http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/03/17/thomas.20090317/index.html The Enigmas Player, Ron Artest -- Artest is your classic wild card, so we know that he will have some type of impact. My hunch is that he will win games for the Rockets in the Playoffs, who, in some great irony, will probably get out of the first round without T-Mac. When Mac went down, the first thought that popped in my head was, "This might be good for the squad, since, at this point, Artest can probably do Mac better than Mac can do Mac." I've seen Ron-Ron routinely dribble balls off his shins, his jumper is ugly, he's never been athletic and that's even more of the case these days. But, somehow, he remains one of the six or seven best all around players in the game. I don't how it'll happen, but Artest will be heard from this Spring.
Man this is double fail first off all the article you link is from nba.com and not espn and then its been posted before too: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=164854
We have 5 years worth of Defensive Player of The Year Awards on our team (Deke won it 4 times, Artest 1), so that might be the difference this year in getting out of the 1st round. Plus, Battier is a runner-up the last few years. So that's 2.5 top D players.
Speaking of playoffs did you guys know that right now we are 3rd seed while the Jazz remain in 7th seed?