Phil Jackson: Artest is 35 mpg player, Ariza wasn't

Same.

 

For the same price and the same number of years, Ariza is 26 and Artest is 31. LA signed Artest to win now while Morey signed Ariza to win from next year. This was a good win win "trade".

 

Uh, Trevor's 24. That makes it even better.

< Good.>

 

If Yao hadn't gotten injured, I think Morey would have looked to re-sign Artest. But it would have cost us because he wasn't going to sign an MLE-level contract with the Rockets like he did with the Lakers.

Still if we had kept Artest and somehow still landed Martin at the trade deadline, our starting lineup would have been Brooks/Martin/Artest/Scola/Yao, and this post-season would have been...real interesting.

The Lakers, though, got a fantastic deal on Artest. The contract is long but I think there's a chance he'll still be contributing 3, 4 years from now.

 

i think right now the trade is even and every day after this season it will look better and better for the rockets.