Was getting Artest worth it?

I enjoyed Ron's short time with the Rockets.

You have to admit he was very entertaining.

 

I'm not too crazy about Artest...he's tough, but our team was tough to begin with (listen to Kenny Smith talking about the "pitbulls" on our team)

Considering we only lost Donte Green (will be out of the league in a year or 2) and a low 1st rounder (we got 2 solid 2nd rounders this year alone), it was worth the shot.

The ROckets know that Yao and Tmac needed less wear and tear, so they went after the best guy available and affordable in Artest as a 3rd option.

The problem was, he often made him the 1st option over Yao, which was stupid. He made turnovers, took bad shots, and shot horribly. He also gambled too much on defense.

The one positive was that he gave Battier a break on defense at times. He also wasn't afraid to make a play...similar to Steve Francis.

Neither he or Artest were anywhere near as taletned as Tmac, but they had the confidence to try to make a play. But, that came with mistakes, bad shots, and turnovers.

But like I said, it was worth the shot. We didn't know Brooks and Scola would become legit scoring options in year 2.

Good thing is, we got rid of him, and we got a longer, more athletic, smarter version of Artest in Ariza. If he can hit open jumpers and run the wings on the fast break with Tmac and brooks, tahts a pretty athletic break coming at you.

I'm glad that we didnt' even think of resigning him...

 

I would say it was worth it only because we got out of the first round finally and pushed the Lakers to their limit, but it would of been more worth it if all of the "big 3" was healthy. So hearing news that T Slack is rehabbing is a$$ off this offseason pisses me off because, why didn't he do that last offseason when he had the bum shoulder and knee? But the answer is cause this upcoming season is his contract year and last years wasn't so he stuffed his face with food.

 

It was a worthwhile trade.

Yes, we lost two first round picks. But would Donte Greene or a 1st rounder be any better than Pops, Budinger, Taylor, or Dorsey? It would not be that much of an upgrade, whereas Ron Artest had the potential to push this team to the Western Conference Finals or beyond. This way, we had a chance, and that's all you can ask for.

 

Since we were hardly legitimit contenders in the playoffs, in hindsight it didn't work out.

At the time of the acquisition, however, it was absolutely the correct move to make. With a core a Yao and Tmac and the need for a legitimit third option, turning down the opportunity to add a guy like Artest would have been ludicrous. Plus, I personally enjoyed Artest's run in Houston.

 

At this day and age when late first-rounders are bought and sold, I would have to say yeah, Ron was worth the trade, so far. I mean, we would have to see how Donte Greene and Casspi pans out to really be able to judge the trade in hindsight. Maybe, if the trade didn't happen, the Rockets would have picked J.Taylor with the 23rd pick, and not bothered to have picked up Chase Budinger, who looks to be the better of the two picks this year, since we would already have had Greene.

 

I say yes it was since Artest >>>>> Donte Green+late first rounder and in the end we got Ariza who is also >>>>> Donte Green+late first rounder.

We did make another deal....Rafer Alston for Lowry.

Two assets that would be bogging down salary. Do you really want Donte Green and another project rookie with a guaranteed contract back that bad DaDa?

Artest came in, did his job. The Rockets felt they were better off going in a different direction with Ariza, so it was basically Bobby Jackson, Donte Green and a late first rounder for a 24 year old Ariza. At this point, I'd be happy doing that deal.

You clearly over value late first round picks and under value proven NBA players.

Again, at this point it was basically Bobby Jackson, Donte Green and a late first rounder for a 24 year old Ariza. If we keep Donte Green and late first round pick, we likely don't wind up with Lowry and Ariza.

So you'd be happier with developing low first round players than making a legit run into the playoffs (injury to Yao not withstanding)?

 

No, but I still like him as a player.

Aaron Brooks and Yao Ming played larger roles into getting us into the 2nd round more then Artest did.

 

But we did get something in return. We got a real chance to win a championship. Heck, we were one frigging game away from the NBA finals!

We got excitement. We got personality. We got increased revenue from greater ticket sales.

Had Yao not broken his foot, it is very possible that we'd have another banner in the rafters right now. Tradeable assets??? Pfffffft! We got him for next to nothing.

Hell yeah he was worth it! Your view on this matter is very disappointing as a fan. I think you just don't like Artest on a personal level and this is why you are so negative.

 

Watching the Rockets advance past Portland and then give the Lakers a dogfight in the second round was definitely worth losing a few scrubs when it was all said and done.

You can't put a price tag on the excitement or the experience of watching your team succeed and narrowly miss pulling off a huge upset against the best team in the league.

 

Actually we were 5 games away, 1 vs LA and at least 4 vs Denver.

Still, we had a legit shot at making a run which is something we would not have had without Artest. Anyone that thinks otherwise is just fooling themselves into thinking we were on or close to the elite level without Ron-Ron.

 

You are loading your question, which is why I didn't do the poll. Two late first round picks doesn't have that much inherent NBA value since they are risky, which is why they are for sale. Asset management has a lot to do with managing risks and salary (cap), so Ron's one year as a Rocket could very well be a better asset, since 2 first round busts could have had a longer negative financial/cap impact on the team. And managing assets is not the end all of trades for Morey. Morey often uses poker as metaphor to describe his job. He felt the Rocket had a chance last year, so he went "all-in". It's the GM's job to make opportune risks.

 

I was actually thinking about this game last night. To me, this and the loss at Cleveland stood out as the most entertaining and memorable games of the season, even including the playoffs. It's cruel to think about, really. The playoff wins were enjoyable because of the intrinsic excitement of the playoffs but we were really playing with house money - I never at any point really felt like there was a realistic shot at the title. But in hindsight, empathizing the prior moment within those Dallas and Cleveland games makes me absolutey sick. This team had everything. A dominant big man, a dominant wing, a smothering defense, depth, youthful energy off the bench, and Artest was looking like the x factor. I don't know about anyone else, but I could literally feel NBA Finals intensity when he hounded Lebron down the court for the final 2 meaningless minutes of the game. That sequence set the tone that every game had a later, greater purpose. In retrospect, that Cleveland loss might be the last time in a few years that we will actually watch a Rockets game with the realistic sense of hopes for the title.

To answer the poll question, the Artest trade was and still is a complete and absolute no-brainer. And I have bashed Artest harder than anyone else on this board. But had Tracy not gone down, Artest gave us the weird superhuman edge that probably would have put us over the top last year. Even knowing what we know, you take that every day of the week, especially for the small cost of two worthless late 1sts.

 

Not good asset management? Once again, we traded Donte Green, who was basically a bust last season on arguably the worst team in the NBA and a LATE first round pick in what was considered one of the shallowest drafts in recent history for a player who could have helped propel us to a championship.

Trading that crap for Ron Artest was a steal...

 

DD,

We signed Artest to a 1 year contract with the idea that he helps us win a championship immediately. Once McGrady went out, we still played at a high level so we couldn't really mess with the team too much (except for the Alston trade). So trade scenarios for Artest, upto the trade deadline were unlikely. We passed the trade deadline and now we were stuck with Artest until the season was over.

Fast-forward to the point at which Houston was knocked out the playoffs. At that instant, Artest's contract was over. I can't see any time from the start to end of his contract at which we could've traded Artest for some other asset without upsetting our team's spirit/core/unity/insert other similar word here.

A 1-year rental is precisely that. We couldn't have offered longer years on his contract and then traded him this summer... that would have been too risky. It would have definitely affected Ron's behavior; he wouldn't have been as low-key as he was.

The fact that Artest was in his contract year, and behaved+played accordingly all lead to the Lakers wanting him and letting Ariza go. So, in terms of asset managment, I think we did perfectly fine in that we had money to spend on either a returning Artest (which none of us wanted) or a similar, possibly upgraded, player in Ariza. Maybe my grasp of asset management is weak, but I think we played it out pretty well.

 

Come on DaDa! You bringng up this point is just nonsense bc this is what I and many others were saying to you when you were complaining about resigning Von Wafer. You were discounting JT/Budinger big time due to them being early second round picks and I remember clearly saying to you that Carl Landry/AB beg to differ ! I'm sure you cleverly spun what we had to say.

I think this is the problem many posters have with you. You might not remember all of the things you say but we sure do.

Anyways, it sucked not having a first round pick in this past draft but Morey made things happen. Sure we had to shell out a bunch of cash but its not ours and it didn't affect our cap!

We were the only team to take the champs to 7 games. The Rockets were a legitimate threat.

 

Addition:

My Point:
When could we have traded Artest? - never unless he had a longer contract (brings up other issues).

Not at the trade deadline and you know it. We just lost mcgrady, but were still in the hunt for playoff success we we desperately needed.