After the initial shock and excitement of the trade, I let it sink it. Im having trouble getting pumped about it now. I mean I have always hated this guy as a person. He may be a great player, but Im just going to find it hard to cheer for him. I mean I love this team because of its players I love Yao and Battier and Scola hard workers no excuse type of guys. No complains these guys just play. They are good people. And they're humble. Now you throw in a guy who has a worse attitude than T.O and who are you really cheering for now? I feel like the team sold its soul for a title shot. How will react when grouped together with guys like these? Whos team is it really going to be? whos gonna put their foot down and be the alpha male. I hate to bum you guys out and Im sure it I'll get burned for this thread. But I REALLY hope that I can learn to like this guy as a person and as a player so he wont have a negative effect on how I feel about this team. Now dont get me wrong we are waaay better with artest. Its just tough right now.
I don't know how much you know about him. Off the court he is actually a decent person. HBO real sports had one segment on him several years ago. He did lots of of good things to community while he was Indianapolis.
You absolutely had to pull the trigger when this deal was on the table. There's so little risk involved. We won 55 games last year without Yao for half a season and now we just added Ron freaking Artest without touching our four best players. All we sacrificed were two late first-rounders and B-Jax. B-Jax is arguably addition by subtraction. There's really no downside to this move unless Artest goes completely psycho again and starts sabotaging things. Que Rick Adelman to "tame the best". Provided everybody stays healthy we're legitimate and, quite frankly, we have no reason not to be. T-Mac/Battier/Artest at the 2/3/4 provides a unique blend of versatility, athleticism, intangibles, defense and scoring. That type of versatility will literally force our opponents to match up with us instead of the other way around. Artest is a punishing player from anywhere on the court. Double teaming Yao is even less appealing now. We're even BETTER defensively now. I love it. This move is great and I would have done it any day of the week and twice on Sundays. What's the worst case scenario? He goes psycho then we deal his expiring contract at the trade deadline or let him walk at season's end altogether.
Youre free to feel that way. Personally, Im not going to flame you for it. I am excited about the trade, but a tiny part deep down is trying to remain cautiously optimistic. If we gave up Battier or some other key piece, I would be worried. But we really didnt give up a ton for a top 20 NBA talent. If he doesnt work out, we can sign and trade him next year, or even move him at the deadline. I believe Rick Adelman wouldnt have let this happen if he didnt think he couldnt keep Artest in check.
As a lifelong fan of Houston teams, this kind of comment really gets to me. I could really care less about the character of the guys on the team. A title is a title. Who was complaining about Mad Max when he was draining clutch shots? Jeff Kent was an ******* in the clubhouse, but noone was complaining when we were winning. Roger Clemens, Carlos Beltran, etc. Houston fans love these guys until they don't win a title or they leave in free agency. Stop being hypocritical and like players because they make us win.
WTF? If anything you have this backwards; you'll put up with anything so long as it wins you a title in sports? What other areas of life are you so willing to made that trade-off? Isn't that where the hypocrisy resides?
Bolded for emphasis. Some people just won't be happy with anything the Rockets do I guess. Someone is always not going to be happy. I just want the Rockets to win. Period. I'm tired of the Rockets losing to Utah year after year. The Rockets got a former defensive player of the year that averaged 20 pts 6 rebs 4 asts last year for a young prospect, a low first round draft pick, and cash. Worth the risk with the coaching staff and players that we already have in place so that he will hopefully be happy? Yes. I'm happy and I'll leave it at that.
I don't give a damn about you personally Ron Ron! I'm not going to bake you a FRAKIN' cake Ron Ron! I'm not coming over for dinner Ron Ron! Youre not meeting my folks Ron Ron! Get me buckets Ron Ron.. Rough some people up Ron Ron.. thats it.. Get me the 'ship Ron Ron..
the new pau gasol steal? bjax to kwame brown: granted, bjax is more productive and more apreciated(by the team and fans) than kwame, kwame's 9mil expiring contract held its value donte green to javaris crittenton: donte green had plenty of potential that we had yet to see. cittenton was compared to AI numerous times by the lakers staff but wasnt able to show it due to him being 3rd string behind both memphis and lakers PG depth rockets '09 1st rounder to lakers '08 and '10 1st rounders: self explanatory for:ron artest to pau gasol which team do you think got the better steal? lakers or rockets?
We traded a has been, wanna be and yet to happen for Artest. Yes, he is volatile and he may be a one year rental but 30 out of 30 GMs do this deal if they're the Rox.
Why? It's not like Ron's a rapist or someone who's impregnated a 13 y.o. Heck, Tracy has an illegitimate kid.
He does, but will he be able to accept his role as the 3rd scorer? His main problem is that he wants to be the number 1 option. He had a problem accepting that J.O'Neal was the better scorer in Indiana. I get the feeling he will struggle with it at times but the fact that he got along fairly well in Sacramento gives me hope. Deke and Barry can hopefully guide him and make him look at the bigger picture. I feel Ron wants to win,if Yao and Tracy give everything what they have,he will respect them and be a good team player. Success depends on a lot of things but it has to come from the top in a team sport like basketball IMO.
I'm sorry you feel this way. I think that he has been doing a lot of voluntary work recently. He seems to have got his act together. Just wait till the season starts and we all will find out!
