In an interview with the Daily Post, an NBA player stated, “Anywhere I go, I can turn things around, given the opportunity.  I definitely would not be opposed to it if that is my calling.  I would not be opposed if something would happen [with the Knicks].  But I just want to win a championship.”

Now if I were to look at the quote blindly and not know what time of year it was or which player it happened to come from, I would have one educated guess.  That player is undoubtedly Ron Artest.  And it was probably said during his week before his free agency started and suitors were attempting to woo him into their stadiums for multiple years at money that would make Gilbert Arenas jealous.  Well, I would be correct in guessing that Ron Artest said those words, because he did.  However, he said them this week after seeing his St. John’s physician about a second opinion on his elbow.  What’s the problem with this?

HE’S STILL ON THE F*&^ING KINGS!

How is this not concerning to Kings’ fans, Kings’ personnel decision makers, and his current teammates?  I haven’t heard any backlash from this so far and it’s actually quite disturbing to me.  This is a player under contract with the Kings and at the turn of the calendar year, he’s stating that he would love to be dealt to the Knicks (his hometown team) in effort to help them win a championship.  That seems pretty crazy to me…even for Ron Artest.  I understand that the situation in Sacramento is quite disturbing to be in and players, fans and Kings’ brass alike all have to be kidding themselves if they say that they can see a light at the end of this tunnel.  The only light they might possibly see would be the light from a fast approaching mediocrity train that is ready to completely knock them from Western Conference contention for the next 4 years. 

The Kings are in danger of turning into the Milwaukee Bucks of the West.  They play decent ball at times that tricks their fans into thinking that this could be the point of the season where everything turns for the better, meanwhile their team is far under .500 and paying way too much money for the production that they’re receiving from their stars.  They have far too much money invested in players like Mike Bibby ($28 million over the next 2 years), Brad Miller ($34.125 million over the next 3 years), Kenny Thomas ($23.82 million over the next 3 years) and Shareef Abdur-Rahim ($18.6 million over the next 3 years and he just had season ending knee surgery). 

That’s not wise spending of your limited assets, considering Sacramento is an extremely small market to generate media revenue.  Many people, including myself, assume that team VP, Geoff Petrie, has an elaborate plan to fix this team that includes more than 30 million dollars coming off of the books after the 2009-2010 season (which just happens to have a free agent class, loaded with star players).  However, dealing with this Ron Artest situation is going to have to be remedied sooner, rather than later in the off-season.  Artest will opt out of his deal at the end of this year.  Make no mistake about it.  The Kings are not making the playoffs, Ron’s window of being an effective player that can affect the outcome of games is beginning to close, and he’ll want to sign on somewhere that he feels he can lead to becoming a title contender.

The crazy thing is (and I realize that it’s redundant to talk about Ron’s thoughts and use the word “crazy” in the sentence) that Artest feels that him signing with Knicks would turn them into the championship contenders that Knicks’ fans long for.  He looks at the potential Cinderella story of coming home to New York to lead his beloved Knicks back to respectability and pines for this opportunity.  I mean, he’s about 30 games into this season and he’s already talking about playing for a team that will be at least 22 million dollars over the luxury tax threshold.  So their flexibility to make a run at Ron Artest is practically non-existent, unless Isiah Thomas can convince him to play for the league minimum (and Isiah couldn’t even convince a jury that he didn’t sexually harass a woman that could easily come in second in a Patrick Ewing look-a-like contest). 

(Real quick- how did he possibly lose that case?  I mean I know the Knicks’ organization and the MSG Company are completely incompetent.  I know that the Stephon Marbury version of “bang bus” testimony made things look pretty bad.  But couldn’t Isiah Thomas have given the defense that he was a superstar player from the 80’s and 90’s and that he could get most women that he wanted due to his fame and bank roll.  Then pointed at the accuser and said to the jury,  “Do you think I would hit on someone day in and day out that looks like Ving Rhames?”  Had he given that defense, wouldn’t he have been found “unbelievably not guilty?”  Is law really that complicated?)

So all tangents aside, the Kings should probably look into dealing Ron Artest as soon as possible, especially with him having one foot out the door, headed towards Madison Square Garden.  Wouldn’t the Knicks be a logical trade choice?  They were hard after him this summer because Artest loves the Knicks and Isiah loves Artest.  They were willing to deal anybody not named David Lee and Renaldo Balkman to land him too.  But who would be a smart decision to go after for the Kings? 

How about Eddy Curry? 

Eddy Curry has 4 more years on his contract with the last two being player options.  Assuming that the options would be picked up, that leaves 4 years and $40.44 million left on his deal.  For a big man that isn’t a bad scorer in the post and would mean that the headache of Ron Artest would be alleviated, that isn’t a huge asking price.  Considering that Eddy Curry has completely fallen out of favor with Isiah in New York and that he’s even going to be benched so that Malik Rose (yes, you read that correctly) can get some more consistent minutes, I’m sure that Isiah would be more than happy to find a way to rid himself of that contract. 

Here are two quotes published in the NY Daily News to consider on the subject matter that come from Isiah Thomas:
On Eddy Curry falling from grace: “How can I say this?  Simply put, we’re 8-21 and he’s not having an All-Star year.”
On a possible deal before the deadline: “I really don’t foresee that.  I don’t see us being active around the trade deadline.  This is the time when you’re down and you can make mistakes that can cost you years.  And everything that you’ve worked for the last three, four years that can set you back another three years.  We’ve got a young group, we’ve got good players, and we’ve got good talent.  We’ve just got to get them to play together.” 

First off, he’s not exactly brimming with confidence in Eddy Curry and he’s choosing his words carefully in talking about him.  Second, he’s clearly talking about being handcuffed in making trade decisions by owner James Dolan because the Knicks don’t want to keep taking on dead weight for contracts of players that used to be able to play.  He’s basically describing what he’s done the past 4 years as the Knicks’ head decision maker on personnel. 

However, a trade of Eddy Curry for Ron Artest would solve both of those problems.  It would bring someone to New York that bleeds blue and orange no matter what franchise is paying him to play.  It would be a deal that makes the Knicks better without adding on more salary and more years under contract.  In fact, it would help them get rid of a big contract that potentially has 3 years after this season for a player that could either opt out of his deal this summer or play through next season.  The Knicks would field a lineup of this:

Center- Zach Randolph
Power Forward- David Lee
Small Forward- Ron Artest
Shooting Guard- Jamal Crawford
Point Guard- Stephon Marbury

That’s not a terrible way to start.  They’d still be soft inside defensively but they would be able to defend the perimeter much better (especially with Artest and Balkman on the floor together at times).  It would give the Knicks someone crazy enough in the locker room to take charge and that nobody would have the balls to confront.  They would be able to convince Artest to not opt out of his contract this summer, because they can’t give him a big deal, and to play through the 2008-2009 season.  This way, they’d have plenty of time to figure out the roster and if things go well, Artest may love playing for the Knicks so much that he would give them a big hometown discount to stay. 

As far as Sacramento goes, they’d get much bigger inside and finally have a post presence that wasn’t one of their wing players.  Acquiring Eddy Curry would allow them to move Brad Miller to power forward and bring Mikki Moore off the bench with Spencer Hawes.  That isn’t a murderer’s row of tough big men, but it also isn’t a bad way to go either.  Miller would be able to go back to the high post full time and with Ron Artest gone, Mike Bibby would be happy to play in Sacramento once again.  They would be able to play the wing combo of John Salmons and Francisco Garcia much more without having to worry about setting off Artest.  The team would still have problems rebounding, but they can’t rebound now anyway so at least you’d get a low post threat out of it. 

With Curry playing well in Sacramento (and he’d at least try so that he can get another good contract somewhere), you could easily get rid of him by the 2010 off-season and still have your cap room.  Or you could keep him, sign free agents to short term deals and keep your cap flexibility in 2010 so that you can build around Kevin Martin’s outside game and Eddy Curry’s inside game. 

The deal probably makes too much sense to work right now, but maybe Isiah Thomas is just desperate to make this move to keep his fans happy and keep himself employed. 


Photos Courtesy of bballcity.com, nydailynews.com, and blog.nydailynews.com, respectively