yea but whats gona happen if we get Artest and Kenny. Artests needs to be resigned next year as well and believe me he will be askin for at least 10 mil a year.

we wouldn't be able to afford a bynum deal of $15mil and an Artest deal of 10mil while havein Kenny on our backs.

In which case we will loose Artest anyway.

Um, considering he was heavily rumored to be worth the MLE, I wouldn't be so confident about that 10 million number. They would still be able to retain Artest.

LOL! yea the MLE that is what everyone thought about Corey Maggette, SEE what happened!
5 year $ 50 mil that is what happen.

Is Artest worth more then Maggette? Yes

Artest has been interested in contenders. Contenders can't offer too much money.

Artest has been interested in contenders. Contenders can't offer too much money.

If he TRULY was interensted in a CONTENDER he would have opted out this summer and would have more then easily gotten the MLE. Teams would have died to get a player like Artest for the MLE.

There is not question about that.

Artest was pissed he didn’t opt out when we saw that there was more money in the market for example (Maggette). Artest himself said he was missed informed.

Artest has no business bei

ng a King if he really wanted to be with a contender.

It IS about the money, he has been an extremely underpaid player his entire career .

I don't agree. Ron said while considering opting out, he WILL NOT accept less money to play for a contender. So if we get him, he's a one year player, I'm cool w/that, but we still have $9million and Kenny Thomas on the roster for one more year. That's the problem I have.

Exactly Zee. See my earlier post

He's come out and said how much he regretted that decision...

yea because he saw there was more money on the MARKET then the MLE, did you not read my post!

yea but whats gona happen if we get Artest and Kenny. Artests needs to be resigned next year as well and believe me he will be askin for at least 10 mil a year.

we wouldn't be able to afford a bynum deal of $15mil and an Artest deal of 10mil while havein Kenny on our backs.

In which case we will loose Artest anyway.

Team chemistry surely didn't win it for us this year. We got beat by a newly assembled team that plays D E F E N S E ...

For the millionth time, WE NEED DEFENSE!!

I don't understand why people keep talking about Artest's personality.

Do you people realize that Odom had been much maligned earlier in his career? He's a previous offender of the league's drug policy, and (through the media) carried that stigma of "bad locker room presence" for much of his early career.

Oh, and this... You have to be kidding me. Lamar smoked weed like probably 90% of NBA players (I'm being facetious here). Proves nothing. And regardless of that, he's had absolutely no problems with that as far as the league is concerned since 2001. That's 7 years for those who are counting. 7 of his 9 years playing pro ball. So... way to drudge up old noise to try to make a point.

And as far as "bad locker room presence"... I haven't heard of any problems like that with the Lakers. And I only care about what involves the Lakers. Plus it's probably just more drudged up junk like the marijuana thing.

Artest on the other hand? Demanded a trade that damaged his team, only to recant when his destination was decided, only to recant about THAT when the trade was finally made to go thru. He's been "injured" when he wanted to be. Took games off to promote his RAP CAREER. Been put up for charges of animal cruelty, domestic violence and assault. Served... wow, I'm going to have to get a calculator to add this one up, but I'd say pretty close to ONE HUNDRED (100) games of suspension while playing in the NBA. I'm sure there's more to list, but I think I've made point enough..

And much of this is still very recent when it comes to RonRon. I'm not drudging up 7-year-old garbage to make a weak point here.

Lamar Odom was one of the relatively few that have ever been CAUGHT with marijuana... that's all I can go by.

Most of the games Artest was suspended for stems from ONE incident, ONE horrible night.

If you want to speak on loyalties, are you aware that Odom severely damaged the Clippers? It had been heavily reported that Odom had told management he wanted to be a Clipper for life, then backed out of it when the Heat offered him a massive contract.

Does Artest have the more sketchy background? Of course, no one is denying that. But it's not as awful as it's made out to be. The media loves to create pariahs (especially in sports) and Ron Artest was a prime opportunity.

If you want to speak on loyalties, are you aware that Odom severely damaged the Clippers? It had been heavily reported that Odom had told management he wanted to be a Clipper for life, then backed out of it when the Heat offered him a massive contract.

Most of the games Artest was suspended for stems from ONE incident, ONE horrible night.

Does Artest have the more sketchy background? Of course, no one is denying that. But it's not as awful as it's made out to be. The media loves to create pariahs (especially in sports) and Ron Artest was a prime opportunity.

Oh, so you're taking the stance of just letting Odom expire? With nothing in return? Luxury tax kind of comes with the territory of winning championships... unless you have a selfless superstar like Tim Duncan.
It's basically how Boston just won a title.

Oh, and can you give a source regarding "Buss doesn't want to pay that much tax."? How do you know that?