ESPN’s Mark Stein covered all sorts of topics in his “Vegas Chatter” column, but the thing that jumped out at me was this blurb about Dallas/Sacramento trade talk involving Ron Artest.
Yet the Kings continue to insist that the team that ultimately gets Artest will have to take Kenny Thomas’ contract as well. NBA front-office sources say the Mavericks were told several days ago, for example, that an offer of bruising power forward Brandon Bass, veteran swingman Jerry Stackhouse and $2 million to cover Stackhouse’s guarantee in the 2009-10 season would not be enough to reunite Artest with new Mavs coach Rick Carlisle. (Dallas has no interest in a Josh Howard-for-Artest swap in any incarnation.)
While the Kings just drafted Jason Thompson (who has looked promising in summer league play), they are still rather thin at power forward, and the possibility of adding Brandon Bass and his 15.95 PER has to be appealing. The Kings are likely trying to get a more established player and rid themselves of Kenny Thomas’ contract. Still, Bass is just 23 and played really well last season. He’s a former SEC Player of the Year, has a nice jumper and looks to be the real deal. If he were to get starter’s minutes he’d likely average about 15 points and eight boards. Did I mention that he was only 23? I think he’d make a nice addition to that Kevin Martin/Francisco Garcia core that the Kings are trying to build around.
If I’m Geoff Petrie, I’m thinking long and hard about this deal (though having to take on Jerry Stackhouse isn’t ideal).
