Metta World Peace coming home????

Yesssss!! Welcome home, Ronnie! I definitely think he'll be around the help recruiting and I have a feeling that Lavin will have a recruit bump into Ronnie when he has a recruit visit the Garden

And he can still play...In fact, World Peace was excellent in his final season with the Lakers. He put up 12.4 points, five rebounds and 1.6 steals per game last year, all of which were the best totals of any of his four seasons in Los Angeles. Plus his PER of 12.55 was higher than it had been since the 2008-09 season, per ESPN.

And with World Peace, it's not really about the superficial numbers; his defense and his overall effect on his team are far better indicators of his worth. According to 82games.com, MWP held opposing small forwards to a PER of 15.00 last season, which was exactly league-average. But he limited power forwards to a PER of 13.7, which shows both his toughness and his versatility.

Overall, the Lakers' offensive rating improved 3.9 points per 100 possessions when World Peace was on the floor, while their defensive rating was 3.8 points per 100 possessions better. Altogether, MWP improved the team by a whopping net rating of plus-7.7 points per 100 possessions.

Just for reference, Kobe Bryant's net rating was just plus-3.3 points per 100 possessions for the Lakers last year, per 82games.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-unpredictable-star-forward-metta-world-peace
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I'm just curious about Artest's NBA stock, since he signed for the mid-level exception salary of $1.6 million in a one year deal. If the statistics you quote put him in an elite category, and his behavior has been decent, why such limited interest? I've always felt, going back to his SJU days, that Artest was a Magic Johnson type player, who could make a tremendous impact without scoring a lot of points. I'm just a little puzzled that at 33, there wasn't a much bigger deal out there for him. Care to help?
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He does get all of his previous contract even though he was bought out. So at that point he didn't really need a big contract. He was looking for where he wanted to land first and foremost
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Thanks, Moose. The buyout was mostly due to luxury tax ramifications?
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The team gets Salary Cap relief but they still have to pay. Might be some way to spread it out maybe but he's still due the money. Most of the time amnesty buyout cases like Artest sign for less with another team. Happens in hockey too.
 
My understanding is Lakers still must pay off the contract but they get salary cap relief and avoid luxury tax penalties on his contract being that they are still over the cap. Artest with a salary of some 7.8 million or so and the triple the over the cap luxury tax saves the Lakers about 30 million by amnestying Ron.
 
Every team got one contract amnesty relief as part of the last CBA. Does exactly what you guys are talking about. Some use it to clear space to sign a more productive player, some use it to avoid luxury tax. Some teams do both with it.
 
Interesting piece on Metta's return to NY on Grantland this morning (topped with a nice photo of him in front of the old cloud/lightning logo):

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-t...icks-fan-talks-himself-into-metta-world-peace

"A New York–born, Queensbridge-raised St. John's product, made good for the hometown Knicks. It’s basically the daydream of thousands of kids bouncing basketballs in driveways and parks across the city. When I grow up, I’m going to play for the Knicks. I’m going to play at the Garden."
 
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