that seems very easy to say. this isnt chemistry 101. you can have a team of all "good" guys and win the championship. Just look at the spurs, Robert horry was about as bad of a player that they had. adding artest will add disfunction to this already f'd up team.
I strongly disagree. Bruce Bowen is one of the most hated (baddest) players in the league. You constantly hear other players talking about how he plays dirty.
actually bruce bowen is one of the best defensive players, didnt know that was synonymous w/ being dirty.
well, our team is so good that all we need is one more headache. NOT! i don't wanna see artest in a rockets uniform. i'll root for him if it happens, but i would rather not.
Although I think Artest is worth the risk given the overall ineptitude/passion of our team currently, I can understand your concerns. However your comparisons to Francis and Griffin are not quite appropriate. First, Francis was a talented and capable player that had relatively few problems here to be called a "head case." He was not ditched for being impossible to control, nor was he overly disruptive to the team. He was traded for a better player, end of story. Secondly, calling Griffin a "tiny head case" is revisionist history. He was depressed, apparently had alcohol problems, quit on the team, and oh yeah SHOT A GUN AT HIS GIRLFRIEND. If you want to discuss abilities to handle head cases similar to Artest, you could just as easily bring up the fact that the Rockets won a championship with Vernon Maxwell, or Jeff Van Gundy's ability to take a Knicks team starring Latrell Sprewell all the way to the NBA Finals. Point being that adding a talented but unstable player is a gamble, but it can be very successful. Where the Rockets stand now, I feel it is worth the risk.
I understand the argument about bringing in a bad apple but let's be serious here. We're a bad basketball team, there's simply no way around it. Disrupting what little chemistry we currently have seems worth the risk to me for bringing in the player of Artest's calibur. I don't think Artest is overrated mainly because I don't think good defense could ever be overrated. He's a fierce, intimidating, lock-down defender who could handle whichever the more difficult SG-SF matchup instead of making T-Mac do it. He's a scorer that sometimes takes stupid shots but can also be unstoppable at times. He's an attainable game changer that makes roughly $7 million a season, very attractive. Even If we took a chance on him and it blew up in our faces, at least he has a moveable contract instead of some franchise destroying max contract that runs through the end of the decade. That's the risk you take when looking at "damaged goods". The talent and ability is there. He's a selfish, unintelligent bonehead but he can also thrive in the right situation, he's proven that. Like I said, I understand the "stand pat" argument but I also have a hard time not jumping on a potential golden opportunity when it presents itself.
You people make me cry inside. Artest is the biggest headcase the league has seen since Dennis Rodman, and in some ways he much, much worse.
ummm... how much of a concern is it to have a guy who shuts down your opposing 2-3 position when it's been the 1 position penetrating that has been the bane of this team the entire season, whether Yao and T-mac are in the lineup or not? Unless you want to take your chances on the switch and have Wesley covering the opposing 3 while Artest jocks the opposing stud point, I think perhaps the focus should be on an athletic defensive point guard. If the rocks haven't been old and slow this year, they've been hurt. Would be nice to see them get the ball out of the hands of the penetrating guard in the last 5 minutes of the game. All that being said... who couldn't find a use for an intimidator like Artest?
Ron Artest is a more volatile Scotie Pippen. Good scorer, great defender, and quitters on their teams. So what Artest picked up fights on the court, the Rockets need an intimidator like that. So what Artest is quitting on the Pacers?Pippen quit on the Rockets, what happened to his Blazers team? They could've won a ring if it was not that infamous 4th qtr collapse against the Lakers. At least a team with quitter Pippen went to the conference finals. If we could advance to the conference finals, I'd welcome a more volatile Pippen in his prime coming back, making only 7 mils a year. A combo of either Yao-Mac, Yao-Artest, Mac-Artest, or Yao-Mac-Artest on the court for the full 48 minutes will be devastating.
JVG has said on a couple of occasions some things in defense of Artest. When he was a commentator, he said something like "I'd take 12 Artests on my team." When the Detroit incident happened, he said he thought too much blame had been assigned to Artest. I don't know if JVG has changed his thought process due to recent events. I still don't know how he would fit in the offense. The thing with Artest is, if teams try to play him one-on-one, he's always a mismatch. He's quicker than anyone strong enough to guard him. He's stronger than anyone quick enough to guard him, save maybe LeBron. If JVG gives Artest freedom any time he isn't doubled, I think Artest would do well in Houston. If he wants Artest to rigidly run the offense, I don't think Artest will work here. The other question is how would his teammates react. Yao would probably defer. TMac and Artest splitting touches may cause some friction, but you never know. At any rate, at 10 games below 0.500, and not much talent left on the roster, you almost have to take this chance, because Artest has a reasonable salary and a short remaining contract. Artest would be a huge gamble. He's just so unpredictable. I don't think even he know's what he wants. But if he can be had for anyone outside of TMac and Yao, I think it has to be done.
Houston trade: Swift, Wesley and Alston New Jersey trade: Jefferson and Mcinnis Indiana trade: Artest, Coshere and Fred Jones Houston receive: Artest, Coshere and McInnis New Jersey receive: Swift, Wesley and Jones Indiana receive: Jefferson and Alston But Artest refuse to report to Houston.... Houston trade: Artest and Mcinnis LA trade: Odom and Parker Trade accepted!
we had someone who was intimidating last year.. and he didn't stay too long.. (charles oakley).. but i'd like to see artest in a rockets uni. that would be awesome. don't know if he'll get along with t-mac with the ball most of the time though since artest said that he wants to go to a team where he can make the best out of himself? some article too lazy to find it. mentioned t-mac in there as well.
The Clips are trying to get Spree. The Wolves don't think they can get Ron. I think Denver will make the deal with Seattle for Flip and Vitally. Who in the West has the best shot at Artest? Hmmmm....
Assuming that Artest gets traded to a Western Conference Team- From what we know- It will be a toss between Denver, Golden State New orleans(???) and Rockets. I had to throw in New ORleans because they have Young talent and I am not sure If Laker's can pull this off ( they will be the dark horse). Clippers and Minnesota dont seem to be in the fray. So it will be Denver and Golden State- I think Golden State has the pieces and the motivation. Will the Rockets need Artest that badly? IF they do- I think our chances are not that bad!
Personally, I think it's too hard to tell where exactly he'll end up. It will probably be in the Western Conference somewhere but predicting which team is a tough call. It seems that every legit rumor and report we've heard about the matter suggests Indiana will only pull the trigger if they can get exactly what they want in return. Basically meaning it will take a three or four team kind of deal to make something happen. In those kind of multiple team deals so many pieces get tossed every which way that he could really end up anywhere.
I dont see why New Jersey would do that trade. .especially since they are playing decent now. they have kidd jefferson and carter as their core and i dont think they are going to touch them 3 unless they are getting a star in return... alston sucks.. swift sucks. and wesley basically sucks too
You must be talking about the distant future because things really can't get much more screwed up than they are now.
oh did i mention all our players suck outside of yao and tmac? hmmm howard is playing well as of late. .but we have no players with any kind of value. swift anderson and alston were suppose to be those players but all of them have SUCKED!! gosh we suck. oh well
