I definitely miss Artest as a person and character, I think he's great. But I can't say I miss him too much as a player. However, Ariza has sucked so far.
I don't know if this type of stats say that much... For example, comparing Budinger and Shane this season: Chase, -4.7. Shane, +4.5... It much depends on who you're playing with and other factors. Anyway, in my opinion there's no doubt he's defending better in LA than he did in Houston. Surely his method fits better near two 7 footers down the lane, he pressures the ball a lot but is beaten very easily. That's not a big problem if you have a pair of athletic big men waiting in the middle. By the way, I don't miss him. Doesn't know his role nor his limitations; is overrated defensively; is a ball stopper and impedes you from playing good bball consistently; lazy offensively, won't move his ass except to call the ball for a 1on1 (I mean, 5); doesn't run offensive/defensive transition; and he's going to get worse.
Absolutely. He is still better than Ariza in every aspect of the game except for maybe athleticism. But neither are very athletic so that doesn't even matter.
Without a doubt. Who could forget this in game 6 and his speech after the game telling the fans "We're not done". <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hb9CWnqaASQ&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/hb9CWnqaASQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Like Morey said, Ariza is not the Artest substitute. If we talk about that role, Tracy would have been, or Iguodala, etc...
I miss his haircuts with the big R on his head, don't see him doing that in LA just yet. Ballin wise, his physical play was nice for us. He would just sometimes make the most horrific plays on offense and Jack up shots as if he was Kobe. In other words he would try to hard, or try to do to much on offense. He had his good nights. He always seemed to bank in a 3 when we needed it te most. But anyways RON was a Rocket, not for long but he helped us get out of the first round finally, respect for what you helped with Ron.
Agreed; I'm afraid I'm one of those fans that enjoyed him getting the Rockets logo shaved into his hair. :grin:
Miss him. Its obvious he played through last year with injury. I like how his off the wall attitude helped us so much in the playoffs. Instead of worrying about getting the 1st round monkey off their back, Ron shifted the focus elsewhere. The haircut, calculated.
I miss how fun the guy is....but I dont miss him jacking up 3 pointers non-stop in playoff games! Ron Artest, the best player in the NBA- according to Ron Artest!
