Top > Sport > 2005 > December > 2005-12-30

LA Seems As Frontrunner

The Lakers look to be the front runner in a league-wide race to acquire Ron Artest. With Artest in the fold, LA looks to build on their strong play for the last couple of weeks. According to the rumors, Odem is not going to be a part of the deal, as the Lakers will mostly provide cap relief for the Pacers. LA should have acquired Ronny well before they dropped three straight painful games to finish off what was once an impressive month of December.

The run they made to start the month was eye-opening, but it remains abundantly clear that the Lakers need an infusion of talent. Artest is a rare defensive stopper who can put in 20 ppg. Certainly he`s a challenging player to coach, but Phil Jackson has the pedigree for the job. Though there are a number of teams chasing Artest, the market for him is said to be surprisingly soft.

In order to make it worth their while, the Lakers have to take on whatever contracts the Pacers want to dump. Devean George and Slava Medvedenko are $8 million in ending contracts. Chris Mihm and Aaron McKie have reasonable short-term deals. Be it Anthony Johnson, Jeff Foster and/or Austin Croshere, the Lakers need to take on the contracts that other teams are unwilling to touch.