Seriously is this really a debate. Im not one to be bullied by the moronic Tinman mentality of loving only a handful of rockets players from HIS era = Rocket fandom. Maxwell shot for a career under 40 percent. Let me kind of set something straight here. He played alot of his years when scoring and shooting percentages were higher. He had a lifetime .320 three point shot, which is horrible considering the amount of chucking Maxwell did. Outside of ONE year, Maxwell never averaged over 17 ppg. Didn't get a ton of steals and hated to pass the ball on most occasions. Not to mention he QUIT on his team and teammates during the playoffs. He should be regarded in the likes of Scottie Pippen for that alone. Maxwell was nothing more than a serious chucker who shot was terrible but he was sure in love with it. This isnt even close. If any past or present GM had to choose between picking Artest in his prime or Maxwell in his prime, Maxwell gets ZERO choices. Nuff Said.
I vote Max was a better offensive player AND defensive player than Artest. Both were headcases and took the crazy pills everyonce in a while so as far as that.. It's a wash. edit: holy crap it's a landslide.
Would that be the same year that Max shot .389 from the floor and a whopping .298 from the arc? While still attempting almost 6 three's a game? He couldn't hit a shot for crap that year (or most years), he might as well as had the "holy crap at least I better pass the ball a bit" year. He QUIT on his team during the playoffs. He is dead as a Rocket legends go (not that he even qualified to begin with.) He falls well below the threshold of the Elvin Hayes, Moses Malones, Hakeem Olajuwons, Calvin Murphy, or the Rudy T's. Nor does he fall into second tier status like Otis Thorpe, Robert Horry, Kenny Smith, Sam Cassell. He doesn't even belong in the same breath as Mario Elie to be perfectly honest about it. He belongs at the bottom with Scottie Pippen.
Bingo! He was also wide open alot as people were illegally double teaming Hakeem alot. So many of those missed three's youd seee Maxwell jack up were wide open looks.
he didn't miss the important 3s. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ASxTyFlLYso&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ASxTyFlLYso&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> only people who hate clutch city, hate vernon.
Maxwell was better then Artest at the peak of his career, but Maxwell wasted the last few years of his career while Ron Ron has actually maintained it despite the craziness. Talent wise, Mad Max all day but when all is really said and done Ron Artest will be known as the better player not because of the ring, but because he didn't let the craziness destroy his career and life.
as far as crazy, I think that Artest was crazier than Mad Max. Artest has done bizarre stuff and Artest seems to need crave commercial attention like when he left the Pacers so he can promote his music label. Maxwell was just not trying to seek celebrity status, he was doing stuff like offering beer out of the trunk of his car to people http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=153895
I guess it depends on what your definition of "efficiency" is. If by "better than Artest" in "offensive efficiency" you mean "a significantly worse shooter" than you are correct.
to be fair, when Ron Artest was forced into a scoring role when Yao got hurt against the Lakers, he plastered this horrible image of him bricking shots for the Rockets. while during the regular season he was pretty efficient when the team was healthy. For Maxwell, he played in the offense and he jacked up a bunch of 3s (lead the league in attempts i think one year). During the "clutch city" game against Phoenix, they were denying Dream the ball, so Maxwell drove and blew by Marjle and KJ to score most of his points. Everyone on the Rockets sacrificed their individual games for the better of the team and focused their attention to getting Dream the ball.
Tinman, I have much bro love for you. You are a great fan of the Rockets and your posts with videos about the greatness of the past warm my heart. Max shot a lot of threes and missed a ton of them. Artest wasn't very efficient for us last year, but he's had years in his career that Max couldn't have even dreamed of. Edit: And Max played for teams after the Rox and was still terrible on offense.
Yes, Ron was great with the Pacers. There's no denying that Maxwell was a textbook streak shooter. to be fair, the Sixers got Maxwell after the Rockets and made him the point guard and team him with Jerry Stackhouse (rookie). That was not a good idea. As far as ball handling and scoring potential I say Maxwell cause when he was hot he was on fire. And for playing within the offense he was better than Ron Artest who seemed lost sometimes with any team. Low post and rebounding goes to Artest no contest. Defensively I love both guys.
So in summation, when Maxwell got it going he was a better offensive player because he had the handles and the streakiness factor to just light up a scoreboard. However, over the course of a season Ron Artest is the better offensive player because he scores at a much better percentage.
