Say what you may about him, Artest is a difference-maker

We don't know when he decide to quit basketball and tour the world with a punk band.

 

I noticed that Artest has been shooting rather poorly the past few games. Versus the Wizards he shot 4/18, Vs the Warriors 4/20 and Vs Utah 2/12, his last decent game was Vs Lakers and that was 8/20. He is shooting 38% with the Kings rather than his normal @ 42%. I get the impression that he feels he can shoot himself into a good game.

The problem I see is that he does not seem to recognize when he is having an off shooting night, he has to do more of the other things, rebound, assist, steal etc. and cut back on the shooting.

One of the reasons he gave for wanting to leave the Pacers was, there, he could not be the focal point of the offense. He appears to feel that he can be the focal point with the Kings and he is going to shoot all he wants and thus, sometimes kills the momentum of the Kings by shooting too much.

 

I think the 20 added pounds and the time off has hurt his game a little bit. No SF should be walking around at 260.

 

The added 20 lbs has turned him into a physical freak. He just doesn't look right. My off the wall theory is he bulked up because he wanted to be better equipped to fight Big Ben if they had another altercation.