Marty Mac's World: Artest for Najera? Let's get real here

Reportedly, the Denver Nuggets want to trade bruising/borderline dirty role player Eduardo Najera and a first-round draft choice for Kings forward Ron Artest.

Well, if you were the Nuggets, wouldn't you?

Yet, since that deal hasn't been done, we know Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie hasn't lost his mind.

Najera for Artest? Come now. Najera, who turns 32 in July, is a nice cat to come off any bench. He hustles and hustles and hustles, then he hustles some more. And he does have a contract that expires at the end of the season.

If I'm Petrie, and I've talked with him so often through the years there is a concept of the way he thinks, there is a need – or at least an attempt – to get a starter (preferably younger than Artest, who turns 29 in November) and a role player and/or first-round draft choice.

Keep in mind, Petrie has said his goal is to have salary flexibility after the 2008-09 season. He said Wednesday afternoon that has not changed.

"We want to maintain flexibility," he said, "but I'll be the first to say that's subject to change. We might be willing to take on future money, but if it doesn't lead to improved future performances over a number of years, it doesn't make a lot of sense."

So, it sounds as if patient Petrie will wait for a deal he likes far more than this one. Artest's ability to opt out of his deal at the end of June does play into what teams might offer. However, Petrie notes that acquiring the talented but wacky Artest also brings Bird rights that allow that team to re-sign him or sign and trade him.

With the Western Conference getting bigger and bigger (i.e., the Los Angeles Lakers with Pau Gasol and the Phoenix Suns with Shaquille O'Neal), power forward Nene, despite a recent bout with cancer and a major knee injury, would be more of what I'm looking for in an Artest trade.

That's if Nene, who turns 26 in September, can get a clean bill of health. However, he's in the first year of an approximately $60 million deal.

The trade deadline is Feb. 21, so stay tuned.

'Rocket' turns into pop gun

Would you trust either Roger Clemens or Brian McNamee after watching, listening and/or reading about their testimony before a congressional committee Wednesday? Both came off as untrustworthy and incapable of telling the truth and nothing but the truth.

There's no absolute proof that Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs, just as there is no proof his wife, Debbie, received human growth hormone from McNamee without her husband's knowledge.

However, who believes McNamee did that without Clemens' approval or even suggestion? I don't, and it's implausible that many, if any, sane people will believe that, either.

Then again, who would believe one of these dudes – and one of them certainly did – would lie under oath? Hello, Marion Jones is going to jail for a similar stunt. What happened to the term, "'Fessin' up"?

The proverbial tip of the iceberg hasn't even been touched on this one.

Memphis quickly gets two stiffs

My man T. Robert Jackson pointed out that the Memphis Grizzlies acquired Kwame Brown from the Lakers and Jason Collins from the New Jersey Nets last week. Man, has one team picked up 14 feet worth of slug big men virtually at once? Man, what did Memphis fans do to deserve losing Gasol and then getting these duds?

San Antonio vice president and coach Gregg Popovich whined about the Lakers getting Gasol. The league would be better served by protecting its fan base and instituting an annual one-stiff trade acquisition for every team.