Exactly what I think as well, I guarantee we win so much without Ron and Wafer excels playing 20 minutes off the bench, Artest gets traded at the trade deadline, anyone agree?
I wrote to Jonathan Feigan about this article. He said, "(Artest changes what he says about his injury every day, sometimes throughout the day. The Rockets have made it a practice to consider him day-to-day forever. I spoke with his agent who spoke with Ron and Keith Jones and he said that there has been no talk of "shutting it down." He is sore and "frustrated," and I think was venting. That is not to say he won't miss any time, but with Ron, it's always best to stay tuned." -- Jonathan)
That's why I said they should have given him a extension before the trade and give him the "piece of mind." All of this playing on a bum and ankle and jacking shots. This isn't the artest from last yr. I'm telling everyone this and ron hasn't ever been paid based on his production. Now he comes to a team and playing behind a player he is clearly better than and its probably stinging a little. I think he can fit, but the fact is he's been a starter for a long time. He's in a contract yr and no matter what people say they will judge him and pay him on being a starter and putting up numbers. So maybe it is better to trade ron and give him a chance to produce and get paid. Its a security/respect thing for ron. Unlike Odom who is getting paid or a guy like maggette who is really about self, ron is depreciating as we speak.
Jeez, what are the chances we'd be getting this kind of drama from two of our players. No, make that two of our "star" players.
I would have been completely insane to sign Artest before the season. After what we've seen so far, that fact is even more obvious. He remains an unstable ticking time bomb. Thankfully, he will not be a Rocket next season. If they trade him for a real PG before the deadline, good deal.
so ron can't practice? no practice = no consistency. he should just shut it down until he can come back with no more lingering thoughts of soreness/whatever.
This is my exact frustration also. He was interviewed by Worrell yesterday before the game and the interview had a good vibe. Today's interview is a total opposite and out of left field. I'm tired of the drama.
I could have sworn I saw him grimacing in pain and looking down at his foot after taking a fall in the middle of last night's game. And up until that point he had been playing okay. After that he basically missed like 11 shots in a row. So it could really be that ankle is indeed injured again.
great. I wonder if the full roster will have a chance to gel in enough regular season games prior to the playoffs ; or will the rox will be out of sync and probably lacking passion, chemistry, killer instinct desire etc.
that's the thing with an ankle injury. it's very easy to injure it again if you don't give it ample rest. a fall that artest had yesterday didn't seem much but you may be right that he may have re-aggravated it again -> the pain and swelling return. so what he needs to do is sit out fully until that ankle fully heals. or he has to play through this the entire season and it will never heal. the thing that frustrated the team with tracy is that you don't know what you're going to get? is he playing? is he not? the drama causes adelman a headache in terms of his rotation. artest needs to avoid that and just sit.
I don't see why they just don't let him sit till he feels like he can jump,run, dribble drive, and do what he thinks he can do. Bone bruises only heal with rest, not rehab. Its like the team is so anxious to have these guys play that they're taking their eyes off the prize. I mean other than La, who wouldn't you want to see in the 1st rd?
Memo to whoever is in charge of the team: get it together! Way too much drama. Way, way too much. This team looks completely discombulated on and off the court.
http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2009/01/stagnant_selfish_rockets_crash.html http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6233752.html
if t-mac and yao are healthy, and you're adding the fantastic production of von wafer and brent barry to basically last years team, well then what you have is a very good team. we don't need ron artest to be a good team so there's no doubt in my mind we can excel when he's out. the question and the reason we traded for artest in the first place, is does he make us better in the playoffs. right now he's not fitting in great but he's been hurt and we've had what like 2 games with a full rotation? i suspect the rockets would trade him at the right price but more than likely he'll be here and we'll take our shot with him.
I found him... At the 1:54 mark <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lf5E8wxZQLw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lf5E8wxZQLw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
i remember at the start of the season, ron was making those outside shots. it was unbelievable. i didnt know he was that good a 3pt shooter. everyone was in love with artest. when tmac started complaining about his injury and people learned that artest was injured but played through the pain, everyone called tmac a vagina and praised artest for playing through the pain and called him a warrior. now, just because he cant make his shots anymore, everyone's off the bandwagon and calling for a trade already? i just cant believe you guys. give the guy a break. the guy is legitimately injured, all the tests show it. is he selfish? his play isnt as different when the season started. when he's on the 3pt line, he jacks up shots. only this time, it isnt falling. he believes he can make those shots (the way he did at the start of the season) so he's taking them. what's wrong with that? yao is never free down low. he's always guarded, but he takes those difficult shots (shanghai shake, etc). but you dont call him selfish simply because he takes those shots. trading your major players halfway into the season is too late already. you'll have to integrate the new ones into the offense (and defense) and it'll only screw things up all the more. you'll probably just end up not playing the new guy. that's why even though i hate rafer, i wont agree to a trade now. earlier in the season, yes. but this late? with brooks in a slump, there's no way id trade rafer. i even proposed a mike miller-battier trade especially w/ battier not playing well. but i wont do it now. it's just too late. but if it were just head and dorsey, id do it. but not the major rotation players. give artest a chance. he's a fierce competitor. he'll probably be the difference in the playoffs. if there's one thing RA and DM should do is to tell the players not to talk to the media anymore. it creates all sorts of speculations and makes its way to the locker room, turning everyone against each other.
