Artest's Future?

[Foshan]

Hey outsider here...

What's the houston fan vibe on RonRon's future? You guys looking to resign him? Is there a price that you'll pay up too before letting him walk?

Good luck, BEAT LA

[Rendezvous]

i think we have a thread on this already.

Go look for it

[tisbee]

Foshan,
We've talked this round and round here,but I'll try and answer.

Most would like him back,but only for a "modest" raise to @ $8-10mil/yr.,hoping on the lower side.
If he settles for $8-9mil he's back,$9-10mil the Rockets think long and hard,more than $10mil he's gone.
IMHO he signs a hefty($10mil) 1 yr deal w/the Rockets.
But he's got to have a good game in one of the next couple of Playoff games,as he's been pretty ineffective the past 2 games.

[Foshan]

^ thanks

[dartherus]

Foshan,
We've talked this round and round here,but I'll try and answer.

Most would like him back,but only for a "modest" raise to @ $8-10mil/yr.,hoping on the lower side.
If he settles for $8-9mil he's back,$9-10mil the Rockets think long and hard,more than $10mil he's gone.
IMHO he signs a hefty($10mil) 1 yr deal w/the Rockets.
But he's got to have a good game in one of the next couple of Playoff games,as he's been pretty ineffective the past 2 games.

Why not looking good TEAMPLAYERS for Artest AND brooks?
Both have good individual stats, and are perhaps near their peak in market value and Houston insiders know they are NOT team players and have very low Basketball IQ.....why not trade (S&T in Artest's case) them?

for teams with no playoff aspirations, stats makers could be OK, but in a team who wants to become title contenders, Basketball IQ and team awareness shouldn't be a must?

[Baller 24]

I don't think he's being resigned..but if he isn't, what other options do we have?

[dookieguy]

I wouldn't resign him for more than 8m a year, IMO he's a chucker and doesn't pass the ball well.

Seriously, he was pretty effective in the Blazers series but he's completely sucking it in the Lakers series. It seems everytime he has the ball on offense, he either turns it over with a pass or overdribbles it then attempts a long 2.

If he gets back to playing hard-nosed defense and playing offense effectively (read: if he stops playing offense like a #1 option), then I'll all for resigining him.

[2fast4u]

artest > yao/tmac combined

[moofs]

I think Artest is HIGHLY overrated around the NBA, and that while 8-10m won't be bad for him as far as the contract he's likely to be able to command, it's also not really what he's worth in terms of production. To that end, we may be able to get someone better through an S&T for an overall salary reduction.

Why overrated? His defense is NOT lockdown as his reputation would have you think, and his offense is .. unique and wildly varianced in its efficiency for any given game.

Then again, according to some articles I've read lately, it seems that he and Battier have meshed very well to form the leadership core that the Rockets have lacked for years with McGrady's 7 year old schoolgirl like personality and Yao's softspoken jesteryness.

With any luck, he'll sign for 7-9m. Love his contract at 7, like it at 8, it's ok at 9, and ... well, we'd have him at 10. The thought of anything over that starts me to grimacing. He can probably get a better contract elsewhere than he can with us strictly due to Morey's realizing that he is going to be 30 next year, the cap is reducing so there's a bad market (or at least that's what's being said.., we'll see how truthful it is), and a contract longer than 3 years with him is probably a bad idea from any standpoint, ESPECIALLY with the new CBA on the horizon. It won't help that the dumb GMs around the league already spent their cap space prior to this year. Thanks GS!

I think we're about to start seeing, at least as far as the NBA's smarter teams go, contracts based less on scoring and ability to "create shots" (i.e. "jack up some real crazy s**t") and command highlight reels than on efficiency, generating possessions, and ability to move the ball. There may be one contract like that simply for marketing purposes, but..