Prior to the Detroit series, Artest was averaging 21 ppg in the playoffs. His production took a drop in the Detroit series after a wrist injury. He was also going against a very tough defender in Prince (the guy that held Kobe to 10-27 shooting) and a very tough Detroit defense that just held the Lakers to 75 points.
Agreed. Artest on this team would be nasty. I could really see JVG turning him into a Spreewell. His shooting isn't too great but he locks down anybody coming his way. I've seen a couple times where he has gone a little out of control, but look at Spree before JVG.
Is Artest and Harrington for Cato and Cat plus filler something that Indiana would consider? Didn't Clutch propose an offer soemthing like this at the beginning of the year?
Everybody's talking about Steve for Artest and you not only bring it down to Mobley but you make them ante up Harrington too. No I don't think they'd think about it. Make it Steve and Cato for Artest and Harrington and they'd at least think about it. They'd think about it and then probably say "No".
People might question Donny, but I think he has done enough good building a 60 win team to withstand 1 mistake.
Artest's offensive game is mostly based on post-ups. With all the attention Yao attracts down low (In my opinion, Yao shouldn't float to the perimeter as much as Jermaine O'Neal does), Artest would be severely limited offensively. He's an adequate jump shooter, at best. We can get better for Steve.
Bird & Carlisle probably wouldn't trade Artest for Francis. Also, Artest makes about $5.4m less than Francis which means IND would have to throw another contract. Pretty slim odds we could turn Francis into Artest and one or two other Pacers.
Good! I would hope that we wouldn't be that stupid to trade a superstar for 2 role players. Artest is a role player! A very good role player, but a role player none the less, just like Bruce Bowen is a role player. I'd love to have Artest on our team but not at the expense of Steve. Steve is a much more valuable player to a team than Artest. Indy won't get a whole lot if they try to trade Artest. He's just not the difference maker on a championship team. Witness the choke job against the Pistons. You do not build teams around players like Artest. You build teams around players like Yao, Steve, McGrady, etc. And the parts you put around players like that are Artest, Bowen, Marshall, etc. Indy would jump at the chance to acquire Steve for Artest and cap filler, bet your bottom dollar.
if artest can work on his jumper he would be a perfect fit. pollard could be used as yao's back-up for about 12 minutes per game. cat and cato would be a fair price.
You would be in big trouble if you built your team around Steve. The Rockets tried it for 4 years and ended up in the lottery every time.
I am not going to preach about Steve is a Franchise Player... But maybe just may be management for the fact Steve didnt make the playoffs in 4 seasons... or maybe its was the coaching staff, and combos.... The success and failure lay on the entires organization , not just any one person...
Don't let your intense hatred of Steve effect your judgement. Steve has faults just like every other player in the league. But he has value as well. If you were to use your criteria of making the playoffs to guage every player's value then alot of very good if not great players would be considered inferior.
I wouldn't build my team around any player that can't get his team to the playoffs 25% of the time in a league where more than half of the teams make the playoffs. I wouldn't build a team around Elton Brand, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Andre Miller, Antawn Jamison, Rashard Lewis, Jerry Stackhouse, Jason Terry, Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry, or Brian Grant. All of those guys are pretty good players, and I would like to have most of them on my team, but I wouldn't build a franchise around them, and I wouldn't build a franchise around Francis.
Artest is crazy and impulsive. During Game 6 of Detriot-Indiana, he committed a flagrant foul in the final minutes of the game. In that last minute while Indy was down, he chucked up a three pointer 4 feet away from the line with no set or timing . He eliminated Indy because he wanted to keep it real.
if you want a player with heart..then ron artest is your man.. he never stops improving his game.. when he came into the league he wasnt that great at anything.. now, he can post up .. hit the J and defend anybody in the league As for him not being there in the playoffs, I bet you he will work all summer long on improving his shooting and footwork on D so that he will be able to shut down anybody. People also think he is a headcase. Wrong. Hes one of those players that just gets way too passionate about the game.. he cannot stand to lose. he will do everything he can, sacrifice anything for the W. sounds like JVG kinda guy to me.. PS- even though he broke jordans ribs in a pick up game, jordan saw that fire and intensity in his game and they became close friends (hence the change in jersey # from 15 to 23)
I personally would not build a team around NEITHER Artest nor Francis. But on this particular team, with Yao as the main star and Van Gundy as the head coach, I don’t think there’s any question which player would excel more in a complementary star role. It’s Artest.
