In light of Ron Artest's recent brick fest, I think it is a good moment to look back at the seasons and make an determination about the unofficial swap of Ron Artest and Trevor Ariza. If the Lakers are brought down by Artest's poor shot selection and wasted three attempts, would it be safe to say we got the better end of the deal?
ron didn't play particular well or efficient on any given night, but he brought another factor that surely helped win some games. his intensity and ridiculousness brought a little something to our team, i felt that that attitude with young players meshed well, we played looser, and better. granted, we had yao in the lineup, which makes it harder to analyze ariza. anyone got the numbers? prolly aint too far apart, ariza shot like 30 something percent from 3, ron was prolly at 39-40 i would guess, prolly similar fg% since ariza throws up alot of bs and ron likes to shoot running to the left fading away lol
oh yes, this was brought on by http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=At7gOEg7p8V8eF6abVx777y8vLYF?slug=ap-lakers-arteststweets thought it was interesting....
yes I know, the link was posted somewhere else... this isn't a thread to discuss the tweets... this is about the poll. Thanks. Cool stories everyone.
ron artest is a better fit for the lakers period. ron usually looks bad when he has to be the first option. he had a rough start shooting the ball v. the thunder, but has picked it up v. the jazz. he gives the lakers another guy to bang down low (not that the lakers do it often but he has that capability). trevor is a better fit for us now that we have martin, brooks, and yao coming back. he rebounds and passes better than ron. and when he knows his role, he's a pretty damn good player. both sides got what htey want. i don't know why people keep comparing the two.
Before the season started, Stern guaranteed the Lakers the final would be between Lebron and them. Artest is still the best player to defend Lebron.
I think Ariza was a better fit for both the Rockets and Lakers far better than Artest. Ariza is quicker than Artest and would play better in our fast paced style of offense and he could actually take a back seat in the Lakers offensive and defensive schemes. Ariza knows the triangle offense the best outta anyone who is not on the Lakers and Phil Jackson has made it known publicly that Artest still can't figure it out. The knock on them is that both gamble too much on defense. If I had to pick who to guard Carmelo, Durant and LeBron, hands down it would be Artest.
Gotta go with Ron. He had a bigger impact than Ariza who IMO the Rockets will try to dump this summer somehow. I wouldn't start Ariza over Battier to be honest and I think the FO thinks the same, but we promised him a starting gig, so there you stand.
Seriously? I like you DD but I think you're wrong on this one. Trevor was a solid signing imo, he plays the passing lanes so well and like someone else said before me, when he’s playing his role he’s a ‘damn good player’. I agree that he gambles too much but when he doesn’t, he’s a great defender (holding his matchups to 40% efg earlier in the season). He also rebounds and passes fantastically for his size, in fact I’d say that he is probably our second or third best passer/playmaker. And it appears someone is ignoring Trevor’s stats post the all-star break. Post all-star: 13.6 ppg (44% shooting and 41% behind the arc), 5.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.8 steals a game. Last four games of the season: 20.8 points per game (57% shooting and 48% behind the arc), 7.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 0.8 steals and 1.3 blocks a game. Don’t forget the triple double at the last game.
I wouldn't call Ariza a waste! We got a glimpse of who he really is after we traded for Martin. He played overall pretty good, and was way more efficient! Give Trevor this year with Yao and possibly Bosh and we'll see just how good of a complimentary player he is.
i think if this question was posed at the all star break, i think it would be a land slide in Artest's favor with that said the post trade deadline Ariza with Martin improved Trevor a great deal and showed his true strengths and talents and is quite invaluable to a winning team post Kevin Martin trade Trevor Ariza gave us the LA faker champion Ariza and that leads me to believe that he should stay on this squad his athleticism, spot up shooting and length are great assets he just needs to clean up his gambling on D and play more to his length and quickness and he'll be the perfect role player
I was just thinking the other day how I hadn't seen any "wonderful insight" from you lately, but maybe I just haven't looked close enough. Artest was a calculated risk for which we did not give up anything that hurt us long term (Greene would hardly have seen the floor last season for us). Do you think management expected Mcgrady to be shut down and Yao to be hurt in the playoffs? If Yao stays healthy there is no telling how far we might have gone- that possibility alone was worth the Artest trade. We made it further in the playoffs than we had in over a decade, so it's not like he was so much of a cancer that he hurt the team. Now, re-signing Artest is what really would have been a waste. The jury is still out on Ariza, but if you still think he's a waste after the last two months of the season then you just weren't watching. He was much more efficient and played within the system. He could be even better with Yao and maybe another star on the team.
I would take post-Martin Ariza over the Artest who felt that he had to be the number 1 guy, and jack up threes all night... but, overall, I would have to go with Artest because I really feel as though he brought a certain edge to the team that would not have been there otherwise
