Jesus christ, where did I get that notion? I had my rockets trades flip-flopped. Dayquil fail. But still, I feel we came out ahead pound for pound. By the way, that was a flamingly sarcastic bit about Ron and a title here.
if it's only Phil he hates, why bother? phil's gonna be gone after this season. but hey, it'd be nice to see some balls back for the rockets
I dun goofed on the Martin-Ariza thing, but what else do you disagree with? The Lakers couldn't have won another title without Ron Ron? How do you figure that? Both Ariza and Artest ended up getting 5 years and a little over 33 million, no? Just please don't tell me you think the Rockets would've been contenders with Ron... Bottom line; do you think we would be better off with Artest and his contract or Lee and his contract?
No, LA would not have won without him And obviously the rockets would not be contenders with ron but I think they would have made the playoffs
Hard to figure that, since they were a championship team with Ariza and yet seemed to struggle more to claim their title with Artest.
Would you take 1 game 7 finals winning heroics at the cost of an extra 3 years/21 mm cap albatross to trade? I would in a heartbeat. Cap Albatrosses fly in and fly out, but rings are forever.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Q-mT99HCFFI" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe> <iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/h5uP3bylWFs" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe> The fact is Artest helped contribute to them winning a ring. They wanted Artest to help them and that he did. The Lakers won that trade.
Meh, we'll see how it shakes out. The Lakers might have won that series more handily without Ron than with him. And in the future (conjecture time!) he may end up being more of a burden to a title than an asset, as opposed to someone else they could've signed at that position.
Whoa... not exactly trying to say that. Ariza performed better in the playoffs, and Ron sucked it up last year until game 7 IIRC. What I'm saying is that the Lakers, as a team, may have been a little bit better off in the playoffs without Ron. And they certainly would be better *now* with someone else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thdemQiH3NU I think I have the balls to tell you, we would have been better off with Ron Artest. Granted, we would not have been contenders anyways. But at least it would've attracted better players in the biggest free agency madness in a long time, and would've been a bigger bargaining chip to have compared to Ariza. We basically translated Ron Artest into the Courtney Lee that we now have. If you think that it was good for the team, then I think you just don't know how much Ron Artest contributes to the team that he is on. Here is what I think Ron Artest contributed: 1. A force and presence to be reckoned with on BOTH ends of the floor (DEFENSE!) 2. If we get in a fight, he'd be holding HTown down. Whattup AB 3. Leadership Last but not least, he did the dirty job that nobody wanted to do. He played hard on D, making sure that the shots were not free. He complained when the other team was stepping over the line, and kept everyone else on the team in check. He sacrificed himself for rebounds and baskets, close to the post. When someone mentions the 2nd round of the playoffs in 08-09 season, it sums up all of it in a nice package. I just wish you would understand that. Signing Ariza after dumping Ron, that was probably the worst mistake I have seen the Rockets make during the time I was an actual fan. Rudy Gay is a whole 'nother story, cuz I wasn't focused back then.
Can't watch videos. If you think the Lakers improved as a team (not just that year, but for the lifespan of the contracts) more than the Rockets did from that trade, then more power to you. I respectfully disagree. Give me Lee and his contract over Artest and his contract.
You honestly think Ron would've helped us land a big ticket FA? I can't follow you on that one. Ron, for the time he was here, played great and I loved him. He played decent for LA last season, until the playoffs, but redeemed himself in the closing minutes. But now it is painfully obvious he is overpaid and declining fast. I can't believe anyone would rather have Artest over Lee right now, but I can understand missing him... in that he was a lot of fun... unlike the snooze fest we watch almost nightly now.
Debating whether Artest is better than Trevor is one thing. But we were eight games out of the playoffs. I highly doubt Ron is THAT much better then Trevor, that we would have won fifty games with him instead. Maybe two, three, maybe four. Eight? Heck no. I more or less agree with Donny. Liked Ron when he was here, but I don't see a point in having him come back. Best wishes to him.
Like most here, I liked Artest as a player but at this point his value his skills vs his contract are way out of balance and he would not help our team and frankly there are few teams in the league that could use him. LA knew this was a gamble when they signed him - it was a short term move and I hope it hurts them as a franchise because frankly I'm sick of the Lakers. ...at that contract he is going to be tough to move unless they package him with someone else and that would hurt the Lakers depth. I think they might not have a choice but to either keep him or package him with Bynum. The market for Ron would be teams like Orlando, Chicago, maybe Boston - those Eastern teams who could use a big body to guard Lebron with. I can't imagine a non-contender wanting him, and the upcoming teams like say OKC don't want to risk the chemistry. Basically as a team you want him to provide defense and hustle in one of a handful of high stakes games against very specific opponents. That's a pretty small list of teams that need that. I can't imagine anyone else being stupid enough to thinking Ron can provide anymore than that although there are still GMs in Memphis and Minnesota who have the power to make those dumb decisions....
