Walsh Close To Pulling Trigger ON Artest Deal

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">NY Daily News - Indiana CEO Donnie Walsh hopes to pull the trigger on a deal to move Ron Artest in the coming days. As Walsh explained last week, it would take something "unusual" for him to back off his decision to trade Artest.

"With as many teams that have called me about Ronny, they obviously don't think he's going to be a problem," Walsh said. "The surprising thing is that most of the interest I've gotten has come from teams out West. Which makes some sense, because if you look at the standings, there are 10 or 11 teams in contention. If you put Ron Artest on any one of those, I'll guarantee you that they will jump up in the standings."

Some of the teams Walsh referred to include the Clippers, Timberwolves, Nuggets and Warriors. Even the Lakers are said to have interest. The Pacers feel they have enough players to man the point-guard spot. So they're looking to package backup Anthony Johnson in any deal. They're also well over the salary cap this year ($79 million) and next season ($69 million), so they'd also like to move some bad contracts when they deal Artest. </div>

That's very interesting. I'm not really sure I'd want Artest here though. He has all the skills to be a star, but his mental issues are bit too much for me. Demanding a trade, the brawl, saying he might retire in 2-3 years, asking for 2months off to make a rap record. I'm just not sure. I'd love to dump Dunleavy, which is the deal that many have been talking about but, Artest is a huge gamble. If he were to turn into an angel off the court, I'd be fine with a trade, but how he has been acting lately, I'm just not sure wether I'd want him or not.

 

While it is a gamble considering his attitude/personality, theres no question that his talent and skill is exactly what the Warriors need. He comes cheap and provides all-star skill. Wish I could say the same about Dunleavy.

 

bottom line you are getting two for one but if you play a game with those odds you could get burned. you get a defensive star as well as an offensive mismatch for a role player so hey you could get a championship or youre team could end up having to watch four or five of youre players sitting in court .

 

Well I don't see the Warriors making much of a push while Dunleavy is on the court doing nothing and making 9 mil a year. Either we get Artest and win games (while we gamble on his craziness) and give up Dunleavy who hasn't done squat or we keep Dunleavy and not improve much while he gets 9 mil/year. I see way more upside in getting Artest than keeping Dunleavy.

 

Artest is the best defender in the league. Any team should be happy to get him except the Spurs he doesn't fit their personality.

 

dunlevey cant do anythin offensively for the warriors, him for artest is good, artest can bring both offense and defense to any team in the league, if he wants to fix his crazzy ass attitude that would be nice

 

Getirdone!

 

who do you guys realistically(not optimistically) think Mully is offering for Artest? Doesn't Pietrus have to be one of the pieces? Seems like he's exactly what Walsh is looking for; young, cheap, potential. Dun is not cheap and he's playing like crap. I would love for it to be him but it just doesn't make sense to me. If it is a large part must be a pr move. At first thought I dont think I like a Pietrus and Taft/Diogu/Biedrins (choose one) swap. I'd have to think about it more. If only Mully had waited!!! Dun woulda been good trade bait without that extension. The fact that he's signed for so much AND is playing crappy so he has low value is like a double whammy.

But yeah who do you guys think are the ones involved in the trade proposal by Mully?

 

The article makes me think about Granger. Walsh is high on that guy, and it looks like he's been performing too: Scoring points, rebounding the basketball, blocking shots. It would be nice to have a player like Granger on the Warriors...(you can add the rest, as it's already been said in this thread enough).

In the article Walsh said that he wants a young player, a draft pick or picks, and to get rid of his bad contracts.

I think the Warriors can give a young player, maybe some draft picks, but where the Warriors fail, is that it would be almost impossible to help the Pacers get rid of bad contracts while giving the Pacers in return some bad contracts too.

I really don't want to trade Pietrus, but here's just an idea. It's the best that I could come up with at the moment. It is Fisher/Dunleavy/Pietrus for Artest/Bender/Harrison. Maybe the Warriors add a second round draft pick(?)

The Pacers get the young guy in Pietrus and also Dunleavy(kinda) and they get rid of a big contract in Bender and they also get rid of Ron Artest.

The Warriors add Artest, Bender who can cause some mismatches, and Harrison who is a young big man. The Warriors also get rid of Dunleavy and Fisher longer contracts.

Warriors:
Davis/Miles
JRich/Ellis/Cheaney
Artest/Bender/Zarko
Murphy/Diogu/Andris
Foyle/Harrison/Taft

But I don't know, just thoughts. If Dunleavy got off cruise-control and didn't have that big contract, maybe things would be easier and better. But yeah, after the deal, maybe the Warriors bring back Tim Hardway, though I think he only wants to go back to Miami, hehe. I am also unsure how Mike Montgomery would ever run such a roster. It would be interesting. I think Montgomery lacks in the creativity department with his game plans, hehe. Creativity which one may need with such a lineup though. It would be a tall team though. All of the backups from the 3 to 5 positions are all like 6-10 or 6-11 or taller.

 

Yeah, if we are the only bidders, we could have made a package. But, the problem is that we either have rookie contracts or really long and overpriced contracts. Any of our rookie contracts are worth less than 2 mils, and Murphy, Foyle, Dunleavy and Fisher's contracts end in next century. If Pacers won't accept any of Foyle, Dunleavy or Fisher's contracts, the deal is basically off, because we certainly won't trade 2 or 3 of our young rookies for Artest. Pacers won't enjoy accepting any of Foyle, Dunleavy, and Fisher's contract, and they probably will find better package than whatever we can offer. Also, we are in a situation to dump contracts, not accepting contracts. Fisher would be a good player for contenders, but they invested tons of mony on Tinsley, Sarunas, Jackson and Johnson, so I don't know they will accept Fisher's contract. I guess everything will depends on what other teams offer, because we can only offer quite flawed package, unless we decide to gut out our rookies for Artest...

 

Oddly enough, I suddenly find myself not wanting to dump Fisher's contract. I know it's huge, I know it's long, I lamented the deal when it happened... But he sure has played like 6th man of the year IMO.

Ideally if there was any way to cut Adonal Foyle loose, I wouldn't hesitate to throw in any of the rookies or picks or a combination thereof. That much money at that position for that long -- that's just a horrible deal IMO because Diogu and Biedrins and Taft will all be snatching up Foyle's minutes within the next year -- or should be anyway. Montgomery's "consistent" rotation has me a little irked, though I did like when Foyle came out with ~5 minutes to go in the first quarter, and didn't play again until the start of the third in Detroit. That was nice.

 

Yeah, I don't want to trade Fisher either right now, but if you want to get a value, you have to trade value in return. And, Fisher is just a beginning.

For Foyle... Well, it's tough. At this point, Foyle really is playiing like a garbage. But, he still is our best shot blocker, individual defender, and decent rebounder. We are all weak at all those, and center is the hardest position to replace by far. So, there is a good chance that we may go back to Foyle sooner or later. If we can replace Foyle with anything decent, I am all for it though...

 

I would have no problem throwing Pietrus and one of our young bigs like Biedrens/Taft. I would also have no problem throwing Fisher/Foyle in there. Granted Fisher is playing well, but if it means him to get the deal done, then no problem here...

 

What get's me is that in the last 2 years Foyle actually has given us decent production at the C spot; sure he has always had hands-of-stone, but he seemed to be developing some actual post moves and bumping that free-throw percentage ever-so-slightly. He had a few games toward the end of 2003-2004 where he went for 20 and 15 and whatnot. But, it seems this year he's a weaker player than ever. I always thought with a true point guard, his ppg would go up because he could clean up a bit in the paint. Unfortunately, his ppg didn't go up -- his turnovers/game did.

 

No Way Artest is a happy camper here. You guys with short term memories forget how painful it is to watch a malcontent run free throw line to free throw line with absolutely no effort (Sprewell 1994-1996). Artest is tied into a long term contract and will undoubtedly want a renegotiation before he starts trying.l

 

Artest has 3 years remaining (4th year seems to be a team option) with 7 mils average. That's lighter than any of our long terms. So, if we can dump any of our long term contract, that alone is beneficial toward our salary situation. Also, unlike other sports, NBA players can't negotiate their contract a year before their contracts end. So, at least for two years, Artest has no option but to accept what he is earning. Also, if Artest is here, he certainly can't play like how Sprewell played, because Davis dominates the ball, and if Davis and Artest can't coexist, it will be a very short stop for Artest.

For Foyle, yeah. He really regressed after first few good games in this season. I don't know it's age thing or his usual slump he goes through basically every year. But for now, it's hard to watch him playing. If he can't defend the middle, block shots, and grab rebounds, he is completely useless. If we can improve center position, I am all for it. Heck, if we can dump Foyle's contract for little downgrade, I am also all for it. But, it would be quite hard...

 

Artest is not the ideal player we'd want for small forward simply because he's an idiot, but we'd gain a real starter at the wing and he's tougher on defense than any of our players that can score. The problem with the Warriors I think is not just their team game, but it's the fact they are horribly soft and have no sense of defensive positioning. A 245 lb small forward with good reads on the angles and quick lateral movement ought to be hell for any swingman or lightweight power forward. Will Artest make the extra pass? Maybe not, but what good is the extra pass if teams won't collapse on you because they aren't a scoring threat? I get that feeling that Dunleavy won't ever get offenses to play him honestly unless he starts scoring more and making teams fear his presence like Peja Stojakavic or Rip Hamilton or some other high % shooter.

Also, the contracts that do work for getting Artest involve players the Warriors wouldn't mind getting rid of. Foyle, Dun, Fish mainly. Rookie scale contracts are probably too small to work.

I think we need to upgrade on Foyle definitely whether it be our rookies or through a trade, but good luck to us in finding any team willing to part with a decent starting center or take on Foyle's contract. Also wouldn't mind dumping Dunleavy. Is this guy known for anything particular? Plus, he's pretty mediocre for guy with excellent shooting mechanics and was supposedly very Bird like, Nowitzki-like, or Peja-like or whoever overrated his college game.

Fish I wouldn't mind getting rid of now since his value is super high right now. He is a great scorer in the catch and shoot role, but he hinders the team as a point guard on the fastbreak or when there are other players who are wide freaking open. Maybe Fisher thinks he is Kobe Bryant, or he suffers from tunnel vision, or he just plainly doesn't trust certain guys with shooting the ball like Foyle, Zarko, Dunleavy, but having a quick pure point guard would be better on a team that needs to make more passes. Fish looks awfully good with Pietrus with the alley-oop plays and hitting the outside shot on the catch, but is Pietrus even in the Warriors's plans? I'd want Pietrus back on the Warriors more than Fish. I guess if Fisher can make a pass and then receive the ball back, he'll be money, but he's not young anymore and guards losing a step or two can be pretty noticeable and Fisher has been only real successful as an undersized shooting guard. He's pretty slow to begin with. I guess if we're sticking with Fisher for a while and his outside shots, the ball first needs to go inside before it goes back out. We have no inside guys to do this though except Ike, but he doesn't look like a good passer out of double teams.

 

Do it Mullin. Sure there are questions and risks but we are talking about Ron Artest. We practically robbed the Hornets with Davis, lets do it to the Pacers as well.

 

I'm with the Custodian on this one, last night Fisher reminded me why I couldn't stand him last year, he just bogs down the offense when he is handling the ball, and probably runs the worst fast break in the league. It seems like Indy could use a guy like him though, even though they have Jasikeckvus.

The W's need to do something, because they are not looking good right now, and I know Pietrus' intensity will help, but that is not our only problem. When players see guys like Artest playing, the defense is infectous (same with Mickael to a certain degree).

I wouldn't want to have to give up on Andris, because I think he will be a stud in a couple years, but we might just have to.

 

Pacers just said they want young prospects, cap relief and picks for Artest.

Only possible scenarios:
Pietrus, Cheaney, Biedrins/Diogu and a 1st for Artest.

It's not worth mortgaging the future for someone insane. Pass.