I for one am not all that worried because IT"S ONLY BEEN 12 GAMES! Ron had 12 rebounds last night. He's getting to the basket...not making the layup but last week he couldn't even get inside the semi circle. Let the team mesh and find themselves.
If Artest was playing like Paul Pierce I wouldn't be complaining. There was a lot of hype all associated with the addition of Artest, Kennie Smith, Tim Legler and others predicting the Rockets win it all because of him. He hasn't lived up to the hype as yet.
He's been cut a lot of slack by members of this board and rightfully so because he's only 12 games into a new system and team. However, right now he's no more than a glorified Matt Harpring. He'll figure it out though... he's too good not to.
The prime minister of all VP operations was on the pre game show for the radio's broadcast, he stated that Ron Artest needs Space to be effective. Good spacing has not been a luxury this season.
We al knew what we were getting with artest and we also knew that we needed a long range shooting PG and a backup C. Instead we got Artest, i was never happy about this and i said many times that having T-Mac Battier and Artest is a non-sense. Still he can get us what we need if packaged smart. For Example we can Pack Ron Ron with Rafer and ask for Michael Redd, i know he is not a PG but he can work alongside T-Mac who is also not a SG and holds de ball a lot, otherwise you use a starting lineup of Brooks-Redd-TMAC-Scola-Yao and use what you can of Barry-SF3-Head to substitute at the point and SG, you can always use battier as sub 3. In a riskier move you can also package Ron Ron with Rafer and ask for Raef LaFrentz (12.000.000 expiring, wait for explanation) and Jerryd Bayless, both have no place in Portland but they would welcome a SF and Rafer can ride the bench or do what Blake does if needed. I think LaFrentz will be a better player at C than anyone we´ve got and we can give the point to Brooks and Jerryd who is a fine prospect (better than brooks from my point of view). You can always go for straight trades, Ron Ron away for Raef LaFrentz (same concept as the last one) and that´s it or package Ron Ron with SF3 and you are still able to make the trade, evendoe is no point there because SF is a expiring also and a PG we could (arguably) use. All the Artest + Rafer trades for LaFrentz can also be done with Battier instead of Ron Ron but i believe unless we are going to rebuild next year this is not the most convinient trade.
i think he is the missing piece, all we need to do is stay healthy and mesh together as a team, everyone learn their rolls. damn its only 10 + games hollar at me around all star break with that bull ****!
So far, I've been kind of surprised with Artest's handle. I dont' know what his turnovers are like, but I swear every time he gets the ball he looks like he's about to lose it, and has to concentrate really hard to keep his dribble.
What do we all expect and want Artest to do? Drive to the basket/post up. But those things take a hell of a lot more energy than taking fade-away jumpshots. So the question is, why is he so tired it seems? Battier. Artest is too busy playing lock-down defense to give maximum effort on the offensive end. When Battier comes back, Artest won't have to expend as much energy on the defensive end and can focus on driving to the basket and taking better shots on the other end. So basically, whenever Battier returns to playing and is back in top shape, he will be able to take a large load off of Artest on the defensive end, and Artest will be getting much easier shots and actually giving enough effort to make LAY-UPS. Count on it.
I may be wrong but onec Battier return i don´t think he and Artest will share the court a lot, maybe if we go on a small lineup of PG-TMAC-BAttier-Artest-Yao but that would be the slowest small linup ever made..
Artest is still thinking too much instead of reacting. I thought he would feel more comfortable with Tmac or Yao out and he would move up from third to second scorer. And if you looked at last night, he could've put up 20 points if he didn't miss some point blank layups. I don't expect him to do that very often. I think he's doing ok, he's still trying to figure it out. He would do better if he posted up more. This team just needs more time. Between new players and injuries it's a lot to handle.
I think we should give him and the team time to mesh well...we've been almost a month into the season. Hopefully, he won't suck so much by All-Star break.
The problem is that our guys don't compiment each other. Look at Boston; they have KG the post up big man on the inside, PP the scorer can hit you any which way, and Ray Ray, I'd hate that nickname personally sounds pretty gay, the spot up three point shooter. All three can also create for themselves and teammates. The Rockets have; Yao the best post up big man in the league, TMac a scorer, but mainly also on the post, and Ron Ron another post up player, that can shoot the three but not as consistent as Ray Allen. All this posting up will either clutter up the middle or force our big three watch each other in the post and wait for their chance. Our big three does not feed off what the other star is doing, they just spectate. I'm pretty sure someone has said something similar cause this is not brain surgery, but that's what I see. We also need to give them a chance to play with each other and realize that this will take a little longer to mesh if it ever ends up working out.
People need to stop believing a 50 year old guy and a backup SF are just going to give us a championship and solve our problems...
With Battier and a decent center to fill in for Yao, we are probably 9-3 right now and this thread doesnt exist.
He's such a ball stopper, and theres's little movement when he does get it. Often the team does better when there are shooters like Wafer, Head, or Brooks in the game.
let me make these stats REALLY clear. this is a guy who is playing 40 minutes a game for us and he's putting up these stats: 14ppg, 34% fg (and he takes just as many shots as tracy), 70% ft and people wonder why our offense is bad. the guy who plays the most minutes is shooting 34%. even rafer alston shoots 38%. let's be real people. unless he holds every player to less than 8-10 pts, nothing can overcome this offensive incompetence. this is even worse than rafer.
