Post#13 » by campybatman » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:59 am
The Kings are in a situation where they may not want to trade Artest, but realize that they probably need to trade him. Fortunately, for the Kings, Artest has a reasonable salary for next season. However, the caveat is that Sacramento will insist on including Thomas' contract. Considering that Abdur-Rahim is leaning toward retiring. The Kings will definitely require a team to take on Thomas' salary too. Where would Thomas fit in the Celtics rotation? Supposedly, he can play both forward positions. But, I'd always thought of him as an undersized power forward like Powe. Still, the Celtics could convince Artest to sign an extension with Boston being close to his home state, New York. I reckon it'll depend on his asking price and whether or not the Celtics can afford him. We already know that Artest desires to make more than the MLE and still desires to play for the Knicks. But, the Knicks are probably too occupied as some other teams about signing LeBron when he hits free agency. New York likely won't want to sign Artest for a large salary at small forward with leBron playing the same position.
A lot is being said about Artest not so much the player but Artest and his personality. Rivers has a way of getting players to like him to an extent and it was reported that all the Celtic players liked him. Even Pierce came around... The point is, Jackson might not be the only head coach who can get through to Artest. Yes, Artest wants to be paid a lot but he also sounds like a player that wants to be a part of a winning environment. The Celtics could provide him that. He'll know from day one that Pierce, Garnett, Ainge, ownership and everyone else gives a damn about winning a championship. This will appeal to him, I would think. And we know that Boston was interested in Artest before.
In my opinion, it'll come down to whether Sacramento would've an interest in trading Artest to Boston and what could Boston offer in return to appease the Kings. Miami is said to have an interest... So, the Kings obviously aren't oppose to trading him to the eastern conference. But, how do you beat an offer of Marion? Unfortunately, the Celtics don't have enough to offer them in salaries, anyways. And then you're talking about taking on Thomas as well. There's no way it could work financially for Boston even if you omit Thomas. Damn. Artest would be a tremendous upgrade over Posey and you lose nothing defensively. Heck, you actually gain a lot from him offensively. Because I believe Artest could accept a sixth man role if he were to get his extension and knew the team was committed to winning.