[Bill Simmons] "Almost Famous" NBA offseason Part 1

Expect better things.

 

I am interested in hearing them too because if Ron getting on a late bus in his drawers is the worst they can come up with, I'm still not happy that we didn't make more of an effort to keep Artest for what the Lakers gave him.

 

i think the main reasons were his declining offensive and defensive skills. those "other" things just made it much easier to let him go.

you CANNOT resign artest for more than a year at this stage of his career, with how he ended the playoffs.

 

I don't get all the Artest criticism now. The guy is weird, but it doesn't seem like whatever he did during the season prevented the Rockets from winning. These acts were not, as far as I know, criminal, either.

He has a lot of flaws (walking around in underwear, getting overly emotional at refs, temmates and opposing players, not following the game plan) and I am sure it rubbed some people the wrong way. However, it seems like most teammates just find him strange and probably an idiot sometimes, but they worked around that enough to win some games. Artest also generally seem to be a decent person who did a lot of work in the community-- even Richard Justice admitted that.

 

Funny, I thought the team had great chemistry this past season while finally getting past the first round and stretching the Lakers to 7 games with far less talented roster.

 

we had great chemistry AND toughness before ron came. i think that's the misconception here. the reason we got out of the first round was primarily brook's and scola's growths as players, along with a pretty potent bench, led by wafer. artest did help, but i don't think as much as most believe. those 3 reasons i mentioned are the reason we advanced.

 

I think the talk of declining offense/defensive skills is overblown, but fair enough....I do agree that I wouldn't have felt comfortable signing him for 5 years, but the money per year was right there for possibly a 3 year deal. I just hate to see such a passionate player that truly contributed to the team's success and showed love to the fans be shown the door in such a manner.

 

Yeah, the bus story is kind of goofy but it made me laugh more than anything. I like Ron. I'm not sad he's gone but that's more because of his tendency to throw away the gameplan and spot points to the other team because he thinks he's a superstar than his off-court behavior.

 

It's much easier for people around the team to put up with Artest knowing it's a one year situation. It would have been much harder to put up with him knowing that you have to cover for him over the next 5 years.

Artest in LA might still work because he realizes he's not the star. If he had resigned here he would have been the leading player for the next year, that would have went to his ego and fueled more craziness.

 

when yao's injury came about, morey knew his team had to begin a new era. that's going to be brooks and scola primarily. if you resign artest for 3 more years, he's going to be "the best player." you really think he's better than brooks going into next year offensively? or scola? i think morey did the right thing. that's why he didn't even make signing artest a first priority in the offseason and didn't flinch when ron left.

we have to develop this new team. hopefully he'll also trade away tracy so we can officially begin this new era. gotta move on eventually

 

Simmons is hyping up Ariza as much as he can. There is no way the Lakers got worse from getting Artest. Now if they lose Odom to the Heat, that will make them worse than last year team. Ariza had a good playoff runs and not once did he have to create shot. When the Rockets close out on him fast enough, Ariza show his lack of dribble skills and cannot even drive to get a easy layup with no shot blocker. Artest for at least 2 to 3 years will be better than Ariza no matter how you see it.

 

they did not need ariza to create shots. you have kobe, gasol, AND odom. that's already 3 playmakers. i'm sure phil jackson is praying artest can play the ariza role and never dribble at all.

 

I would tend to agree with this post. The emergences of Scola (in the first round) and Brooks (in the second round) had a lot more to do with our postseason success last season than Ron Artest, although one cannot dismiss the contributions he made. If I were the team owner and I watched my player running onto the late bus that I am sitting in wearing only his underwear en route to a game 7, I certainly wouldn't be at all eager to resign him.

The 40.7% FG stats in the postseason didn't help his cause either.

 

Unless we see it differently, in which case Morey did the right thing (again.)

Particularly without Yao, and with a never-back-to-form McGrady (most probable case), we are restarting and, as Simmons rightly points out, assembling great and flexible pieces for future trades.

 

When a defender is running at you on the 3-point line and all you have to do is drive pass him to get a layup, your shot has already been created for you. His lack of dribble skill wouldnt even let him do a simply task like that. As for Ron, he was force into the 1st option in the playoff, because Yao got hurt. Notice when he was not the first option, he can easily hit at a higher rate of 3s than Ariza can. Regular season numbers I think Ron was around 40% while Ariza was 32%?

 

I don't know, the whole part about Artest breaking routine plays could affect outcomes of games. This isn't the first we heard about how Artest's mind just wanders away from the game at times. I'm sure hes a decent person off the court. When does that matter though? T-Mac does great things too off the court but that doesn't stop the animals from ripping him.

 

But if we are planning to rebuild in 2010 with free agents like getting a superstar like Wade, Bosh or even a Joe Johnson. We are going to be ready to win again in a year time? Getting Ariza is the safe bet, and plus there was no way Ron was gonna sign with us if we gave him that contract.

 

I think they did ok, RP, but how much of that was Ron versus, Battier, Brooks, Scola & Yao?

I think they get there with or without Ron.

DD

 

ariza "got better" in the playoffs. notice the saying "guys take their games to another level" in the playoffs. ariza grew up.

artest struggled even when yao did play too. whenever he put the ball down on the floor, it's like a train going nowhere 90% of the time. trust me, kobe will refuse to pass the ball to artest a lot of times next year b/c of the same thing. he usually does that to farmar or luke walton b/c sometimes they dribble too much.

 

Artest pathetic shooting against the lakers, especially after Yao went down might of had something to do with it. I can forgive a lot when a player performs to his best, plays smart and leaves his heart on the floor. But stupid basketball on the court along with stupid behavior off the court make me think he has mental issues that will only get worst once his contract is guaranteed. ANd that is unacceptable.