Even moreso than that, would you like to have made the playoffs as an 8 seed, promptly get stomped, and then be saddled with an overpaid, declining Artest for another 3-4 years?
Would you do the following trade: Brooks Battier Hayes Jeffries for Bynum Artest Caracter or Ebanks (throw-in to balance roster)
Looks like Kupchak might have to swallow his pride and attempt to bring Ariza back. Artest plus a 1st rounder for Ariza.
Ron Artest and the LAC Ryan Gomes are putting up idenical numbers. The big diffrence is that Ron salary is for about twice as much...
I don't see how anybody in their right mind can stand watching Shane Battier and Chuck Hayes start for the Rockets. Artest fits well in our system and is that's the best Rockets can do I'll take him right now over the BS we have on the floor right now.
We need to stop worrying about numbers so much that's one reason why the Rockets are at the state they are right now. We need toughness and defense more than anything. Get some freakin attitude on this team. Lakers just have too much of it. We have no attitude at all.
Thank God Morey is not stupid enough to trade for him. No way do I want us to be stuck with that horrendous contract.
That's flawed logic. You don't know if they didn't have Artest, what that series would have looked like. Ariza or anyone could have had an heroic game 7. It just happened to be Artest. Or they might not even need a game 7 to win the series. It's like saying giving Steve Novak a big contract would be worth it because his heroic in that one game kept the 22-game streak alive. Championship happens every year. 22-game win streak happens once every 4 decades.
maybe my memory is fuzzy but what exactly were artest's heroics in game 7? i remember him shooting 7-18 even with the celtics guarding him like he was radioactive and him having as many open looks as he wanted. while 7-18 was downright spectacular given some of the other big name performances in that game (kobe, pau, allen), it was hardly the stuff of legend. it was just better than crap. did he make some late wide open 3? i remember fisher making one with i think 3 or 4 minutes left but can't remember what ron did. not missing every shot isn't heroic, though. while his defense on durant was very good and he did a good job on pierce, he was basically an anchor on the lakers' offense throughout the playoffs. just because he tripped and fell into a couple of makes finally doesn't mean he lifted them to the title or that he was "clutch" or that his contract is worth it. of course anyone would take a bad contract for a title, but only if the bad contract actually directly led to the title. that would be a better argument for the miami 2006 title where their attempt to go all in for one or two years pretty much came with the understanding that they were going to pay for it for the next few years after that what with their older players and shaq making $20M a year. but of course it was worth it to get that ring. if paying artest was the only way to win a ring then yes it was worth it, but paying artest too much money instead of paying his younger reasonable facsimile too much money was the choice and the ring was probable either way so from that perspective it wasn't worth it. it just doesn't make sense to argue that the lakers "won" the artest/ariza switch given that they were already a title team and given ariza's amazing 3 point shooting in their previous run would have been much preferable to artest 28% 3 point shooting (and crappy shooting everywhere else). i don't think anyone "won" that trade. the lakers got a better defending/somehow even crappier shooting/older ariza for 1 year and now have to pay him a ridiculous contract while he gets older. we got ariza, realized we gave him the same ridiculous contract (though at least he was young and wasn't about to fall off) and managed to save a little face by knocking 5 million off the payroll while still getting a decent bench player in courtney lee in return. i'm guessing neither franchise is putting it in their "Best of" blu-ray.
Check the videos of Artest I posted on the previous page to see what he did positively in the playoffs. Either way the Lakers still won a championship with him. I don't really see what we are arguing. The Lakers felt that Artest fitted them better. They swapped him for Ariza and they won a ring. Job well done.
All I know is it really makes me sad to think of what could have been. That year we signed Artest. If Yao and T-Mac stayed healthy...arrggh to think what could have been Just had to get that out...*sigh* But better times are ahead...the new era has just begun
Knowing the past history of the Lakers and trades, they'll probably get a borderline all-star for Artest.
you mean d.stern will authorize a trade sending artest to the timberpups for Klove so he can rebound for them
