Some Artest mentions here... plus some other NBA talk (Heat, Celtics, LA, etc)...
Pacers maintaining hard line on dealing explosive Artest
GM seems willing to allow deadline to approach; trade to Western team is preferred strategy
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
More than three weeks have passed since the Pacers put a for sale sign on Ron Artest. But there he sits in the window, banished from the court with no takers willing to pay the price.
Pacers president Donnie Walsh has refused to lower his asking price and though a deal could come Monday, Walsh seems perfectly content to let Artest and the Pacers wait until the deals start flowing in February.
Walsh, of course, wants the message out that he is not willing to give up Artest for nothing. He has been looking for a relatively young, up-and-coming player, preferably with a short contract — basically what Artest was before he became determined to wear out his welcome.
Al Harrington, the former Pacers forward, makes perfect sense, and Walsh went after him. Harrington will be a free agent so Atlanta could use something they can keep and the Pacers, who are keeping a close eye on the budget, wouldn't mind a trial period.
Hawks GM Billy Knight would want a draft pick in that deal and so far the Pacers won't give one.
The Timberwolves are hot for Artest, but Wally Szczerbiak's got three years and $36 million left on his contract after this season. No deal.
The Nuggets would love Artest, but there is little market for Earl Watson because of his contract, and the Pacers have too many point guards. Nene won't help this season. So if Walsh was going to make a deal for the future, there is no need to do it now.
The Clippers won't part with Corey Maggette, and he's hurt anyway. The Warriors have been hesitant to include Mike Dunleavy in a trade.
So Walsh waits.
The failure to make a deal, is to his credit.
The Pacers are trying to get a player of Artest's caliber, but also with his relatively modest salary, $6.5 million. They also don't want to give up a handful of players to get a deal done. And team president Larry Bird said they would rather send him to the Western Conference, making it tougher.
So Artest, the Defensive Player of the Year in 2004 who was averaging 19.4 points, sits and waits. He hasn't played since Dec. 6. A player who last season suggested he needed time off to promote his music company and then earned a suspension for most of the season, should be used to the inactivity. If not, though, he could have a long wait.
Games of the week
• Rockets — Thursday, at Cleveland. LeBron James. Tracy McGrady. TNT loves the headliners and gets two of the biggest names. It might have been interesting to match up Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Yao Ming, but the broadcast will get by without that easier than the Rockets have.
• NBA — Saturday, San Antonio at Phoenix. The rematch of last season's Western Conference finals will be missing Amare Stoudemire, but still pits two of the West's best, and two point guards who should be in Houston for the All-Star Game, Steve Nash and Tony Parker.
Defense wins
The Mavericks figure they will be hearing about those 62 points Kobe Bryant hung on them all season. They also figure this is a good thing, as a reminder that their success will be determined by how deter-
mined they are defensively.
Dallas can safely assume its scoring will be there. But a few statistics show that the defense tends to determine whether the Mavericks win.
In the past five seasons, the Mavericks are 196-13 when holding their opponent to the same or worse shooting percentage.
They are 52-96 when their opponent shoots a better percentage.
"If you can really concentrate on every possession and try to make it hard for them to get a good look, and keep that shooting percentage of theirs down, that takes the pressure off your own shooting percentage," assistant coach Del Harris told the Dallas Morning News. "Now it's true we've won 63 straight when we shoot 50 percent.
"But I like this stat better than hoping to shoot 50 percent. When you say, 'Well just outshoot them,' that's a harder way to look at it."
Winning cools trade talk
The Nets were actively pursuing front-line help, and would still be open to making moves. But things have to be turned around more than enough with an eight-game winning streak to consider the Nets among the Eastern conference contenders, in the group of teams below the Heat and Pistons.
"Winning cures all wounds and solves a lot of problems," guard Vince Carter said. "Winning, playing hard, playing together, we can hold our heads up and not worry about being traded now."
Carter, who had been going along for the ride instead of taking over, has been the biggest difference, as his 51-point game against the Heat demonstrated.
"I just decided a different approach, to set the tone," Carter said. "(I said), 'This is how I'm going to play.' This is how our captain ( Jason Kidd) plays. Follow us. RJ ( Richard Jefferson) plays the same way, high energy. Once the three of us go all out, everyone else jumps on board, and says 'If our three leaders are doing it, we should, too.' "
The Nets were not shopping any of their big three. But when Carter was asked if he were concerned he might be shipped out, he said, "You never know."
Celtics' near misses
If the Celtics ever get over their misfortune in not winning the 1997 lottery to get Tim Duncan, they can move on to lamenting their near miss last season when they thought they were about to land Baron Davis.
With the Celtics facing the Warriors last week, Boston coach Doc Rivers said he thought the Celtics' offer — likely Gary Payton, a draft pick and a young player — would land Davis. Instead, he has helped resurrect the Warriors.
"He's one of the best points in the league, and if you can get a good point or center as a foundation for your franchise, that's what you want to do," Rivers said. "Those two positions can affect everyone on the floor immediately. With a good point guard you know you're going to get into your sets. You know nobody's pressure is going to bother you. Pick-and-rolls will be part of your offense.
"If you had Baron and Paul (Pierce), you'd feel pretty damn good about your team. He would have been able to improve Paul's shots. But as far as the other stuff goes, with the way it's turned out this year, Paul's been fantastic. So that part has worked out anyway."
Targeted changes
As the Pistons distance themselves from the league, they have decided the Heat made all those changes in the offseason to compete with them.
"Yeah, I was surprised," Richard Hamilton said. "They just lost (Game 7 to the Pistons) in the last couple of minutes and they had one of the best records in the NBA, then they switched everything up. I guess they felt they had to get better.
"I can't see it as anything other than that (trying to match up with Detroit."
Said Chauncey Billups: "There was no other reason for them to change. They won 60 games (59) and the only team they struggled with was us. So, I have to figure they made those changes to get past us."
Riley's side
Heat president and coach Pat Riley said his team's changes were not specifically to beat the Pistons.
If they were, he might have made other moves (to land Michael Finley and perhaps Robert Horry). But he continued to defend the moves he made, particularly the late pickup of Gary Payton, who has come on since Jason Williams' injury. (Riley still did not explain dealing for Williams.)
"I'm happy with what we did," Riley said. "You can't specifically look at a team and go, 'OK, I'm going to do this, and he's going to match up with this guy and he's going to match up with this guy.'
"I do believe at the end of the summer, we got very fortunate to get Gary, because I think Gary will have the moxie to play against (Chauncey) Billups and maybe Rip (Hamilton), and the experience. And I think maybe in a big-game situation defensively, he can shut people down.
"When we get to that time when we're going to need that kind of defense, then I think we have enough. And if we don't, then I'm going to keep looking for it."
Translating Phil
In his book, written between gigs as Lakers coach, Phil Jackson mildly criticized the Lakers for trading Shaquille O'Neal, basically saying he understood the logic but would not have done it.
Now back as Lakers coach, he mentioned that the Bucks have not won a championship since trading Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and explained the difficulty of winning after trading such a dominant player.
"It's pretty obvious," he said, "that the replacement takes a tremendous amount of culture to kind of germinate it the right way."
Experts tell us that means it's easier to win with really good players than without them.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/3558629.html
Pacers maintaining hard line on dealing explosive Artest
GM seems willing to allow deadline to approach; trade to Western team is preferred strategy
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
More than three weeks have passed since the Pacers put a for sale sign on Ron Artest. But there he sits in the window, banished from the court with no takers willing to pay the price.
Pacers president Donnie Walsh has refused to lower his asking price and though a deal could come Monday, Walsh seems perfectly content to let Artest and the Pacers wait until the deals start flowing in February.
Walsh, of course, wants the message out that he is not willing to give up Artest for nothing. He has been looking for a relatively young, up-and-coming player, preferably with a short contract — basically what Artest was before he became determined to wear out his welcome.
Al Harrington, the former Pacers forward, makes perfect sense, and Walsh went after him. Harrington will be a free agent so Atlanta could use something they can keep and the Pacers, who are keeping a close eye on the budget, wouldn't mind a trial period.
Hawks GM Billy Knight would want a draft pick in that deal and so far the Pacers won't give one.
The Timberwolves are hot for Artest, but Wally Szczerbiak's got three years and $36 million left on his contract after this season. No deal.
The Nuggets would love Artest, but there is little market for Earl Watson because of his contract, and the Pacers have too many point guards. Nene won't help this season. So if Walsh was going to make a deal for the future, there is no need to do it now.
The Clippers won't part with Corey Maggette, and he's hurt anyway. The Warriors have been hesitant to include Mike Dunleavy in a trade.
So Walsh waits.
The failure to make a deal, is to his credit.
The Pacers are trying to get a player of Artest's caliber, but also with his relatively modest salary, $6.5 million. They also don't want to give up a handful of players to get a deal done. And team president Larry Bird said they would rather send him to the Western Conference, making it tougher.
So Artest, the Defensive Player of the Year in 2004 who was averaging 19.4 points, sits and waits. He hasn't played since Dec. 6. A player who last season suggested he needed time off to promote his music company and then earned a suspension for most of the season, should be used to the inactivity. If not, though, he could have a long wait.
Games of the week
• Rockets — Thursday, at Cleveland. LeBron James. Tracy McGrady. TNT loves the headliners and gets two of the biggest names. It might have been interesting to match up Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Yao Ming, but the broadcast will get by without that easier than the Rockets have.
• NBA — Saturday, San Antonio at Phoenix. The rematch of last season's Western Conference finals will be missing Amare Stoudemire, but still pits two of the West's best, and two point guards who should be in Houston for the All-Star Game, Steve Nash and Tony Parker.
Defense wins
The Mavericks figure they will be hearing about those 62 points Kobe Bryant hung on them all season. They also figure this is a good thing, as a reminder that their success will be determined by how deter-
mined they are defensively.
Dallas can safely assume its scoring will be there. But a few statistics show that the defense tends to determine whether the Mavericks win.
In the past five seasons, the Mavericks are 196-13 when holding their opponent to the same or worse shooting percentage.
They are 52-96 when their opponent shoots a better percentage.
"If you can really concentrate on every possession and try to make it hard for them to get a good look, and keep that shooting percentage of theirs down, that takes the pressure off your own shooting percentage," assistant coach Del Harris told the Dallas Morning News. "Now it's true we've won 63 straight when we shoot 50 percent.
"But I like this stat better than hoping to shoot 50 percent. When you say, 'Well just outshoot them,' that's a harder way to look at it."
Winning cools trade talk
The Nets were actively pursuing front-line help, and would still be open to making moves. But things have to be turned around more than enough with an eight-game winning streak to consider the Nets among the Eastern conference contenders, in the group of teams below the Heat and Pistons.
"Winning cures all wounds and solves a lot of problems," guard Vince Carter said. "Winning, playing hard, playing together, we can hold our heads up and not worry about being traded now."
Carter, who had been going along for the ride instead of taking over, has been the biggest difference, as his 51-point game against the Heat demonstrated.
"I just decided a different approach, to set the tone," Carter said. "(I said), 'This is how I'm going to play.' This is how our captain ( Jason Kidd) plays. Follow us. RJ ( Richard Jefferson) plays the same way, high energy. Once the three of us go all out, everyone else jumps on board, and says 'If our three leaders are doing it, we should, too.' "
The Nets were not shopping any of their big three. But when Carter was asked if he were concerned he might be shipped out, he said, "You never know."
Celtics' near misses
If the Celtics ever get over their misfortune in not winning the 1997 lottery to get Tim Duncan, they can move on to lamenting their near miss last season when they thought they were about to land Baron Davis.
With the Celtics facing the Warriors last week, Boston coach Doc Rivers said he thought the Celtics' offer — likely Gary Payton, a draft pick and a young player — would land Davis. Instead, he has helped resurrect the Warriors.
"He's one of the best points in the league, and if you can get a good point or center as a foundation for your franchise, that's what you want to do," Rivers said. "Those two positions can affect everyone on the floor immediately. With a good point guard you know you're going to get into your sets. You know nobody's pressure is going to bother you. Pick-and-rolls will be part of your offense.
"If you had Baron and Paul (Pierce), you'd feel pretty damn good about your team. He would have been able to improve Paul's shots. But as far as the other stuff goes, with the way it's turned out this year, Paul's been fantastic. So that part has worked out anyway."
Targeted changes
As the Pistons distance themselves from the league, they have decided the Heat made all those changes in the offseason to compete with them.
"Yeah, I was surprised," Richard Hamilton said. "They just lost (Game 7 to the Pistons) in the last couple of minutes and they had one of the best records in the NBA, then they switched everything up. I guess they felt they had to get better.
"I can't see it as anything other than that (trying to match up with Detroit."
Said Chauncey Billups: "There was no other reason for them to change. They won 60 games (59) and the only team they struggled with was us. So, I have to figure they made those changes to get past us."
Riley's side
Heat president and coach Pat Riley said his team's changes were not specifically to beat the Pistons.
If they were, he might have made other moves (to land Michael Finley and perhaps Robert Horry). But he continued to defend the moves he made, particularly the late pickup of Gary Payton, who has come on since Jason Williams' injury. (Riley still did not explain dealing for Williams.)
"I'm happy with what we did," Riley said. "You can't specifically look at a team and go, 'OK, I'm going to do this, and he's going to match up with this guy and he's going to match up with this guy.'
"I do believe at the end of the summer, we got very fortunate to get Gary, because I think Gary will have the moxie to play against (Chauncey) Billups and maybe Rip (Hamilton), and the experience. And I think maybe in a big-game situation defensively, he can shut people down.
"When we get to that time when we're going to need that kind of defense, then I think we have enough. And if we don't, then I'm going to keep looking for it."
Translating Phil
In his book, written between gigs as Lakers coach, Phil Jackson mildly criticized the Lakers for trading Shaquille O'Neal, basically saying he understood the logic but would not have done it.
Now back as Lakers coach, he mentioned that the Bucks have not won a championship since trading Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and explained the difficulty of winning after trading such a dominant player.
"It's pretty obvious," he said, "that the replacement takes a tremendous amount of culture to kind of germinate it the right way."
Experts tell us that means it's easier to win with really good players than without them.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/3558629.html
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