I love it when people try to be authorities on the NBA offseason when they clearly do not even know that T-Mac is a sg, Rashard is a sf, Magloire is a Center, and there is no way in hell Artest is coming of the bench. When you mis-position 4 people maybe you should just keep your opinion to yourself.
If we get Artest here, then we have about a 50/50 chance of keeping Bonzi since his best season was with the Sac-team that was headed by Rick Adelman and Artest did threaten to kill him. Artest and Adelman I believe could convince him to stay.
Ron Artest to Houston Teams up with Paul Wall and Tony Dang and gets some kicking Bling Bling! Ron Artest would be happy cause now he could pursue his rap career and play B-Ball at the same time lol. Something he could never do in Indiana or Sacremento. What you guys think? The boy got skillz? I give you Ron Artest's Rapping Website! http://www.ronartest.com/ra.html
With Artest on the team we can become one of the top two teams in the west...Now if Bonzi could get back in shape a play like he used to then we win it all...even with Rafor running the show.....
Keep your oppinion to your own self if you are here just to take shots at people. Anyone with NBA League Pass knows that TMac has logged a ton of minutes at SF during his career and while Magloire and Lewis are both primarily a center and SF both have logged minutes as a PF.
So what's your point? Amare plays center. Webber plays center. Al Harrington plays center. Marion plays power forward. Every one of these guys plays multiple positions so what difference does that make? You are wrong T-Mac is a small forward who is stuck playing point-forward on this team because we don't have a playmaker other than him. Back in Orlando he was a SF alongside Mike Miller who played SG. Also T-Mac no longer has the quickness to guard the top perimeter players so he is better suited to guard SF type players. As for Ron Artest, I don't expect him to start at the beginning of the season rather he should earn that position. He must show he is capable of controlling his temper before he gets a permanent spot on the starting lineup. Jamaal Magloire is an 6-10 athletic big man who should play PF along side someone like Yao. Just because Charlotte used him as their best available center doesn't mean he can't play PF. Bottom line is that NBA positions are INTERCHANGEABLE so you can mix and match a lineup.
I am such a huge Ron Artest fan! Hearing this rumor and waiting for a move to happen (especially one involving Ron Ron) is like torture to me. I seriously need to stay off the boards until this rumor is substantiated, because it's driving me nuts. Sucks that there hasn't been any updates yet. Btw, when is the earliest that we could make this deal? Since it involves the draft pick I'm guessing before the draft, but after this season is over?
Ok, being realstic, what if we do the artest deal, do the James deal, use the MLE to bring in a solid 4 who can guard larger PFs, (Corliss Williamson?) and possibly bring back steve at he veteran's minimum. Then the lineup would look like: 1:MJ/Rafer/Steve/VSpan 2:T-Mac/Head 3:Artest/Shane/Novak 4:MLE/Hayes 5:Yao/Deke I think that lineup looks pretty good, with a much stronger bench then we had the past season. Plenty of opportunities to go small with either James or Steve playing 2, t-mac playing the 3 and shane or artest at the 4. Basically my point is, if we get artest we can use the MLE to address the issue of getting a 4 to guard the duncans and garnetts, rather than trading battier. In the end, you add 3 players (James, Artest, MLE) to the rotation from last year, making us much deeper.
I agree that many of these players play multiple positions, but you can usually define a primary position for them. With TMac, it's a real debate as to whether he is best suited for SG or SF. Ron Artest is absolutely not a bench player. If you really want to piss him off then put him on the bench. He'll pull a Bonzi and quit. He didn't cause any problems last year. Dude just wants to play. I really think Magloire is a little too slow to play beside Yao. If a guy can qualify as a true center then he shouldn't play next to him. A young Robert Horry would be pefect. Paul Millsap would be great. Varejo would be great. Mikki Moore would be great. Derek Lee would be great. These guys are not that hard to find (or draft), but often get overpaid once they are "discovered". You really lost credibility when you said to play Lewis at SG. The guy didn't log a single minute their last year. He is 6'10". He is too big and too slow to play SG. TMac is a smaller, leaner, and quicker guy that would have to play a smaller position than Lewis. I really feel like people do no research or have never seen these guys play when they throw out ideas. They are just like "Oh everyone is talking about this guy. Let me throw in my 2 cents." Noone wants your pennies unless they are polished.
I dont understand how people think we could get Artest AND Lewis. I'm pretty sure its an either/or proposition, as both trades hinge on our giving up Sura's contract and the 26th pick.
exactly. personally, i would prefer artest. he would bring the toughness that this team needs to compete at a championship level.
I think clutch is on the dime for this deal/ First rounder for Artest, All first rounders are risks.........Artest is a risk. Its all good. Im not convinced by the Vspan camp that his going to develop into even a role player. Im not convinced Snyder will flourish. Im not convinced Artest will work out. But given the risk and rewards for Artest you'd would think that its more feasible to take a risk on him then on Vspan and Snyder
If this deal is really on the table - the Rockets HAVE to do it. Even if V-Span turns out to be better than he was here, Artest brings so much upside its worth the risk. I like Kirk Snyder but Artest (assuming he's not out committing crimes) is a major improvement. If we did this I'd assume we wouldn't make any other huge trades as well - would Battier move to power forward?
STOP BEING HOMERS Rashard has been hurt in his career just about as much as TMac and Yao, he is a jump shooter almost exclusively and he is SOFT! Sure he's from H-Town....but I'm a rockets fan.....I don't buy he's the right fit and I feel in the future he will force our hand because of vindictiveness. I would rather have a guy thankful for an opportunity as opposed to a guy who will be expected to be catered to.
Artest won't let anyone pick on Tracy or Yao, so that would be awesome. Rockets could use an "enforcer" type....
