I heard Henry Abbott on the Basketball Jones podcast talk about Artest, and he mentioned that Artest is an incredibly sweet, almost "delicate" seeming guy when he's talked to him off the court, but that he seems to lack certain psychological things that people need to have in order to lead normal, happy lives. I'd be very concerned about how Artest would react to playing for us. Baron, Barnes and Jackson are all kind of crazy sometimes, but it usually reads as a positive, overexuberant kind of crazy. Artest's brand of crazy is a little darker than I'm comfortable with, especially on a team that needs to win by utilizing an "us against the world" mentality.

Also, adding another eight to nine million in payroll isn't something I want to do right after we unloaded Richardson's salary and were lucky enough to have Azubuike ready to pick up where he left off. While Artest is a great man defender, that doesn't erase the deficiencies in our team defense, and there isn't much room on our team for him to play any realistic position. I suspect if the Kings traded him to us, they'd want relatively cheap talent. What is Artest worth to us?

Won't trade Baron, obviously. Not Jackson either. Those two aren't going anywhere.

Harrington has been one of our most consistant scorers, and his conditioning and added emphasis on rebounding are really showing. His post moves have been slick. He could possibly be a piece in an Artest trade, but he's probably more worth to us than Artest.

Azubuike is cheap, young, and super talented. He's simply too good a player at too good a value to give to the Kings. Also, they already have Kevin Martin.

I'm sure the Kings would give us Artest if they got Biedrins back. But 99% of all trades involving Biedrins I would consider to be unmitigated disasters, and this scenario qualifies. I'm not entirely sure Biedrins' isn't already better for us than Artest would be.

Brandan Wright and POB? On the off chance Sacramento would take them in an Artest deal, we've lost two promising, athletic young bigs, and  we're still so stacked at the 2/3 spots that Artest would be blocking players more suited to our style.

Basically, I just don't see any way in hell it happens, and I'm pretty content with that reality.

More likely scenario: Kings find themselves at the bottom of the NBA barrel, Ron Artest is unhappy or he does something stupid or there's team chemistry issues, Ron Artest is likely to opt out after the season to either get away from the team or go after more money (or both).  Ron Artest will then most likely be traded, to preserve team chemistry and to get value in return for the $9mil player that will be walking away (even after an Artest opt-out, the Kings won't have significant room under the cap to make a big free agent signing).

If Artest indeed is available, I like his contract situation if we attain him at the deadline.  To get Artest it would probably take some combination of draft picks, the JRich TPE, and/or some/none of the following players: Pietrus, Barnes, POB, Monta, Buke (all expiring).    

Two situations:

1. With Artest, the Warriors do well and make it into the playoffs again, Artest is happy and doesn't opt out.  We'd probably lose Buke and Pietrus (at the least) in the offseason, but a starting lineup of Baron/CaptJack/Artest/Harrington/Biedrins is hard to argue against.
2. With Artest, the Warriors self implode and do horribly.  The good thing about this is, chances are he'll opt out in the offseason if the year goes sour, and our Ron Artest experiment will only have costed us half a season, and our financial situation in the offseason remains the same as it would've been.  Sure, we'll lose the chance to resign whichever players we sent over to the Kings to get Artest.  But realistically speaking, along with re-signing Biedrins, we'll only be able to re-sign one (or two maybe) of those expiring contract players anyway.  

however, we would scare ourselves as well. it really really sucks because 1)i think there is a good chance we can get him b.c. of sactos rebuilding issues 2)we could be soo good with that team, and as mentioned, hes cheap!  But unfortunately, he is waaay waaay too unpredictable, dangerous, and a team killer.  Every where he goes he causes problems and that would not be good for this family.  Only chance is if nellie can somehow rein him in and he becomes reborn as a gsw.

So, his character issues outweighs every positive he would bring to the team because hes a potential team cancer.  If he could find a way to supress those flaws(ala TO) then i think the deal would be amazing.

read: we could get a good deal

read: thats not how u spell jeff

Trade 1: Artest for TPE
Trade 2: Ellis, Perovic and Pietrus for Abdur-Rahim who has a bad contract and they don't really need because they have a lot of forwards.

I think it would work and it would mean we get a great defender to play at either SF or PF and this would make our defense much better. Also, we would get Abdur-Rahim but we could always buy him out if we didn't want him. They would get a good young player in Ellis, an average forward in Pietrus, a young center in Kosta as well as good cap relief and the TPE. I'm not totally sure if both teams would agree to it though but I would be happy if it did.
Line-Up:
PG: Baron, Hudson
SG: Azubuike, Belinelli
SF: Jackson, Barnes
PF: Artest, Harrington, Wright
C: Biedrins, O'Bryant, Mbenga
We could always get bigger by playing Jackson at the 2 and Artest at the 3.

A core of Baron, Captain Jack, and Artest would be extremely scary, for fans of both teams. True, that group will be as likely to reach the 2nd round again as its chances of a member getting suspended for a year, but I think that the respect Nellie commands gives the situation a higher chance to work.

Short answer for anyone who doesn't wanna read:
ITS TOO EARLY

Long answer for those who like pain:

Essentially, I see the price range of Artest (depending on how he's playing, how he's acting, and how the Kings feel):

Low
TPE + pick of some sort

High

• Ellis/Pietrus/Kosta or POB for Artest
  
• separate deal, TPE for Shareef Abdur Raheem

The kicker is that Udrih is playing pretty well. Its probably a stretch, but they might like Udrih enough that the thought of paying Ellis 7-9m isn't too attractive anymore. Who knows.

All of this goes back to the main point...it's too early. We don't REALLY know how the trade pieces around the league and on our roster will sort themselves out.

One question no one's put forth:
Where does Artest play?

Related question:
How does he affect our current players?

Baron and Biedrins go no where.
Artest can play anywhere 2-4 on this team.

Jackson, presumably, stays in the lineup.

That leaves either the Azubuike or Harrington to get kicked out of the starting lineup.

Azubuike and Harrington are both considerably more efficient midrange scorers than Artest and shoot better from 3P range(40% ish, superb)- an element necessary for spacing on our team.

You really, really, don't want to rely on Artest jacking up 3Ps (ask the Kings).

On the boards, Artest has probably no better (possibly slightly better, at best) than either SpecialK or Al.

Another unmentioned point: Harrington is playing extremely good defense. He's underrated at getting position in the post, switching and covering a wing player, and frustrating opposing bigs with footspeed. Artest is superior outside, but if he's asked to play the 4, your gains are minimal at best on the offensive end.

That leaves Artest in, Azubuike out. Artest and Jackson are mirror images of each other, it doesn't matter who you call the 2 or the 3, they both go around 6'8, strong, and willing to physically dominate a smaller player on both ends of the court. Defensively, the upgrade is unquestioned. Offensively, you remove one of your most reliable shooters for a guy who might, when he feels like it, kill your offense by shooting your team out of the gym. Would Nelson reign him in when he's cold, and pull him when he's pulling a Starbury?

Now, I like Ron Artest; I love his game. I would not complain if we got him.

But these are concerns that should be considered before doing any deal more than TPE + pick.

24 > 23

AIM: Jetforze