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I know there have been hundreds of SAC trades, and I've read hardly any, but if I was going to give it a try, I'd start with something like this:

Looking over SAC's contract situation, I think its highly important to try to move, or reduce Kenny Thomas' salary, particularly with Kevin Martin's salary to negotiate. I think a package of Artest + KT that would be best would be "some" expiring + "some" two year, + a late 1st.

SAC TRADES: Ron Artest, Justin Williams, Kenny Thomas
SAC GETS: Garrity (exp), Arroyo (exp), Eric Snow, Cedric Simmons, ORL 1st

SAC uses Artest value to save $8 mil in each of 2008-09, and 2009-10 to get some room to sign Kevin Martin. Kenny Thomas for Eric Snow saves a year of salary. This deal is mostly about financial rebuilding, but ORL's late pick and Cedric Simmons are tools for the future.

CLE TRADES: Drew Gooden, Eric Snow, Cedric Simmons,
CLE GETS: Ron Artest, Kenny Thomas

CLE needs something -- maybe its Artest? They upgrade from Gooden to Artest at a cost of another year of salary on the tail end (after they are out of the lux), and give up Cedric Simmons, who might be guaranteed salary they don't want since they are over the lux with Varejao. Gooden's been important, but Marshall's healthy again, and maybe Kenny Thomas can help next to giant Zyd Ilgauskis. Artest might provide the defense they need.

ORL TRADES: Garrity (exp), Arroyo (exp), 2008 1st
ORL GETS: Drew Gooden, Justin Williams

Orlando adds a legitimate big man to help under the boards, and is willing to make a three year commitment because he's young, and ORL will be tapped out for free agents for a while. This helps them play Turkoglu and Lewis more at their legitimate SF positions, and reduces injury risks to their expensive players.

Eh... I don't know if we would give up Gooden and take on KT for a 1/2 season rental of Artest.

I'm not sold on it as a Kings fan.

Simmons doesn't seem like much of a prospect
Eric Snow is dead weight.
The Orlando pick will likely be very late in the round, probably #25+
The kings also have very little interest in adding Justin Williams as a throw-in.

The trade blah...First of all, take Williams out of the trade...He is our best young shotblocker/rebounder...

Good point .. I'm assuming that before the deal Artest agrees to serve his second year in CLE for $7.4 mil. He just said he wants to be on a contender, so I see no reason why he wouldn't agree to stay with last year's East Coast Finals victor.

Justin Williams is NOT a throw in...we just haven't used him much lately as we attempt our "playoff" run.

If we are trading Ron/KT for expirings, we are not going to trade young talent away in the process.

kingsfan10 wrote:The trade blah...First of all, take Williams out of the trade...He is our best young shotblocker/rebounder...

No prob -- you need to find someone to lose to meet roster requirements though. thanks for the comment.

As for the "blah" .. the biggest factor here isn't the picks -- its ridding yourself of Kenny Thomas. If SAC can expect $2 mil out of Thomas each year, Artest needs to make up Thomas' salary with his production. It comes out to making Artest a $17 mil/year player (when max deals start at $13). That's why Eric Snow needed to be added -- but I was able to find a couple small pieces. The chunk of value Artest is providing though is most definitely getting Kenny Thomas off your books.

shrink wrote:Good point .. I'm assuming that before the deal Artest agrees to serve his second year in CLE for $7.4 mil. He just said he wants to be on a contender, so I see no reason why he wouldn't agree to stay with last year's East Coast Finals victor.

If Artest agrees PRE-TRADE to not opt out, his value will increase and will not be used with KT to just get expirings and a late first, IMO.

shrink wrote:I know there have been hundreds of SAC trades, and I've read hardly any, but if I was going to give it a try, I'd start with something like this:

Looking over SAC's contract situation, I think its highly important to try to move, or reduce Kenny Thomas' salary, particularly with Kevin Martin's salary to negotiate. I think a package of Artest + KT that would be best would be "some" expiring + "some" two year, + a late 1st.

Also, what's left to negotiate? He's already been re-signed and the extension will kick in next season.

xx_skaterdude_xx wrote: If Artest agrees PRE-TRADE to not opt out, his value will increase and will not be used with KT to just get expirings and a late first, IMO.

I disagree. Read my last post. Artest is not a $17 mil/year player and he certainly won't be able to move Kenny Thomas' bad deal AND get a late 1st.

shrink wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



No prob -- you need to find someone to lose to meet roster requirements though. thanks for the comment.

As for the "blah" .. the biggest factor here isn't the picks -- its ridding yourself of Kenny Thomas. If SAC can expect $2 mil out of Thomas each year, Artest needs to make up Thomas' salary with his production. It comes out to making Artest a $17 mil/year player (when max deals start at $13). That's why Eric Snow needed to be added -- but I was able to find a couple small pieces. The chunk of value Artest is providing though is most definitely getting Kenny Thomas off your books.

That's VERY understandable from a non-kings fan point of view IMO... But as everyone has seen we value Artest much more then other people...Our GM is in no rush to trade him...IMO ultimately, we will SnT him with Kenny during the offseason...

shrink wrote:I disagree. Read my last post. Artest is not a $17 mil/year player and he certainly won't be able to move Kenny Thomas' bad deal AND get a late 1st.

Exactly, so if Artest agrees not to opt if he is traded to a contender, then we will trade him alone for a better draft pick/young players. I would rather have draft picks or a good prospect than get rid of KT.

xx_skaterdude_xx wrote:Also, what's left to negotiate? He's already been re-signed and the extension will kick in next season.

Whoops -- damn synonyms. How about "navigate?" I was going for like "negotiating a submerged reef," but obviously that was an extremely poor choice of words.

The thing is shrink, Brad/SAR/Kenny all expire in 2010...we really could just bite the bullet on him at some point (after this next off-season) and buy him out. That's the year the Kings get capspace....trading Kenny now would have to net a better return with Artest than a late first and a C-level prospect. No thanks.