Bird believes they won't have to wait much longer. He said the Pacers are talking with "five, maybe six" teams, all in the Western Conference. He doesn't expect more than two teams to be included in the deal, and hopes not to have to packageI will take the revelation that the remaining teams are all in the Western Conference to indicate that Bird, like R.M., is underwhelmed by Ricky Davis.
Update: Indeed, Artest for Peja now a done deal. ESPN has the goods.
Update 2: ESPN is now reporting that Artest has indicated he would not report to Sacramento, causing the Kings to pull out of the deal. This may or may not give David Stern reason to enforce the 'players failing to report' provision of the most recently amended CBA, since the Kings were the party to formally call of the deal.
Update 3: Latest word from ESPN is that Artest has agreed to the trade but that the Maloofs want to meet with Artest before giving their approval. If the Kings feel, after the last 36 hours, that they have no choice but to trade Peja what is the chance they will cut a deal with Artest and his agent: Ron plays hard in the short term and the team looks to trade him to a third team as soon as possible? Is now the time for the Celtics to be on the phone with Sacramento offering something like Davis, Blount and Banks for Artest and Skinner?
12 comments:
Two immediate thoughts on the Artest trade:
1) Celtics host Sacramento on Friday. If Artest doesn't play tomorrow night in New York this will be his first game with the Kings. You think Pierce isn't wishing this trade couldn't have waited another few days?
2) With Peja coming to the Pacers Pierce has to be only somewhat happier about those future Indiana-Boston grudge matches. Peja is one of the fastest wing players in the NBA and Paul won't appreciate sprinting around the defensive end of the court while carrying the load on offense as well. Wouldn't it be nice to have a tall, lock-down defensive SF so we could move Pierce to SG? Hmmm, maybe we should try and trade for Artest
That's the first time I've heard Peja described as one of the fastest wing players in the NBA.
I always thought Peja's lack of athleticism was a weakness that was countered by his once-tremendous shooting accuracy.
Are you kidding me? He's the Rip Hamilton of the CBA. Unfortunately, there is no CBA anymore, so he's just a very good NBA shooting guard (pure 2, all the way). But all kidding aside, he does generally run around and come off picks and screens alot, at least the last time I saw Sacramento play. That's a key feature of the Princeton/motion offense that they run. I'd imagine his "running" role will be similar to what Reggie Miller's was in Indiana.
Unfortunately for the Pacers with Stephen Jackson and Peja logging a lot of minutes at SG and SF Indiana is going to get lit up by teams with good offensive wings.
While this trade is better than a lot of alternatives I'm not sure it makes Indiana anything like the contender they were expected to be at the beginning of last season
I disagree--the Pacers are still a team to contend with because of their depth.
You're right that there's a big dropoff between Artest and Peja, especially on the defensive end. But aside from Detroit, which is in a league of its own, I think Indiana can hang with the rest of the East. I agree that losing Artest diminishes their ability to matchup with Detroit or Miami.
They might not be done dealing. Stephen Jackson is signed on the relative cheap -- $6-$7.6 million per year until the end of the 2009-2010 season. It's tough to trade for size, but package him with Scott Pollard's expiring contract, or Austin Croshere's deal which expires at the end of next season, and you might get something in return.
I think there's a possibility that they'll get Al Harrington back from the Hawks. Harrington becomes a free agent at the end of the season, so the Hawks might want to trade him rather than risk losing him and getting nothing in return. It's no secret that Harrington wants out of Atlanta, and that the Hawks have a glut at the wing positions. Plus Indiana loved Harrington's defensive intensity.
Apparently SportsCenter is now reporting that Sacramento is rejecting the Peja-Artest trade because Artest has told them he won't report. For what its worth.
You have to admire Artest's ability to crap on every tablecloth he comes across. Spectacular.
Ben, the idea that the Celtics will end up Artest made me laugh. That is just ridiculous.
Davis, Blount, and Banks suck. No one would trade Ron Artest for those three losers. Sorry. :P
I don't know why the Celtics would want Artest anyway. They're not winning much of anything with or without him over the next two seasons, and after that he'd surely leave.
R.M. I'm not going to get into a larger debate with you over what was some out-loud brainstorming. The thing about this situation that I found most interesting and will get into is that Sacramento is potentially in a very tight spot. Peja has gone public with feeling humiliated by the franchise. Artest and his agent may be telling them in private that he has no desire to play for them and will not be part of their rebuilding.
If such a situation exists it creates a pretty unique opportunity for another team to take advantage of it, if they can put together a package of players that the Maloofs can trade Artest for. Again, this presupposes that the Maloofs feel that they cannot keep Peja and will get nothing out of Artest. In such a case something of little value is better than something of no value.
I'll avoid answering your other comments since I don't get the sense you'd be interested.
B: Needless to say, I didn't mean to offend you at all. It's hard to capture tone over the internet, but the tone of my comment was just meant to tease you, that's all. I was just giving you a hard time, and apologize if I was rude.
I agree that the Kings will be in a rough spot if the trade doesn't go through, although I think they would have lost Peja anyway. I'm hoping the Artest trade doesn't go through and they trade him to the Bulls, but that's unlikely at this point.
As far as Artest goes, the Maloofs couldn't trade him for at least 60 days anyway, unless the latest CBA removed that rule. My guess is that if the trade goes through, he'll end up staying in Sacramento for at least one season, 60-day rule or not.
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