Maybe the Rockets don't re-sign Artest

[mook]

I was just looking at Houston's salary situation. They are already committed to $64 mil in salary, and they also need to get a deal done for Von Wafer. McGrady's $22 mil in salary is killing them.

Yao's foot injury is looking worrisome:

He’ll visit with specialists around the country before deciding on a course of action, but the truth is that the Rockets have no idea what the rest of Yao’s career will look like.
Maybe you’re one of those people who was never all that impressed with Yao. Maybe you think the Rockets can go find 19 points and nine rebounds on any street corner. Maybe you think the Rockets can easily replace someone who’s a force on both ends of the floor.
He’s also exactly the kind of person we want representing our teams. He’s a good, decent, funny, smart man and a great, great teammate.
Yes, there were questions about his durability. He’d failed to finish three of the last four seasons.
We could explain away some of those injuries. He was twice involved in collisions that would have injured almost anyone.
This one was more troubling. Stress fractures in the feet of big men are always worrisome.
The fact that Yao has had two foot injuries and that his left foot already had pins in it is troubling.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6498476.html

Is Houston going to offer Artest the $9-$10 mil he probably deserves, along with $2-3 mil for Wafer? $76 mil (or so) is a lot of money to spend on a team that won 53 games (with a star center who wasn't dealing with a broken foot). If Yao isn't there, does a team led by Artest, Battier and a gimpy McGrady win 35 games in the West? Does anyone want to pay $76 mil for that?

If I were Houston, I'd try to imitate what the Spurs did a decade ago. I'd make my star center sit out a season so he can finally get healthy, dump some salary, utterly tank so I could get a wicked good draft pick, and come back firing on all cylinders the following year. McGrady's contract will be gone, you'll have the pick, Yao, Battier, and an obscene amount of cash to go out on the free market and acquire somebody good in a promising free agent class.

If they did go that route, they obviously don't want to re-sign Artest now. That puts Artest on the open market actively competing with Hedo for Best $10 mil SF Available.

Maybe....maybe we could even convince Artest to take a 1 year deal so that he can go back to Houston if he wants. (That has the added benefit for us of not being too contractually tied to a guy who is the poster boy for "volatile.")

Our biggest offseason acquisition, and possibly contending for a championship, could hang on Yao's foot.

 

[Spud147]

I was just looking at Houston's salary situation. They are already committed to $64 mil in salary, and they also need to get a deal done for Von Wafer. McGrady's $22 mil in salary is killing them.

Yao's foot injury is looking worrisome:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6498476.html

Is Houston going to offer Artest the $9-$10 mil he probably deserves, along with $2-3 mil for Wafer? $76 mil (or so) is a lot of money to spend on a team that won 53 games (with a star center who wasn't dealing with a broken foot). If Yao isn't there, does a team led by Artest, Battier and a gimpy McGrady win 35 games in the West? Does anyone want to pay $76 mil for that?

If I were Houston, I'd try to imitate what the Spurs did a decade ago. I'd make my star center sit out a season so he can finally get healthy, dump some salary, utterly tank so I could get a wicked good draft pick, and come back firing on all cylinders the following year. McGrady's contract will be gone, you'll have the pick, Yao, Battier, and an obscene amount of cash to go out on the free market and acquire somebody good in a promising free agent class.

If they did go that route, they obviously don't want to re-sign Artest now. That puts Artest on the open market actively competing with Hedo for Best $10 mil SF Available.

Maybe....maybe we could even convince Artest to take a 1 year deal so that he can go back to Houston if he wants. (That has the added benefit for us of not being too contractually tied to a guy who is the poster boy for "volatile.")

Our biggest offseason acquisition, and possibly contending for a championship, could hang on Yao's foot.

That team has to be the most snakebit franchise in history... they're just so unlucky when it comes to injuries every single year. I like the way Artest plays but the "Jail Blazer" era is too fresh in my mind to want to go there.

Now if we're talking Battier I give it 2 thumbs up.

 

[axs88]

One thing I hate about Artest is that he has an inflated view of his offensive abilities. Last year he shot 40%, yet he jacked up 15 shots a game. I don't want that on our team. His 3 point shooting is alright though (39.9%) and we know he can finish in traffic, so he must clank a lot of long 2s.

 

[mook]

Hmmm. Battier for Bayless/Blake or Bayless/Outlaw both work.

They cut Artest and Blake, and after next season they are committed to only $230 mil in salary (assuming they pick up all the team options on guys like Brooks).

Bayless is tough to give up, but it could make sense....

Myself, I'd rather just sign Artest.

 

[mook]

One thing I hate about Artest is that he has an inflated value of his offensive abilities. Last year he shot 40%, yet he jacked up 15 shots a game. I don't want that on our team. His 3 point shooting is alright though (39.9%) and we know he can finish in traffic, so he must clank a lot of long 2s.

He takes some bad shots, but it seems like he does it mostly for lack of other leaders. When they couldn't get it into Yao, he was the next option and he just isn't much of a passer. So he'd force up some ugly junk a lot of the time.

But look at the last two years in Sacramento. He was a 44-45% shooter.

He'd be the third or fourth option on our team. And McMillan could keep him on a relatively short leash, because Batum is ready to come in and do what Nate wants off the bench.

 

[Spud147]

One thing I hate about Artest is that he has an inflated value of his offensive abilities. Last year he shot 40%, yet he jacked up 15 shots a game. I don't want that on our team. His 3 point shooting is alright though (39.9%) and we know he can finish in traffic, so he must clank a lot of long 2s.

I know what you mean. In the play offs when I saw him start to think he was going to keep the Rockets in the game by "taking over" I loved it. There ya go Ron... keep shooting, forget Yao is right there under the basket... take the jump shot!!!!

 

[mook]

I know what you mean. In the play offs when I saw him start to think he was going to keep the Rockets in the game by "taking over" I loved it. There ya go Ron... keep shooting, forget Yao is right there under the basket... take the jump shot!!!!

I remember thinking the same thing. And I also remember thinking, "How did a team with Ron Artest as your second best player beat Portland?"

One of the reasons is that, as flawed as he is, he brings a hell of a lot to the game that makes up for his flaws.

 

[Spud147]

He takes some bad shots, but it seems like he does it mostly for lack of other leaders. When they couldn't get it into Yao, he was the next option and he just isn't much of a passer. So he'd force up some ugly junk a lot of the time.

But look at the last two years in Sacramento. He was a 44-45% shooter.

He'd be the third or fourth option on our team. And McMillan could keep him on a relatively short leash, because Batum is ready to come in and do what Nate wants off the bench.

And I think the young guys are strong enough that they wouldn't be influenced negatively. I'm just not excited about the potential for making excuses for crazy like we used to. He did seem to have grown up a lot in his interviews after the series but his eyes kept shifting around, never looking straight at the camera... he still weirds me out.

 

[Spud147]

I remember thinking the same thing. And I also remember thinking, "How did a team with Ron Artest as your second best player beat Portland?"

One of the reasons is that, as flawed as he is, he brings a hell of a lot to the game that makes up for his flaws.

Obviously we'll never know, but I really think the Blazers would've won the series if the team had known what to expect in the play offs when they went into Game 1. They adjusted their game/intensity immediately but they'd given away HCA already.

 

[rocketeer]

artest absolutely is not worth 9-10 mil per season and i think the rockets are smart enough to not give him that. a few good games in the playoffs seems to have completely clouded people's judgments regarding him and made them entirely forget about his horrible games in the playoffs and completely underwhelming regular season.

i think the rockets only bring him back if the price is right and i don't expect it to be.

He'd be the third or fourth option on our team. And McMillan could keep him on a relatively short leash, because Batum is ready to come in and do what Nate wants off the bench.

artest on a short leash doesn't work.

in regards to wafer, i think the rockets draft suggests they may not be looking to bring him back. jermaine taylor and chase budinger seem like fairly decent von wafer replacements.

the rockets draft also would seem to go against your idea that the rockets won't be willing to spend a lot of money. i've read that the rockets spent something like 6 mil to buy their 3 2nd round picks they acquired yesterday.

 

[mook]

rocketeer-

I'm curious as to what you think the Rockets will do this year. Do you think they get Artest? How much will they pay him?

Have you heard much about Yao's foot?

 

[Natebishop3]

I don't think KP touches Artest with a 10 foot pole. As much as I like what Artest brings in terms of defense and toughness, I think his volatility is simply too high.

 

[hasoos]

He takes some bad shots, but it seems like he does it mostly for lack of other leaders. When they couldn't get it into Yao, he was the next option and he just isn't much of a passer. So he'd force up some ugly junk a lot of the time.

But look at the last two years in Sacramento. He was a 44-45% shooter.

He'd be the third or fourth option on our team. And McMillan could keep him on a relatively short leash, because Batum is ready to come in and do what Nate wants off the bench.

This. Artest was trying to carry a team, when he is not an offensive carrying type of player. He was just forced into that role because of all the injuries. Normally he would have been behind Tmac and Yao, a third fiddle if you will.

 

[oldguy]

My main concern with bring in any starting SF is this:

Where will Rudy get his minutes? With 'new SF'/Batum, the SF minutes are gone, even without considering Martel and Travis. Rudy either has to play some PG, or settle for the 10-12 minutes that Brandon goes down. It seems most likely they upgrade the PG, so I don't see him getting minutes at the 1. 10-12 minutes won't be enough to keep Rudy happy, and is a waste of his talents, imo.

 

[hasoos]

I don't think they will bring a free agent in, so it doesn't really matter. Plenty of playing time for all who are still here besides the draft picks.

 

[Natebishop3]

Forget small forward, if we upgrade to a veteran point guard, this team will make advances in leaps and bounds.

 

[rocketeer]

rocketeer-

I'm curious as to what you think the Rockets will do this year. Do you think they get Artest? How much will they pay him?

Have you heard much about Yao's foot?

i really don't know what the rockets will do in regards to artest, but i don't expect them to pay him huge money(9-10 mil per season). they'll probably put an offer out their that they feel is reasonable and let artest explore his options. i don't really see there being a huge market out there for artest so he could end up signing for what the rockets feel is reasonable.

don't know what's going on with yao's foot. until a day or two ago, all that i'd heard was that this injury was less severe than the others and that his foot should heal with 8-12 weeks of rest and no surgery. then the 8 weeks was up and they came out saying that his foot hadn't healed as expected and that there was no timetable on his return. definitely very troubling but i don't really know what's going on at this point other than they're going through a bunch of treatment options to find out what to do now.

 

[hasoos]

Forget small forward, if we upgrade to a veteran point guard, this team will make advances in leaps and bounds.

You need to clarify that. A good veteran point guard. There are plenty of veteran PG not worth a damn in the NBA.

 

[andalusian]

You need to clarify that. A good veteran point guard. There are plenty of veteran PG not worth a damn in the NBA.

So that's why we did not get Beno Udrih for Sergio... It all makes sense now

 

[hasoos]

So that's why we did not get Beno Udrih for Sergio... It all makes sense now

We were lucky to get anything for Sergio. I am surprsied the return package wasn't a stale box of Sacramento Kings game popcorn from last season.