From the "was this even a question?" department comes the extremely un-shocking news that Jermaine O'Neal has decided not to opt out of the last two years on the contract. Indeed, a guy who's averaged 30.5 missed games over the last four years has decided not to leave $44 million on the table in pursuit of a new contract. But while O'Neal correctly assumed that he couldn't make that much on the open market, that's not to say there won't be demand for his services. The Pacers are (still) rebuilding, so it doesn't make sense for them to carry a max contract. If they can get the right combination of expiring contracts and young talent, they'd probably jump on it. When healthy, O'Neal is an excellent defender and dominant post player -- there are only a small handful of teams in the league who couldn't use a guy like that.
In actual slightly surprising news, Ron Artest's agent indicated that his client is leaning toward not opting out of the final year of his contract. If he stays put, he'll earn just $7.4 million, or half of what Artest thinks he might make on the open market. Trouble is, not enough teams have that kind of money to spend this summer, so he's inclined to wait it out. It's possible the Kings could trade him, but I don't think they will. Sacramento is closer to contending than a lot of people realize -- they would have made the playoffs were they in the East.
