Earlier this week I focused on the winners of the NBA offseason to this point, and now it's time to turn my attention to the front office failures. Some executives are making the wrong moves, while others are sitting back and watching talent fly off the market. Whose franchise is in danger of suffering the consequences this upcoming season? Denver Nuggets: They acquired rookie point guard Ty Lawson in a draft trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but other than that, they're bringing the exact same team back for the 2009-2010 NBA season. Now don't get me wrong -- that's not a bad team, but it was clear that they weren't quite ready to outplay Kobe's Lakers over the course of a best of seven series. Is Denver's front office hoping that the Lakers won't be able to resign Lamar Odom, and that that will give them some sort of advantage in a potential playoff match-up? I guess. It's a possibility. But let's not forget that the Lakers have already added a high-quality two-way player in Ron Artest this offseason. Losing Odom would be a hit for Los Angeles, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. Kobe and Pau Gasol will continue to carry the load, and Artest will be right there with them providing stable assistance. "Stable" basketball-wise, maybe not so much mentally. It would be nice if Denver did something to show that they'll avoid organizational stagnation. Something other than resigning Chris "Birdman" Andersen, who was already a part of this club's rotation. Otherwise, they'll be in a 35/65 situation in the playoffs again in '09-10. Houston Rockets: Ron Artest proved to be a better sidekick to Yao Ming than Tracy McGrady ever was, and now Artest and Yao are BOTH out of the picture. Ironically enough, T-Mac is left to pick up the pieces. Unfortunately for the Rockets and their fans, McGrady's prime has passed, and his porous shot selection makes it virtually impossible to build a team around him. This organization has lost Artest to free agency and Yao to injury, and all that's left is McGrady, Luis Scola, and Aaron Brooks. They were able to sign Trevor Ariza away from the Lakers, but c'mon, he's not going to turn it all around for them. This franchise is in trouble...especially if Yao's injury is truly career-threatening. Milwaukee Bucks: Scott Skiles is a very respectable in-game head coach, but his off-the-court crap is getting out of control. He holds grudges against guys that don't play "his way," and then he drives them out of town by nagging Milwaukee's front office. According to Rotoworld.com, this would be the Bucks' starting lineup if the '09-10 season started right now: PG-Luke Ridnour, SG-Michael Redd, SF-Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, PF-Amir Johnson, and C-Andrew Bogut Ramon Sessions, one of their best players last season, is a free agent, and Charlie Villanueva has already signed with the Detroit Pistons. Michael Redd's future is questionable coming off a severe injury, and this organization traded its second-best player in Richard Jefferson. Where's the offense going to come from? Where's the explosiveness? Hell...where's the talent? New Orleans Hornets: This club's front office can't possibly think that they can be a serious contender with the starting lineup of Chris Paul, Rasual Butler, Peja Stojakovic, David West, and Tyson Chandler. That EXACT same team got bounced easily from the playoffs this past season, and there's no reason to believe that they'll improve on that result. Byron Scott is one of the most underrated head coaches in all of professional sports, but he's not a miracle worker. This team needs a ton of help if they want to be championship contenders, and rookies Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton aren't the answer. At least now they aren't. Philadelphia 76ers: Am I truly supposed to believe that Jason Kapono is going to get this team over the hump in the Eastern Conference? I mean sure he can shoot, but Philly needs a helluva lot more than that to jump to the potentially "elite" level. Elton Brand is expected to be healthy for the start of the season, but that's not necessarily a good thing. The Sixers played better WITHOUT Brand in '08-09, so why should it be any different this time around? Even if Brand's play and value to his team improve, I doubt it'll be enough to get Philadelphia anything better than a six seed. Where's the offseason activity from this organization? They must be in a financial bind. Phoenix Suns: There's no beating around the bush: Steve Kerr's done an AWFUL job since taking over as GM of this franchise. On the court, they had a good thing going with Steve Nash/Amare Stoudemire/Shawn Marion a few years back. Off the court there was some friction between Amare and Marion, but Kerr allowed THAT to make up his mind for him? Obviously Shaquille O'Neal wasn't going to fit with an incumbent roster in love with the fastbreak, but Kerr forced that initial deal. Kerr thought that Shaq would help him in a potential playoff match-up with Tim Duncan and the Spurs, but the Suns ended up losing that series 3-1. They were one game away from the NBA Finals the year before, and Kerr weakened the roster, and they digressed the following year. Amare had a tough time meshing with Shaq on the court, so now Shaquille's out of the picture. But Ben Wallace? Seriously? The guy is finished. They can't be expecting much from him. Kerr also acquired softy Channing Frye this offseason, a shoot-first power forward with no "power," or toughness. The funny thing is, they can still be a playoff team if Amare stays healthy. He's a monster, and the one move that I DID like by Kerr, netted him Jason Richardson last season. So Nash, Amare, Richardson is a workable core. Neutral: Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Bobcats, Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves (though the Ricky Rubio thing bothers me a little bit), New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors, and Utah Jazz http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/416963-the-losers-of-the-nba-offseason-thus-far I was on SI.com and I came across this article. Just wanted to share with everyone and want to see different opinions
Artest has 1 season with Yao and he is automatically considered the better sidekick next to Yao??? Hahahah who is this guy
No media in this world understands the Rockets. They think that somehow we going to make a splash just because Yao is out and Artest is gone. The Rockets front office is patience and we are not rushing into making bad decisions like other teams. Plus there is nothing we can due to the big salary of Yao and McGrady. Plus about Artest, even though he didnt sign with us, I don't think our front office wanted him back anyway. We wanted to be younger and plus the Rockets didnt even offer him anything and I guess we rather have Ariza because he is younger and not a headcase like Artest. The Rockets saw Artest as a one year rental and everyone in the media thinks that the Rockets are making him part of their future. The Rockets are similar to the Spurs and most often make very smart moves.
love the revisionism. Of course, it completely slipped my mind that the merit of a transaction is judged on the basis of its individual potential to "turn it all around." i usually don't bother responding to this crap, but i'm bored as hell at the moment.
Sometimes I forget that we just signed Trevor Ariza. I hope he is training this offseason really hard and then he would exploded during the season... 09-10 Most Improve Player: Trevor Ariza
We can argue on the points of the article but not his conclusion. The Rockets are going to fall, and that's a fact. However, I think it will be a short rebuild, which won't last more than one or two seasons. The goal is to land a healthy franchise player still in their prime (either through trade or free agency) or land a franchise player through the draft, preferably both.
I wholeheart edly disagree with the article on Artest being the better sidekick. Thats just more pro LA media wording until they find out about Artests bad habits. Rockets just had a better team and had Brooks finally starting over Rafer in the playoffs. It could be said that all Artest did was play on a team with a better Scola, Aaron Brooks, and a healthy Yao in part of the playoffs which Tmac never had the luxury of.
The only reason we made it out of first round and got the lakers running for their money is because of Brooks and Scola mostly. Artest did well defensively at times but man he took some horrible shots and almost made me kill myself. Brooks and Scola are the one that created all the nightmares for LA
I love all this bad press. If we lose all 82 games, meh, we were supposed to. If we win and make noise in the playoffs, I knew it all along, we are greatness. It really is the safest time to be a Rocket fan.
On paper. Yes we did lose talent. We lost Yao to injury, and Artest to the Lakers. However we did add some potentially strong young draft picks and Trevor Ariza to the team. If anything, our defense got better (perimeter D).
Our perimeter D is probably still the same or maybe a little bit worst. Who knows anyway. I mean having Artest side by side with Battier was tenacious. That Artest and Battier combo shut Lebron down to one of his worst game ever in his career. I don't know if Ariza can bring the same tenacious D like Artest but at least he can play good defense. I just don't know whether it is as good as Ron, but its a start.
I agree. Basically what I was saying. Artest is not as good as Tmac if he is healthy. Tmac would have lead us past Portland too with that team and he would have led us past the Lakers because he would have scored more than 13 points a game like Artest did and not got kicked out in the fourth quarter for a technecal. The team was better than ever because Scola and Brooks where better than ever is the reason we got out of the second round though.
Yea if we had a Healthy Tmac in the playoffs along with Artest, Yao, Brooks, and Scola...We will still be celebrating our 09 Championship. Man we were soooooo close to even taste the championship. We would easily dismantal the Nuggets and we will destroyed Magics in the Finals. It is sooo sad that we were so close and yet so far away
Haha! Yeah, I was wondering what he meant by that. I guess his thought process went something like this: porous defense = bad defense porous = bad porous shot selection = bad shot selection Just a case of a mental weakling trying too hard and ends up overcompensating. I think we should ban all fan-made articles, especially that stuff from bleacher report. Most of the time, the articles are written by 15 year-olds trying to sounds like their favorite sports writers.
I just do not expect anything good coming from outside media when it concerns Houston teams. The Lakers will see soon that Artest is not the same player he was earlier in his career and his overall defense and shot selection is very bad. If the Lakers do not win a championship next season, Artest will take the majority of the blaim and Kobe, that bandwagon fan base, their ownership, and the Laker-loving media will not put up with that. F*** the media and F*** all the Rocket haters!!!
Artest was an overrated defender. He doesn't shuffle his feet, and gets a lot of lucky steals off gambles. When the game comes down to the line, I would rather have Shane or Ariza on defense over Ron Artest.
Yea because Ariza and Shane don't gamble as much as Artest. But Artest brought the tough defense to the Rockets even though Ron made some stupid decisions sometimes.
