Spurs closing in on Artest?

[ss1986v2]

-= original quote snipped =-



A more important player, Finley certainly is, but last year is hardly an indication; what about when he shot 42.4% for the '05 title? Or 50% in 05-06? Last year was an outlier, not an indicator of his annual production. He undoubtedly laid an egg last year but that's not how he traditionally performs in the playoffs and you know it well enough.

ive actually been a barry supporter on other boards at times. but if it came down to whether id rather have a rotation including:

finely, barry, udoka, elson

or

artest, finely, udoka, bonner

id run bonner out there without a second thought and just hope he doesnt put the ball in his own basket. anything better than that, and its still a much more positive situation.

now i'll say this: im not a supporter of the ron-to-spurs ideas. i wouldnt hate it, but im not advocating it. but if the cost of ron is simply expirings plus pick(s), its hard to say no.

[CoachPop]

The thought of a line up of Manu at the point, Udoka, Bowen, Artest and Duncan is intoxicating enough to make me want to through caution to the wind and just go for this trade. You might as well just take the opposing team's basket down and melt it down and recycle it as building material for Habitat for Humanity homes down in New Orleans, because the opposing team would literally never score.

That being said I can't imagine this deal going through, and if it doesn't, I'm totally happy with our team from here on out.

[tsherkin]

The idea would be to re-sign Ron, which the Spurs could easily do.

If so they would be at probably like $67millionish next year, with salary committed to Parker, Ginobili, Artest, Duncan, Bowen, Thomas, Udoka and Oberto. That's 8 guys, with a lineup that would probably look like...

Parker
Bowen\Ginobili
Artest\Udoka
Duncan\Thomas
Oberto

Bring Splitter over, sign this year's pick (since the Kings wouldn't get it if the Spurs took Kenny), sign a backup PG for cheap (just as an example, say they re-sign Stoudamire for the LLE or something), and a couple other vet. min. guys (ring chasers) to fill out the roster.

Parker\Stoudamire
Bowen\Ginobili\Vet
Artest\Udoka
Duncan\Thomas\08 pick
Oberto\Splitter\Vet

That roster costs about $73-74million, which is a little more expensive than this year's roster.

I'd be uncomfortable with that roster on account of relying on Udoka; he looks like crap this year and has no playoff experience to speak of and you want top leave him as your backup 3 and one of your primary shooters? Splitter would replace Elson nicely, I'll grant you that, but Stoudamire's only getting older and I'd rather have a legitimately useful point guard on the defensive end rather than he. Mighty Mouse is a stop-gap, not someone you want to keep along, he's like Mitch Richmond on the '02 Lakers.

ive actually been a barry supporter on other boards at times. but if it came down to whether id rather have a rotation including:

finely, barry, udoka, elson

or

artest, finely, udoka, bonner

id run bonner out there without a second thought and just hope he doesnt put the ball in his own basket. anything better than that, and its still a much more positive situation.

Debatable, given the chemistry concerns Artest brings, but understandable from the high risk/high reward mentality. The question is, would such a move be worth it? Is it necessary to remain competitive? I don't think so.

now i'll say this: im not a supporter of the ron-to-spurs ideas. i wouldnt hate it, but im not advocating it. but if the cost of ron is simply expirings plus pick(s), its hard to say no.

Not worth it even then, I'd rather have the picks on account of how well the Spurs draft late...

[Black Jesus 1]

OMFG..Shoot me..

[ss1986v2]

I'd be uncomfortable with that roster on account of relying on Udoka; he looks like crap this year...

early on, when he wasnt getting minutes, yeah he looked bad. and that start is still reflected in his stats. but in the month of january, with barry in and out, udoka put of 7 ppg on 40% shooting from 3. at times on the floor, hes been the best player in the spurs second unit (with manu starting due to parkers injury). his rebounding has been big (in games where he plays 20+ minutes, hes averaging right around 5.5 rpg iirc) with the lack of rebounding from spurs not named duncan.

im more than comfortable with udoka being the fourth wing in our rotation this year, and wouldnt have an issue with him being the primary backup next.

[LLcoleJ]

The only way I see Sac doing this is if they get to shed a contract. Makes no sense otherwise. A spurs first round pick isnt going to be that great... so the expirings dont hold much weight since Ron Ron will most likely opt out.

[eagles nut]

The fact that they just used Barry's contract to get Kurt Thomas tells me they're not getting Artest.

[ss1986v2]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=A ... &type=lgns

looks like its probably not going to be an issue.

[RIPskaterdude]

WOW Sonics got a great deal, IMO.

If the Spurs could have got Artest for the same...why didn't they?

[Ballings7]

I'm all for Ron to the Spurs. He's my favorite player next to Duncan, and on one of my very favorite teams? Get it done. Be a fantasy come true.

edit: Okay, looks like that's off

[tsherkin]

-= original quote snipped =-


early on, when he wasnt getting minutes, yeah he looked bad. and that start is still reflected in his stats. but in the month of january, with barry in and out, udoka put of 7 ppg on 40% shooting from 3. at times on the floor, hes been the best player in the spurs second unit (with manu starting due to parkers injury). his rebounding has been big (in games where he plays 20+ minutes, hes averaging right around 5.5 rpg iirc) with the lack of rebounding from spurs not named duncan.

Excuse me while I shudder in fear at his month where he shot 13/32; you'll notice he's back under 29% now. The rebounding is good, of course. I might point out that while he shot well in January and is shooting about 42% over his last four games, he's shooting under 30% over his last 9 games, which means the first half of that stretch was so terrible that it dragged that overall average down.

I dunno, I still get hung up on the weak shooting and how that Portland year really stands out as an outlier rather than a trend in his shooting capacity... and how he has no playoff experience and Barry is a time-tested veteran who's come up big before and has championship experience from two different Spurs title squads, even if he played poorly on the last one.

[raps4life~]

WOW Sonics got a great deal, IMO.

If the Spurs could have got Artest for the same...why didn't they?

because they couldn't have. it was obviously BS. ron artest is worth alot more than kurt thomas.

[semi-sentient]

Phew. That was close.

Spurs with Artest would have been (Please Use More Appropriate Word) good defensively. KT is a fine addition, and he'll certainly help them, but he won't be around for much longer, so this is another "win now" move.

Spurs just solidified their chances of getting out of the West, but to be honest, I had them coming out of the West this year anyway.

[AnDrOiDKing4]

Raise your hand if you love the trade deadline tooo

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[Black Jesus 1]

YESSSS

Might as well lock this up...(Barry and Elson gone)

[black06eclipse]

looks like Artest is probably going to Denver.

[tsherkin]

Great move for the Spurs; but any discussion of Kurt Thomas has his own thread, so let's keep that there.

[A.J.]

i doubt the spurs get artest after just getting kurt thomas

[MrDollarBills]

If the Spurs can still swing a deal for Artest, that would be a coup.

[YiYaoYue]

spurs have now closed on artest