The guy I miss the most is Dikembe Mutombo (rim protector). If Morey has made any mistakes as GM, its that he has not been able to aquire a rim protector to replace Deke.
Carl Landry for sure. Wish we could transfer his heart and gameness into Hill. Carl is a free agent this year isn't he. The Kings have cut his minutes back this year it does not seem like he is in Kings long term plans.
He fired this team up and provided scoring that we needed off the bench. Something Brickinger hasn't done the whole season. Von even started a few games including one against the Lakers and scored like 23 points on Kobe. He was more than just a couple of plays, he provided that spark for the offense when it went into a cold spill.
Landry-Yep. Tough guy, played hard, charming personality and was someone you could count on in the 4th. Artest- Sure. I liked Ron. I know he isn't to popular on here,( who is these days) but he brought a tough reputation, and despite his dribble all the time mentality, he made some big shots/plays. Good defender. Fun personality. Ron ended up in kind of a bad situation, he was expected to just be a 3rd option type of player. Then Tracy is down, and Yao goes down at the worst moment...now Ron has to be the guy, not what he is. Sure he had a chance to resign, but they knew he wouldn't take the offer they gave. Plus all worked out for him, he plays for the Lakers, and has one ring, probably counting. Wafer-Meh. Made some big 3's, hustled, strong personality. That RA incident probably speaks louder than it actually was. I wouldn't care if he was back, but other guys on the team like Lee and Bud should easily be able to give you the same thing.
Artest's tough-nose defense can really get a team running and energize everyone. Landry had great energy and work ethic off the bench that can really spark a team. Von....meh
Carl Landry, yes I do <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JfTos3znToY?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JfTos3znToY?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> Von Wafer, yes I do <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/d21nS50oRdc?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/d21nS50oRdc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> Ron Artest, Hell Yes I do <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ulqFFtnHpog?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ulqFFtnHpog?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
The team with Artest was the closest thing we had to the 04-05 Rockets team with Bob Sura and Jon Barry. We were a solid playoff team with a never back down attitude. Now we are filled with offense only players with soft personalities (not that theres anything wrong with that), but it's hard as a fan to get pumped up for these kind of players.
Fans on this board underrate heart and passion. Both are just as important as talent and coaching schemes. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you don't have heart and passion, you will get nowhere in this league. Any one of Von, Ron, and Carl had more heart then the rest of our team combined. All three had pretty noticeable flaws, but they gave this team a toughness that I haven't seen in a very long time. I love pure basketball, and the NBA is the worst place to watch it because of the stars and Stern's money-making agenda. It's players like Artest that make me want to watch the NBA. He plays with fire no matter what his teams record is or what the score is. When any of those guys are on te court, they're going to have an impact that doesn't show up anywhere.
I don't miss Ron Artest. I do miss Carl Landry. I had a budding fondness for Von Wafer which could have grown enough that would be missing him if he stayed on the team longer. That fondness was frozen in place, and I wish him well, but don't exactly miss him. Carl Landry will always be missed.
I still don't get why Morey didn't give Artest an extension, the guy got us to the second round for the first time in 10 years and we let him walk away. Oh and Carl Landry, please don't remind me.
Absolutely miss Artest and Landry, they were the heart and toughness of the team. It's amazing that Artest gets so much hate on this board when he was one of the key pieces of the ONLY Rockets team in the last decade to actually win a playoff series. And for the record, Artest did not want to leave, he said many times that he wanted to stay and wanted a multi-year deal. The Rockets didn't want him so they only offered him an insulting one year deal.
It's all Yao's injury that broke up that team We would've kept artest with no doubt last year, if it weren't for Yao going down, and even with trading landry for Martin we wouldve been a deep playoff team sigh.. houston rockets. the what could've been
