What am I missing here?  Why not just go up to 68 next year?

The problem with re-signing Artest is that any deal that will cost the Kings luxury tax is un-reasonable. Meaning any big $$$ free agent puts the kings in luxury tax unless they get an expiring deal the size of whatever player the Kings could conceivably attach to Artest (like Kenny Thomas) in whatever sign & trade the Kings concoct.

The Kings can't keep Artest without losing Garcia or a bigger contract like Miller or Thomas. That's going to take time to pull off, which is something the Kings don't have if they're going to pay luxury tax. Signing Ron Artest is just going to be hard to pull off WITHOUT paying luxury tax.

Seattle might have cap space after their deal netted them some expiring contracts. But they won't have that much expiring contracts, and why would they sign Artest with Collison, Durant and Green on the roster? They already have too many F's as is. Why add another one?

Charlotte will have cap room. I guess, and this is just a guess, that they would rather have Emeka Okafor than orchestrating some complicated s&t involving Artest.

Philadelphia will have cap room. Why would they go after Artest with Iguodadala and Thaddeus Young on the roster?

In other words Ron may not opt out because it may not be beneficial for him to take 2 million less dollars to do so.

Petrie really scrwed up if he didn't take an offer of Najera Smith and a 1st rounder. If he didn't get that offer from Denver, and it's possible Denver wasn't willing to include the 1st rounder, then Petrie didn't have any real reason to Artest. He clearly had little market to deal with for the guy. Which is a telltale sign that the Kings are trying to force the market to come to them for a player that isn't coveted to that extent by other teams. Details will come to further clarify this point.

These are the players I'd like to see the Kings have next season: Martin, Salmons, Garcia, Douby, Hawes, S. Williams, and Udrih. I'm open to anybody else being dealt or let go as a Free Agent (especially Artest). That 1st round pick may net a valuable player (I still want Darrell Arthur or that type of player even with the presence of Williams) that may make the Kings productive.

Petrie fucked up big time. In not moving Artest for little value, he cost Salmons some effectiveness (and some market value perhaps) down the road. Salmons is alot easier to move, and the Kings may have to move him as a way to free up the spot for him to have a more productive spot somewhere else. Petrie fucked up, and he fucked up by not giving this young roster, with a new coach, the stability it needs to move forward. All it accomplishes by keeping Artest is keeping a touch of that instability Ron is so famous for. After several topsy turvy type of seasons it's clear this franchise needs less drama. Whether that drama came from in-fighting of Bibby/Artest, it is clear that drama came from both, and Bibby always provided a little on the side himself before Artest came, as did Artest everywhere he's been, it's un-fathomable Petrie didn't calculate the negative effect Ron will have the rest of his time here.

Petrie fucked up because I think his legacy of making great trades was at stake. He wanted to get more than anyone else thought he could around the league for Artest. So he watched every team lowball him because of THEIR fear factor. Who loses? Petrie, and the Kings. He lost this deal by not making one. As a fan I'm very disappointed in Geoff's ability to not move forward from Artest even if it cost him some of his aura around the Kings. Because even though a fire sale is tough to swallow the upcoming months may be an even worse possibility. The next 2 months is going to suck.

OK, I know you had a lot of hope invested in sending Ron Ron on his way, Pookey. I wanted to see Artest moved too. I get it that he's too much of a wildcard to bank the future of the team on. But to point your finger and say  "Petrie fucked up big time" and imply that his ego got in the way of his making a deal is unsubstantiated and frankly, over the top.

First of all, it sounds as though there might be a serious rift in the Denver organization, and reports certainly seem to point to Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke stepping in to nix any deal involving Kleiza because of his son's friendship with Linas. In other words, Geoff wasn't dealing with a team making it's decisions completely rationally, nor even with a GM who could pull the trigger, even if he wanted to (which seemingly he did).

In any case, the consensus is that the proposed Linas/Nareja deal was sound from the perspective of Denver, and Nuggets fans are fuming about this a lot more than we are.

http://boardreader.com/tp/Stan+Kroenke.html

Secondly, here's a crucial point to keep in mind: An NBA GM isn't proposing these deals in a vacuum, or on a one-time-only basis. The guys you negotiate at the trade deadline are gonna be the same guys you deal with in the off-season and next year too. So, if you're Geoff petrie and you cave and agree to what amounts to basically a crappy, one-sided, deal because it's the only one you could get at the time, those other GM's are gonna keep low-balling you, expecting you to blink. You soon become a Billy King or an Isaiah Thomas, a guppy being circled by sharks.

We all know Petrie wanted to move Artest, and that he tried hard to move Artest, but he wasn't gonna get taken to the damn cleaners just to make it happen. It's not about ego, it's about keeping your integrity and looking at this in the long term.

No problem. We pay Artest the $8.4 million he's due next season and sign him to an extension that kicks in the year after. Ron is not going to get the big payday due to his other issues and Sacramento needs a cheap star to offset the fact they have $14.3 million tied up in K9 and Reef while needing to remain competitive enough to get an arena deal done.

That leaves $3.3 million for Beno in the first year of his new deal, which sounds about right for the 34th best point guard in the NBA, according to Hollinger's PER stats.

Look at that list and figure out who we are competing with to resign Beno, and I bet the list starts to shrink quite rapidly. And most of the teams that need starting point guard help are bad teams that should be able to fill that need in the upcoming NBA draft, where four of the top 15 picks are projected to be point guards.

If Beno doesn't want to take our $3.3 million, I guess we will have to take our chances with D.J. Augustin or Darren Collison running the show and Tyronn Lue in back of him.

A few folks wanted to make this a choice between Beno and Salmons vs. Artest and a rookie point guard. Now I'd rather have Artest AND Beno, but if push comes to shove, give me Ron and the rookie. No contest.