Why does everyone believe Ron Artest has good defense (now)?

How fast did we flip flop on Ron Ron? Everybody was nuts about this guy during the season. The Tru Warior, everybody was saying.

Just goes to show how bipolar this forum is.

 

That might be because he's not a 2. He's not even really a 2/3. He's a small forward who's probably closer to a power forward than shooting guard. He just happens to be a more versatile defender than Battier, so he's the one who gets moved to an unnatural position. Isn't there a quote from Battier saying something like "Ron's the only guy in the league who can guard an Aaron Brooks on one play, and a Yao Ming on the next"?

 

In fairness to Ron, he was asked to carry a lot of the scoring load on the Rockets. In LA, all he will do is shoot threes and defend.

 

Artest is a poor - terrible one-on-one defender against the majority of shooting guards in the nba. He is simply too slow at this point. He'd actually fare better against most power forwards because of his strength. Against bigger wings and the occasional big guard(lebron) he's effective because he can stay with them and he can out muscle them. On these RARE occasions he looks fantastic.

The bottomline is that Artest was at one point a freak in his ability to chase fast players and overpower strong ones. And Mcgrady was at one point in the conversation with Kobe Bryant. Both situations are ancient history.

The rockets' will miss Artest's scoring ability more than his defense. And if the team looks as is opening day, we will lose more games without him. But with Yao hurt this team isn't winning a championship with or without Artest and there's no point in locking him up as 2 years from now when possibly we're contending again, he'll be even slower.

 

In my opinion, Artest is still a slightly above average defender but, overall, he has declined markedly due to his loss of agility. I don't know if that loss of agility was due to his ankle, the muscle/weight he packed on or just pure age and wear 'n tear.

Positionally, he's now below average as the OP alluded to. I'm not sure if that was always the case but I imagine he was at least better in years past because his athleticism probably allowed him to better compensate for overplaying his man. It almost seems as if he isn't aware how much quickness he's lost or is in denial of that fact. He definitely gambles too much. He'll trigger an exciting play here and there but he'll also get beat on many more occasions that get overlooked by the casual observer, i.e., all the Lakers fans that think they are getting a DPOY-caliber player.

His remaining strengths at this point are his physical toughness, his good hands, his relentless attitude and his desire to frustrate opponents.

Unfortunately for his team, due to all the gambling and the apparent denial of his loss of agility, he actually hurts your defense on a lot of plays. If he were to accept his declining mobility/athleticism and play more conservatively/intelligently, he could improve marginally despite his age. The problem is he seems to have a one-track mind (on both ends of the court... as well as off the court) and to be unable to make the necessary adjustments to his defensive approach.

Altogether, I still think his strengths slightly outweight his weaknesses because he remains one of the most disruptive forces in the league on any given play. His loss of athleticism though has bumped him down a notch or two below the elite defenders. He can no longer stick with his man like he used to and gets beat off the dribble more easily then he probably did when he was at his peak.

 

Artest's defense is still good. His primary struggles here came when he was asked to defend the other team's guard. Artest isn't a guard so this is understandable. In LA he will be playing the 3 and will spend most of his time guarding the other team's 3. He has very active hands and bothers the other player. Now that he's in LA I also expect him to get more respect from referees.

 

The real question is: "What do the Lakers see in him that we didn't?"
Let's face it, the Lakers front office is anything but dumb; they're probably just as smart as Morey is being for us. I'm sure they saw the slower Artest that played aerage defense last year, so what is it?
Is it really the same things that Morey saw in him?

 

Do you really believe this?

 

My guess is they like his physical and mental toughness above all else. I'm sure they see his weaknesses to some extent (probably not as clearly as Morey does) but they are willing to accept those given his strengths. They likely figure that Kobe and Phil can keep him largely in check on the offense end (right or wrong as they may be) while they feel that his strength and toughness and ability to frustrate opponents will pay dividends against stronger wings like Melo and LeBron in the playoffs.

 

When he was in Houston everyone was saying he's an elite defender. Now that he's in LA and you saying basically he's not elite anymore really makes us look bad..

 

Well Artest is still a good player and at times VERY good. The thread was about his defense abilities, which have unarguably diminished. He has an excellent chance at helping the lakers win a championship and I'd have been all for resigning him if Yao was healthy. good player, average defender. nothing wrong with that.

 

the Rox are in for a rude awakening.

llike DHoward, Arizza's offense is predictable, can't create his own shots. for this coming season, w no Yao in the lineup to draw D teams, Arizza would not get as many open shots. that is bad news for someone who can't create his own shots.

Arizza is a great off-the-baller defender, not so much a lock-down defender on the ball.

Arizza was schooled by Melo in the playoff. in the first 3 games against the Arizza, Melo was avg >35 ppg. after game 3, Phil used Kobe more guarding Melo, who, after games, avg only in the mid-20s.

In the Finals, Arizza was torched by Turgolu, who scored higher than his regular season average. But, it was overshadowed by Trevor's dramatic off-the-ball steals ​

 

I'll buy that. It must be his toughness; the Laker's probably just want to incorporate the 'right' kind of toughness this year which is one of the few things they were lacking. The 3 pt shot must be a big deal to them too. Artest can definitely hit the 3, but in terms of defense, I expect a lot more foul calls or reach-in calls on him now that he's a Laker. When he played for us, he was included in the cocoon of all Rockets players playing good D which protected lots of our players from early foul calls. I don't think Artest can benefit from this anymore and his defensive ability will be further questioned soon.
If this is wrong, then props to Artest. He's definitely got the reputation of a good player.

 

He's still a good defender, but most of what he's living on now is reputation. He plays really good post defense and really poor on the ball defense.

 

Good thing that journalist can spell Ariza correctly...

 

season ticket holder

I attended over 35 games last year

you're just a clown that gets reactionary and gripes about an elite defender's abilities all the while knowing 1/10129082340984329048239043 of what NBA GM's, peers, coaches all over the league know....he's still top 2-3 perimeter defenders in the entire NBA.

Artest is an excellent defender. Elite. Period.

 

I didn't follow all of the Laker playoff games or check the stats but if that is true, the Lakers probably brought in Artest to be a little more physical with those types of players. Ariza needs to put on some muscle which I assume he will do over the next couple of years. Artest doesn't get pushed around as easily so maybe the Lakers are willing to sacrifice Ariza's athleticism and potential to get a little tougher in the short-term while they make another run or two during the Kobe era. They did, after all, get roughed up by a healthy Celtics team 2 seasons ago. That has surely had a lasting effect on them. We were the only team like that they had to deal with this season. Maybe they don't want to count on being so lucky next time.

Their primary motive in acquiring Artest is likely to better deal with some of those more physical playoff matchups. They figure they can keep him in check during the regular season then hope that he pays dividends on the biggest stage with the goal being to add some toughness during a time of the NBA season where that attribute is most valuable.

 

Thank you for noticing this. I am about to explode because all the media attention is on how artest is a defensive stopper. NO he is not. Kobe owned him and barely had to work against him. Shane was incredibly better.

Shane doesnt do stupid things like go for steals and leave a guy wide open, unlike artest. ARIZA is infinitely better than artest, and it is a good solid move for the future.

Morey strikes again!

 

Who's more athletic, Artest or Battier?

 

If you factor in strength and coordination under the umbrella of "athleticism," I'd say Artest.

If you are purely talking about speed, agility, leaping ability, etc..., I'd say they are about equal.