Ron Artest's game without the media/reputation bias

I think the team needs to try and keep artest, but at a reasonable price.
While i agree that he didn´t play up to his reputation, two things come to my mind.

1- He is not playing his position.
2- He has been on the team for less than a year.

So, that leaves quite a good marging for improvement.

I think this team has to keep ron to a contract similar to Battier´s, maybe 1 or 2 more millions, but that´s it.

Or offer him a longer contract but MLE based. Say, 4 or 5 years at the MLE.

What we don´t need to do is keep both him and battier in the starting lineup. That doesn´t work in the long run.

 

Real fast

We can't be a contender next year without Ron.

 

short memory. that's what a lot of artest haters have.

if the price is fair, then we need to sign ron. he was not brought to be a 1st offensive option. while his defense seemed to lose a step, he did help the rox have a very good season and have a very good playoff run. his defense on roy helped get us out of the 1st round.

he's got a lot of heart, he's behaved very well relatively speaking, and gives the rockets an edge that's been missing over the past years. if we can get yao some help (shaq or someone) to reduce the minutes, and get a tall player like tmac that stays healthy, we're going to get really far.

 

Wow. You can look at anyones face at any given time and know what they are thinking?!?!?! You, my friend, are gifted.

Or a moron.

Oh, and we lost game 3.


Ron is NOT a #1 guy. Ron is a #2/#3 guy on a good team. No one can question his heart and hustle. We havent had a guy like this in a really long time and for people saying he's selfish or whatever, its almost like you dont know basketball at all. Does he take some poor shots, yes. Does he shoot too many 3's, yes. But hes the only guy on the court (except maybe Battier) who has the cajones to take a shot when it matters. He and Brooks are our best offensive options from the perimeter, but Brooks is still young and still learning how and when to be effective. Without Yao and Tmac alot of pressure falls on Artests shoulders. I def think we need to re-sign him, but NOT if it means breaking the bank. In Morey, I trust.

 

you are asking for ron to take over like a tmac. that's not fair. he's a very good 3rd option when yao and tmac are healthy. if the price is fair, then it would be crazy not to keep him

 

He is a great defender vs the right players.

Quick guard who can shoot the ball are not his specialty he struggles. That's why Roy and Kobe got their way with him.

But strong SF like Lebron or Pierce, or guards who are not great shooters like Wade strugles vs Ron, Shane have problem against them.

Go and check what he did to Lebron, Wade and Pierce.

Quick guards/of the ball guards like. Roy, Kobe, Ray Ray, Hamilton etc. are Battiers job.

Strong Small forwards or Strong not good jump shooting guards like Lebron, Pierce, Wade or Tweeners like Odom are Ron specialty.

 

ill co-sign this...artest did what he and to probably some extent adelman thought he needed to do when tracy first went out then yao. i think after we figure out whos coming back (artest, maybe wafer if he doesnt go crazy with his demands) and who isnt (barry, deke, cook, dorsey definately) you look to find an athletic young center who can alter some shots and rebound. btw....are we even sure artest recovered from his ankle sprain earlier in the season?

 

No I'm not...

I am asking Ron to stop playing like a BLITHERING IDIOT on offense and pass the ball and move his body off of it.

Ron Artest is an offensive liability and so is Battier, we can not afford to start TWO of them at the wing position.

Get a scoring Wing to compliment our defensive wing in Battier and the team is instantly better.

DD

 

I don't know where people are getting this idea that Artest wants to be the number one option and doesn't treat Yao well. Artest came in here knowing full well he would be at best the third option and for a big part of the season he willingly accepted coming off of the bench. Also if Yao and Artest don't get along how do you explain them at the game 6 of the first series post game conference?

Artest tried to step in ways that he wasn't mean to when we lost T-Mac and then Yao. Unfortunatly the biggest problem with him is inconsistency. When he's on he's hard to stop but when his shot is off he is very off. Artest like Battier and Hayes brings a lot more to the Rockets though than what is fully quantifiable in the stats. As others have noted he brings a lot of toughness and plays good D. The other thing he brings is a fearlessness and he is not afraid to try to make something happen when it seems like things are bogging down.

Of course that fearlessness also gets him in trouble for taking ill advised shots.

Overall I think Artest is an overall plus for this team than a negative and I hope we can bring him back.

 

And the original plan wasn't to have both playing together but alternating with the scoring wing that we have already, T-Mac.

Given that Artest wasn't intended to be on the court the sametime as Battier I think overall he helped us much more than hurt us.

 

when non of the rockets are scoring well and ron is forced to take over...he plays like a "BLITHERING IDIOT."

 

if we had tmac in the playoffs we would have 4-0'd the blazers...artest is an average player who takes really bad shots and plays good defense. but just playing defense can't win you championships, you have to have offense as well.

 

You mean like in Chicago when the Rockets were up by 17 and Ron took over so well the team blew the game?

Come on, stop apologizing for the guy, he has his warts...and they are primarily in his head.

I think he was a positive this year, but for the money he is going to be asking for as a declining player, you get something for him in a S&T...because he is not going to be worth much as he gets even slower.

1. He can no longer guard perimeter players, they blow by him like he is standing still

2. He is not as quick as he used to be and is much easier to guard

3. He has fallen in love with his jumper which is inconsistent AT BEST.

4. Our team defers to him too much, because of his strong will - this is a bad thing as most of them are better offensive options than Ron is at this point in his career.

I thank Ron for a good year, now he is better to the Rockets as a tradeable asset.

You do NOT sign a declining player like Ron to a big contract and hamstring the franchise.....sorry....not a good move.

DD

 

Ron plays better when he isn't forced to be the #1 Option. If everything had gone as planned with the Big 3, he was suppose to be the 3rd option. Which is perfect for him. He doesn't have to worry about scoring and can focus on defense and let the game come to him on offense.

 

don't so exiciting,I am just a chinese fun,and fond your website and willing express my opinion.right or not you can judge yourself,I watch ARTEST carefully when he came to rockets ,certainlly I also have my thinking about other players good or bad.I judge the people by what his saying and doing,when he came to rockets, the best conditon he is NO3 ok? and he say tmac shoud bula bula, I read from news and tmac said shxx. and he shout yao on the court. do you know I mean? everywhere had rule ,even in your team.yes as you said yao is soft ,because he is a foreiger,but I say yao is very tough in his nation team. in a world game when the game lose,yao criticize the teamplayer very hard instead of his coach,some of the player older than him,the next game they won. yao can not so hard to his rockets teamplayer ,because here is America. but you shuld respect the teamleader ,right? because artest treat Kobe so rudely (several times) I can conclude he can not get along with yao well, he is too egotism and too simple so I heard one reporter asked yao art is wise or not.yes he respect yao now,but ....

 

Quoted for truth. We need another wing player that can create and make his own shot. While defense wins championships, you still need to put the ball in the basket to win.

 

IF Ron is traded . . . .when the defense drops off
folx will say it is because we are older or some such

rather than give him his due

Rocket River

 

This team's success was built on the great cast of role players Morey has put in place, not Ron Artest leading them out of the first round. I'm not the biggest TMac fan by any stretch, but if he had anwhere near this supporting cast he would have cruised out of the first round as well. Artest's defense is vastly overrated at this point. Tmac put in some great defensive performances in the playoffs (shutting down Dirk) to go along with elevating his offensive game. Artest was a dissapointment in these playoffs. He was abused by Roy, abused by Kobe when on him much worse than Battier was and had these stats

37 minutes a game: 16.3 Pts. .399 FG% 22-77 3PT (28%), 4 Rebounds, 2.58 TO's, 4 Assists. 1 steal. .25 blocks.

Whatever value he brings with his toughness and at this point overrated defense, is offset a good bit by the fact that his scoring game exists so far outside the offensive system. So many times Ron's shots are just a complete sideshow to what the team is really trying to do offensively. The team is trying to work the ball in and out, swing it around etc, but then you have to take a break every so often so Artest can dribble, dribble, jack with 15 seconds on the shot clock. He gets his points because of a decent amount of attempts, but his solo offensive game is less efficient than the team offense. Personally, I would let someone else outbid for Artest in the offseason.

 

qft. i agree with almost all points made here.

i know many love ron. he's just different from an average nba player. but for all the naysayers opposing the op's idea, i have yet to see convincing counter arguments.

 

Our defense was great before he got here, and is great now.....Ron is not a great perimeter defender anymore....he just isn't.

Trade him for a younger player who can score the ball and create for others....

This team needs 2 penetrating players to win it all.

DD