If I'm BK, I'd Ask Al About Artest

[Traceman]

I'd ask him in the context of if we can agree on a contract extension for you and make a trade of Smoove, Chillz & Salim or Marvin (or something like that) for Artest, do you think we should do it? If he says yes, I would strongly consider it. If he says no way in hell, I would forget about it. Al has been a teammate of Artest's for long enough to know if his talent is worth all the craziness that he brings. My guess is that Al will say HELL NO but I could be wrong.

[Packfill]

Problem with that is that you are assuming BK cares what someone else thinks - because normally he just does what he does and he doesn't care what people are saying.

[Traceman]

I'm sure he doesn't care what the media thinks and I'm sure he doesn't care what the fans think either when it comes evaluating a player's skills. That said, BK does his due diligence when deciding whether or not to sign a guy and part of that would be to find out what kind of teammate the guy will be.

[parvezf]

I would never (and BK would never, for that matter) trade 3 young building blocks for Artest (or for any player). But, how about this trade. Indiana and Jermaine O'Neal seem to really want Al Harrington. Sacramento seems to really want Artest (they've had discussions about him for the past 2 years). If Atlanta can make both of these things happen, and make both teams happy, then how about they compensate Atlanta accordingly. Here's the trade: Artest to Sacramento, Harrington to Indiana, and Peja to Atlanta. But here's the kicker: for Atlanta to grant both of these eager playoff contenders their greatest desires, each of them forwards a 1st round pick to Atlanta. So, each playoff team gets a vital, and still young, piece, while Atlanta gets 2 #1 picks, and a player that they can still trade at the deadline or in a sign-and-trade. I think it makes an unreasonable amount of sense.

[pathway23]

I don't know if we'd want to take on 3 guaranteed contracts though I think 2nd round picks would be enough

[Gray Mule]

Don't want to trade Harrington.

However, in the above idea, where Hawks get two first round

picks, remember, they are like money, they can be used

to complete another trade or traded for a needed player.

I don't want to loose Harrington. He is needed here.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Quote:

---

I would never (and BK would never, for that matter) trade 3 young building blocks for Artest (or for any player). But, how about this trade. Indiana and Jermaine O'Neal seem to really want Al Harrington. Sacramento seems to really want Artest (they've had discussions about him for the past 2 years). If Atlanta can make both of these things happen, and make both teams happy, then how about they compensate Atlanta accordingly. Here's the trade: Artest to Sacramento, Harrington to Indiana, and Peja to Atlanta. But here's the kicker: for Atlanta to grant both of these eager playoff contenders their greatest desires, each of them forwards a 1st round pick to Atlanta. So, each playoff team gets a vital, and still young, piece, while Atlanta gets 2 #1 picks, and a player that they can still trade at the deadline or in a sign-and-trade. I think it makes an unreasonable amount of sense.

---

Don't hold me to this, but if we did a deal like that, one of those 1st round picks next year would immeadiately go to Phoenix.

Why?

Because I think that if we acquire any 1st round picks via a trade, the pick of ours that will go to Phoenix ( if we made the playoffs this year ), would become unprotected because we picked up some more 1st round picks.

That would still leave us with 2 picks in the 1st round, but they will probably be mid to low 1st round picks, depending on where Sac and Indy finished. Meanwhile, Phoenix would get our own 1st round pick, which will probably be real high this year.