Peja to Hornets - Pacers were smart

[Millertime31]

Losing Peja hurts the Pacers.  However, locking him up to a 5 year deal averaging 13 million a year would have been idiotic.  He is a great shooter, and a good teammate, but he isn't worth that kind of money.  It would cripple the team and they wouldn't be able to compete.  Good luck to Oklahoma City if they want him that badly.  They will be regretting this move in a year or two.

[Craig_Hodges_Is_My_Hero]

Agreed.  He's a very good player and he worked well in the system but it simply came down to money.  They weren't willing nor able to swing that kind of deal and quite frankly, I wouldn't have expected them to break the bank for him.  But hey they're paying JO $18 million this year alone so you never know.

[nguyenpeter]

Besides I didn't think Peja played as well when J. Oneal came back from injury.

[Skoobs]

they can make a big run at Al Harrington and hope that fills the hole

[Craig_Hodges_Is_My_Hero]

Besides I didn't think Peja played as well when J. Oneal came back from injury.

Nobody does when JO is around.

[rycombs]

I always love when athletes say they plan on staying with a team because of the chance to win and then bolt for more money with no chance of winning in sight. We should have traded Artest for Harrington in the first place. I still wish we had drafted Willimas(PG) with the plan of signing Al and trading Tinsley. Al says that would be a dangerous front line (JO, Al and Granger) and he's right. We would still be a playoff team and once we either trade Croshere's contract or it runs out we'll have a far more fun team to watch and with Al and no Tinsley or Stojakovic one that may be able to play and compete in the playoffs rather than sit around and steal a paycheck.

[Joshua]

Yes, Pacers were very smart. They got rid of Ron Artest, for basically nothing. That makes them very smart.

[tmhorn15]

He sure can shoot.  He was doing a lot of other things, too. Rebounding, defending within the system, assists, free throws.  I'm also sick of watching the players chase the money.  The team is strapped financially from signing money hungry players.  I think Larry covered the SF spot with the draft while freeing up some money.  He put the Pacers in a great position especially 2 or 3 years down the road.

[big bad kahoona]

did the pacers try to sign and trade Peja for Harrington? Harrington is probably gonna ask for the same amount anyway.

[pittsburger]

Face the bloody fact, pacers got owned straight up by Artest's whole bs- from brawl to whining to losing chances of grabbing talents like Maggatte, Andrew Bynum, Odom and etc.

Al Harrington is NOT an excuse for Pacers to feel better, because Pacers was expecting to sign both Peja and Harrington ANYWAYS since they were planning to send Jamal.T and some other guys away to create cap space.

Well, I feel for Peja, he got shetty treatment from the Kings and that turned him into another "businessman" who only treats NBA as a business.

Well, summer is not the time to whine but to add some good players through free agency/trades!

 

[31]

did the pacers try to sign and trade Peja for Harrington? Harrington is probably gonna ask for the same amount anyway.

Nope. Harrington is willing to take less $ to get the hell out of Atlanta -- But it's not like Indiana is going to pay him $7/hour or something. I'm assuming it will be a fair chunk of change.

Also, Reggie Miller, Jonathan Bender, Stojakovic, and Pollard's salaries come off the books this offseason.  

[rapdoggy77]

That's funny,  :lol:

Pacers sure ripped themselves off w/ that Artest trade.  Peja wasn't that great anyways.  CWebb and Vlade were the ones who made his *** look good in Sacramento anyways.

[pittsburger]

That's funny,  :lol:

Pacers sure ripped themselves off w/ that Artest trade.  Peja wasn't that great anyways.  CWebb and Vlade were the ones who made his ***** look good in Sacramento anyways.

Wrong. Peja played like shet when Webber came back from injury and was never a star while Webber was dominating. He became a star when Webber got hurt  :roll:

[31]

The thing is, the Pacers would've ripped themselves off by keeping Artest on the team. Artest was/is cancer, and Peja gave Indy the best shot at making the playoffs and hope that he'd re-sign in the offseason.

Obviously the second part didn't work out, but anyone will tell you that this team is far better off without Artest. And at least now there's extra cap room for the Pacers to sign another decent player.

And now that the honeymoon period is over in Sacramento, I presume we'll all be watching Artest destroy another franchise this season.