Artest lands in City of Angels; Lakers also sign G Brown

Sports Network | July 8, 2009

Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - The free-agent moratorium concluded after the new NBA salary cap was announced on Tuesday, and the Los Angeles Lakers wasted little time in making official their signing of free agent forward Ron Artest.

While the terms of the agreement were not released, the Los Angeles Times reported last week that the pact is for three years at close to $18 million. That represents a pay cut after Artest made $7.4 million last season with Houston, which reportedly only offered the enigmatic forward a one-year deal.

Artest helped the Rockets get to the conference semifinals last season for the first time since 1996-97. After spending three seasons in Sacramento, the 29- year-old averaged 17.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 69 regular season contests with Houston.

For his career, spanning 10 seasons, Artest has game averages of 16.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists with Chicago, Indiana, Sacramento and Houston.

He has also established himself as one of the top-flight defenders in the league, averaging 2.1 steals per game for his career and winning the 2004 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award.

The Lakers also brought back a role player from their 2008-09 championship squad, signing free agent guard Shannon Brown. Details of that deal were also not released, though the LA Times reported it to be a two-year, 4.2 million agreement.

Brown averaged 3.2 points while playing just over 7 1/2 minutes in 18 regular season games for LA after coming over in a mid-season trade from Charlotte.

The 23-year-old appeared in 21 postseason games, upping his averages to 4.9 points and 1.2 rebounds in 13 minutes per contest.