Vlade4GM
All-Star
Really?
Let's see. The Celtics (KG). The Blazers (Oden). The Cavs (Boozer). The Pistons (Wallace). The Hornets (West). The Suns (Amare). And last, but not least, the Kings (Webber).
But I guess you could be right. It's absolutely impossible that a good big man will ever find his way to Sacramento. Impossible. Given that we will be in the lottery for at least a couple of years and have good assets to trade, it's absolutely impossible that we land an all-star big man.
Well then, we move on to the other option for Artest. Trade him in the summer. What's wrong with that? Why do we absolutely have to trade him now for junk?
Celtics gave up a very good young PF back in that deal which we do not have, replace Jefferson with Kevin Martin and there is no way that deal gets done. Oden (still unproven, but I'll assume he fulfills his potential to a significant degree), they had the 6th worst record in the league and were in a place where it was a reasonable hope they could get into the top 3, big difference between 6th worst and 10-14 worst. Cavs had the cap space to sign Boozer to a big contract, we won't have the cap space for awhile with the way we're going and then we also need for a team to let go of a good big and then have that big come here; also the cavs had to wait 2 seasons before he became a consistent 20-10 player. How old/crazy will Artest be by then? He will start slowing down, the ticking will get louder, and he'll still have the same ego that makes him dominate the ball despite not being the type of scorer that really deserves the ball that much. The suns got Amare with the 9th pick in the draft and when HS players were allowed so there were more unknown high ceilings that fell i.e. more chance to get lucky. Sheed isn't that elite IMO, doesn't make us contenders right now and too old to make us contenders in the future (going by the age in which Detroit acquired him too). David West is not elite, he's a good offensive player but if you're going to call him an elite PF you might as well call Zach Randolph an elite PF; also it took 2 seasons for him to become a solid starter at the 3 and 4 seasons to become an all-star (a selection I highly disagree with).
This is called a straw man argument; I NEVER said it was impossible and I made that VERY clear that I wasn't saying it was impossible. I'm saying to expect one to fall into our laps within Artest's prime is not only very unlikely, but a really bad bet and stupid basis for re-signing Artest who is a ball hog, declining defensively, and a ticking time bomb.
You're assuming he doesn't opt out and I don't think we'll get any better offers at all.