Artest on the Cannons

[snaquille oatmeal]

obviously he can't say what he is going to do, but he doesn't close the door on a chance to play for the Lakers next year. read what you will at his answers, but like he said at the end "LA can dream".

LINK

[snaquille oatmeal]

what I got from this is that if the Maloofs offer him mad money he will stay in Sacto, but if they disrespect him by not treating him like a top player in the league he will walk. if he does walk then the Lakers can offer him whatever Lamar is making on a sign and trade, but it sounds like he wants to play with Lamar.

if that is the case I don't see why a Gasol trade would not be in order. my reason for this is that Vlad, Gasol and Odom don't have the personality of an enforcer if Artest wants to play with Odom he would toughen him up and the Kings would never take Vlad. keep Odom at the 4 and Ron at the 3. yes, I said it, trade Gasoft.

[Danny Darko]

Ron is a cryptic guy:

wants to make more money to opt out

wants a championship

Wants to play with Lamar(who becomes expendable as soon as he arrives)*

Wants to be treated like a top 5 player(touches, minutes,...?what does that mean to him)

* I think he knows if he comes Lamar goes and that would be the only way to get more money in LA than the mid level. I'd say chances are slim at this point. Maloofs won't deal with us in all likelihood.

[incontrol__]

The only way Dr Buss goes for Artest is if he comes extremely cheaply (i.e. For the MLE). It doesn't sound likely that Artest is going to opt out, and would do that, though.. But you never know, i guess.

Wants to play with Lamar(who becomes expendable as soon as he arrives)

Exactly.

[milesfides]

snaq, I can't agree and disagree with you more. I agree that Ron Artest would love to play for the Lakers. He was at Staples center a couple years ago thinking he'd be a Laker. He worships Kobe. I think a lot of the negative effects he can bring will be mitigated in Los Angeles, for reasons that I've stated in other threads.

And I agree with you, I do think it's about money, and upon his agent's advice, he wants to raise his value this coming season to cash in on a big contract.

But I completely disagree with you regarding trading Pau. Pau is perfect for the offside forward in the triangle. Pau has almost seamlessly been integrated into the offense because of his passing ability and bball IQ. Odom is the one who had trouble - until Pau came. And as poorly as Pau played against the Celtics, Odom played worse.

I see your point about softness, but I don't think Odom is a tough, aggressive physical dude either.

And I think Gasol's finesse game would be a fine contrast to Bynum and Artest's physicality. Yin and the yang.

[snaquille oatmeal]

Ron is a cryptic guy:

wants to make more money to opt out

wants a championship

Wants to play with Lamar(who becomes expendable as soon as he arrives)*

Wants to be treated like a top 5 player(touches, minutes,...?what does that mean to him)

* I think he knows if he comes Lamar goes and that would be the only way to get more money in LA than the mid level. I'd say chances are slim at this point. Maloofs won't deal with us in all likelihood.

I just heard the Doug Christi interview on that link and Mychal Thompson made a great comment about Artest.

he said that Ron has the choice of staying in Sacto and make 8.5 mil and go fishing during the playoffs or he can opt out, sign a one year deal with the lakers for 6 mil (MLE).

then he gets a mil extra for making the playoffs with the Lakers and an extra mil if they win the ring, which would almost give him his original salary in Sacto, then he can sign a bigger contract the following year. it is a gamble on his part if he is interested in money, but it is a good gamble.

I think Odom SF/PF or Bynum off the bench would work.

that would leave us with Vlad, Walton and Ariza to deal with over the summer.

[Crooked-I]

Artest wants to play with Odom because LO probably still has connections to the best ganja in the US. I don't really blame him either.

[milesfides]

Why not:

Bynum, Pau, Odom, Artest, Kobe?

We won't be able to play small ball, but then again, we might just pound the hell out of small teams until they adjust to us.

Kobe plays point guard for us anyways, and defensively, he won't really have to chase the little point guards since with our length and defense, we'll be shutting down all the passing lanes.

[dub81]

Why not:

Bynum, Pau, Odom, Artest, Kobe?

We won't be able to play small ball, but then again, we might just pound the hell out of small teams until they adjust to us.

Kobe plays point guard for us anyways, and defensively, he won't really have to chase the little point guards since with our length and defense, we'll be shutting down all the passing lanes.

I like the idea of Artest to the Lakers, it's just a match made in heaven. I like Gasol, but he did show his true colors in the finals. He's really soft.

[snaquille oatmeal]

Why not:

Bynum, Pau, Odom, Artest, Kobe?

We won't be able to play small ball, but then again, we might just pound the hell out of small teams until they adjust to us.

Kobe plays point guard for us anyways, and defensively, he won't really have to chase the little point guards since with our length and defense, we'll be shutting down all the passing lanes.

that would work too.

no small ball you say!

Ronni/Lamar, Ariza/Walton, Kobe, Sasha, Farmar/Fisher

[milesfides]

He wants to be treated as a top 5, top 10 player, but he said it's not necessarily about money. He said he'd rather play defense than offense. I think he's talking about respect.

If he's on the Lakers, the guy will get it. Just how all the role players on the Bulls got respect. I mean, Paxon and Steve Kerr are GM's in the league. Pippen of course was a top 50 player. Winners get respect and adoration, especially guys with the energy, flamboyance (like his mohawk?), and toughness. See Rodman.

On a side note, It's awesome to hear Artest talking about KG. How he wants to compete against KG, not play with him, because he sees KG having all that energy, screaming, dunking, and Artest can't wait to cut him down.

This guy is awesome. He's wild, he's crazy, but you need guys like that to win a war.

[wfiles]

Why not:

Bynum, Pau, Odom, Artest, Kobe?

We won't be able to play small ball, but then again, we might just pound the hell out of small teams until they adjust to us.

Kobe plays point guard for us anyways, and defensively, he won't really have to chase the little point guards since with our length and defense, we'll be shutting down all the passing lanes.

Wouldn't it be better to trade Odom for Baron Davis? Warriors fans seem to think it's a fair trade.

Davis, Bryant, Artest, Gasol, Bynum

[Kilroy]

Pau was forced to play Boozer, TD and KG in consecutive series after playing a longer season than he's ever played... Those guys are pretty much the cream of the PF crop in the NBA and some of the best at playing physical ball. And he still got his points, rebounds and assists...

Pau also had to face Perkins and Baby...

Pau isn't the strongest guy in the world but I don't think it's fair to want to trade him because he had to play C against some of the premier players in the key.

Odom wasn't much help to him either.

Pau and Bynum are on a whole nother planet from 'Lefty' and Pau...

Artest doesn't think about what he says half the time...

Otherwise he might just be trying to say innadvertantly to Odom; "Dude, if they trade you, it wasn't for me, bro. I said I wanted to play 'with' you..."

[dub81]

I like the idea of Artest to the Lakers, then if Artest wants to play defense all the time, the let him get on Pierce, and let Kobe worrying about some other things.

[Sedale Threatt]

I have been dead-set against putting Artest in a Lakers uniform for the longest time. But the more I think about it, the more I want us to make a run at him. I'll be really disappointed if we don't. A frontline of Bynum, Gasol and Artest gives you virtually everything you'd need. If we couldn't win a title with that group, we never will. Still, I'm more than a little skeptical. I don't see the Kings being willing to trade with us, and I don't see Artest taking much of a pay cut (really, for all the hypothetical musings you see every offseason, how often does this happen?). We can dream, I suppose.

[Trifecta7]

I don't see the Kings doing any kind of trades for us, so it'll all depend on that opt out. It seems unlikely. That 99% chance he won't opt comment he made sounds like advice taken from his agent to me. Still, hopefully he does as this team direly needs more toughness.

Btw, when's Artest's opt out deadline?

[joe.linnen]

I would just move Odom to the second unit. I would play with this front line Bynum, Odom, and Artest or Gason, Odom, and Artest. Odom will still get his minutes, hell, give Walton and Radmanovic less minutes. Odom would fit better in the second unit because of the speed they play at.

SF:Artest
PF:Gasol
C:Bynum
SG:Bryant
PG:Fisher


SF:Ariza
PF:Odom
C:Brown(LLE)
SG:Vujacic
PG:Farmar

[Kirk Moon]

LOL at the guys who wrote Gasoft.
thats horrible.

Pau did all he could in this series, given his limited amount of touches on offense while being guarded by Kevin freaking Garnett, being our only big against the battery of Celtic bruisers, and he still looked the best player on our team at times.

Gasol has a huge part of our successful season, and calling him soft is just unfair.

[rpa]

he said that Ron has the choice of staying in Sacto and make 8.5 mil and go fishing during the playoffs or he can opt out, sign a one year deal with the lakers for 6 mil (MLE).

then he gets a mil extra for making the playoffs with the Lakers and an extra mil if they win the ring, which would almost give him his original salary in Sacto, then he can sign a bigger contract the following year. it is a gamble on his part if he is interested in money, but it is a good gamble.

1) $2mil total for winning a ring isn't even close to what he'd actually get. Under the very best circumstances (a team having the best record in the league and winning the title) a team gets roughly $3mil to distribute to all the players and the staff--meaning Artest will net maybe $200,000

2) He can't sign a bigger contract the following year. To sign a bigger contract the Lakers would need his Bird rights--which take 3 years to blossom--or they'd need a chunk of money under the cap--which they won't have.

[snaquille oatmeal]

he said that Ron has the choice of staying in Sacto and make 8.5 mil and go fishing during the playoffs or he can opt out, sign a one year deal with the lakers for 6 mil (MLE).

then he gets a mil extra for making the playoffs with the Lakers and an extra mil if they win the ring, which would almost give him his original salary in Sacto, then he can sign a bigger contract the following year. it is a gamble on his part if he is interested in money, but it is a good gamble.

1) $2mil total for winning a ring isn't even close to what he'd actually get. Under the very best circumstances (a team having the best record in the league and winning the title) a team gets roughly $3mil to distribute to all the players and the staff--meaning Artest will net maybe $200,000

2) He can't sign a bigger contract the following year. To sign a bigger contract the Lakers would need his Bird rights--which take 3 years to blossom--or they'd need a chunk of money under the cap--which they won't have.

hey man, that is what an exLaker who is also a host of a Lakers radio show and also the color guy for Laker games on the radio said. without links to prove your points on how the Lakers run their payroll in the playoffs I will go with his take for now.