1st in which Petrie can hopefully get a successful bench player with.

Moore doesn't matter that much.

Salmons traded away if Artest lands us a future SF, Salmons traded away for expirings + pick.

Making our team look like,
Beno, Martin, Garcia, Thompson, Hawes, Singletary, Douby, Ewing, Sheldon
+
(Future SF from Artest), 09 1st Sac (1-10 range), 09 1st Miller (20-30 range), 09 1st Salmons (20-30 range)

[deNIEd]

A trade that I'd like to see happen is this:

Kings deal:
Ron Artest

Hornets deal:
Mike James
Julian Wright

I actually like Wright better than Thornton personally especially for our team needs and dynamics. Also I like James MUCH better than Tim Thomas as a player. Especially when you factor in needs as well. I also think Ron makes more sense for New Orleans as they could use a perimeter stopper AND a BEAST post presence in their offense.

Kings current roster:
C: Brad Miller, Spencer Hawes, Shelden Williams
PF: Mikki Moore, Jason Thompson, SAR, Kenny Thomas
SF: John Salmons, Julian Wright
SG: Kevin Martin, Francisco Garcia, Quincy Douby
PG: Beno Udrih, Mike James, Sean Singletary

Roster in 2 seasons:
C: Spencer Hawes, Shelden Williams
PF: Jason Thompson, Julian Wright
SF: John Salmons, Francisco Garcia
SG: Kevin Martin, Quincy Douby
PG: Beno, Sean Singletary

Add 2 1st round draft picks

That's a pretty good core 12 right there moving forward.

I just went and read some info on Wright, and he seems like a Petrie type player, minus the jump shot. But a Martin/Wright 2/3 combo would seem to be an extremely effective and solid duo.

Would NO take a player like Artest or do you know if they are even willing to trade Wright at all?

Also, Peja/Artest duo will work well, Peja at the 2, Artest at the 3 on offensive, and Artest guarding the 2's on defense. It doesn't really matter that they are both ideally small forwards, since Artest is more of a posting player and Peja being a shooter. Defensively Artest is fully capable of guarding the opposing SG's, except for some minor exceptions possibly (Ellis comes to mind).

[pillwenney]

You all do realize that Ron could have left for nothing just a few days ago right? Not only that buy he basically came out and said he wished he would have. That's the risk. Take the best offer or let him go for nothing. Petrie played the field for a year and Ron is still here, good for him. Now he has to do something, there are no fall back plans. Just to free up the youth on this team in my opinion is more valuable to this franchise than any player we would get back in a trade for Artest.

That was the same situation at the deadline and nobody had a problem then. In fact most thought Ron would opt out.

And the thing is, if the best offer is expirings and some young player that Geoff doesn't like for our team, we're better off letting Ron expire--otherwise it's just a rookie contract taking up space on our books that doesn't fit into our long term plans.

[Ballings7]

I've mentioned it a few times in the past (just lately, actually), but I'd deifnitely do Wright/filler for Artest - I'm doubtful that the Hornets do it, though.

I'll take that over Artest to the Lakers for Odom, any time, for numerous reasons.

[SacKingZZZ]

I wasn't saying a deadline to trade guys, that's almost impossible I was saying going to full rebuild mode and setting a more of a timeline to get the rebuilding done. My main problem and the way I see things is Petrie is sort of indecisive in how he wants to go about this rebuilding. Now, I don't know if it's him or the Maloofs but I don't think rebuilding while be competitive is going to work. Sure, if you were retooling a playoff team by lining up the contracts to give you space under the cap by a certain year that's ok but this is not a playoff team--Period Besides just because you have capspace doesn't mean you'll get that FA. The Kings are really working at a disadvantage in that department now.

There is nothing worse than a team that is just good enough to miss the playoffs every year. There is no worse position to be in. Many of you are speaking like Udrih, Artest, & Miller can get this team to the playoffs, that's just not the case.

I'm starting to think it isn't the Maloofs. They practically demanded the coach play the young guys more towards the end of last season.

[SacKingZZZ]

You all do realize that Ron could have left for nothing just a few days ago right? Not only that buy he basically came out and said he wished he would have. That's the risk. Take the best offer or let him go for nothing. Petrie played the field for a year and Ron is still here, good for him. Now he has to do something, there are no fall back plans. Just to free up the youth on this team in my opinion is more valuable to this franchise than any player we would get back in a trade for Artest.

That was the same situation at the deadline and nobody had a problem then. In fact most thought Ron would opt out.

And the thing is, if the best offer is expirings and some young player that Geoff doesn't like for our team, we're better off letting Ron expire--otherwise it's just a rookie contract taking up space on our books that doesn't fit into our long term plans.

Really? Well, the fact remains that there is a zero % chance now, it wasn't for certain before. If we had intentions to just let him walk and thought he was going to, well, why repeat the same pointless delay any longer? Hey, what the heck, why don't we just cut him then??? He doesn't fit into our long term plans either.

[pillwenney]

You all do realize that Ron could have left for nothing just a few days ago right? Not only that buy he basically came out and said he wished he would have. That's the risk. Take the best offer or let him go for nothing. Petrie played the field for a year and Ron is still here, good for him. Now he has to do something, there are no fall back plans. Just to free up the youth on this team in my opinion is more valuable to this franchise than any player we would get back in a trade for Artest.

That was the same situation at the deadline and nobody had a problem then. In fact most thought Ron would opt out.

And the thing is, if the best offer is expirings and some young player that Geoff doesn't like for our team, we're better off letting Ron expire--otherwise it's just a rookie contract taking up space on our books that doesn't fit into our long term plans.

Really? Well, the fact remains that there is a zero % chance now, it wasn't for certain before. If we had intentions to just let him walk and thought he was going to, well, why repeat the same pointless delay any longer? Hey, what the heck, why don't we just cut him then??? He doesn't fit into our long term plans either.

Yeah, the most recent reports at the time were basically that nothing was set in stone, but that he was leaning towards opting out. We probably figured it wasn't worth the #20 pick, so we didn't do it.

And I'm really not in the mood to have this conversation yet again. Just because Ron keeps some young guys from playing 35MPG, doesn't mean he's really hurting their development. In fact every indication in the past has said otherwise. It's not the point where keeping him will probably be a priority, just to the point where it would be dumb to accept crappy value just because some people are so desperate to move him.

[RIPskaterdude]

One week after expressing regret over his decision to not opt out of his contract, Kings small forward Ron Artest explained his frustration further in an e-mail sent to The Bee and ESPN this morning.
In its entirety...

"I made the comment about making a mistake on my opt out clause because I really did make a mistake. I had wrong info about extension options and it could have cost me a new deal. I was informed that the kings had me in their long term plans so that's why I decided to stay in contract. I just wanted to show loyalty. However when I spoke to the kings that was not an option and I grew frustrated with my decision immediately. I do apologize for being mistakenly frustrated with the kings. It was a mistake that I made and I will move on from. I dont know my future but I'm still a King Haters:)"

[SacKingZZZ]

I really hope Artest wasn't thoroughly mislead in order to simply give the Kings more time to shop him. If true, that is pretty cutthroat on Petries part. Although I don't think there is any blame to be thrown around at this point I just hope it isn't true.

The longer Artest is here the uglier this will get. Artest has every right to be frustrated and I expect a trade demand sooner or later. Not because he would want to leave necessarily, but because it may be the best option for him in his effort to get a long term deal somewhere. That place is clearly not here.

If we trade him this summer can we sign him to an extension then trade him if the other team would prefer that?