The problem is we're not sure which Artest is going to show up. Hopefully b/c of McGrady being out, he'll be more consistant.
You're old school. It isn't about rooting for team first anymore or even rooting for players who make the team better. It's about rooting for one guy on the team. It's about that guys stats or how that guy is treated by the organization, the media and the fans. Team success be damned. Welcome to the new era of sports fans aka teenagers on the internet.
wtf nobody hates him..everybody loves him on this board..lmao..but whoever does "hate" on him isn't really hate on him, just pointing out his inefficient and inconsistent ways this season..it's not hatin if ur criticzing on something that's true.. he's been awesome lately..so the "hate" or criticism is less. it's common...if you play well...you get praise..if you dont which in the most part artest has been up/down..then you'll get bashed..
Well you were not shy about saying you wanted him traded for some very average players. One of the benefits of having a Ron Artest is if one of your stars goes down with an injury, you have another quality player who can step in and fill the void. The guys you wanted to trade Artest for are decent offensive players and they are better ball handlers and passers than Artest, but games are usually dominated by the more physical teams. Ron Artest aside from Lebron is the most physical SG in the league. He didn't just suddenly turn in to a more physical player when mcgrady went out of the lineup. He's just more comfortable with his role now because its a role he's used to. The same holds true for everyone on the team right now. With tracy in and out we had identity issues. Was Tracy going to morph back into Tmac, the player everyone knows can dominate games? He never got back to that level and it looked like everyone was just waiting for it to happen. Now that he's out, everyone is comfortable and playing their game, and the results speak for themselves. It had nothing to do with fitting in with Mcgrady. It had everything to do with Mcgrady being injuried and not being able to do what everyone expected him to do. The whole team suffered.
My Guess is that in-order to keep Artest, especially the way he's playing now, we'll have to offer upward of 5 years $60+ Milllion 2009/2010 - $10,000,000 2010/2011 - $11,000,000 2011/2012 - $12,100,000 2012/2013 - $13,310,000 2013/2014 - $14,641,000 I would be ok with this contract, how about everyone else?? Daryl Morey, feel free to chime in ;-)
I disagree because when the team was struggling DD was quick to look at certain individual players and he failed to see that the team as a whole was struggling. He thought that by trading artest for another individual player, the team would get better. That wasn't the case. The team got better when they finally got direction and some certainty. It was an issue with team identity, not any one individual player.
I think there are some Tmac fans out there who resent the roll Artest is playing... not to mention calling out there... 2 time scoring champ can do nothing wrong hero .... p.s i can just see them seething over the Lebron 16 points in 3 minutes... right now...
The only bandwagon i've been on really is the battier bandwagon. The reason for that being its not very easy to understand his impact on games, but he is probably the most vital player to the team's success outside of Yao. Same goes for Artest. Their prescense defensively is large. They also bring something on the offensive end. They both space the floor with their shooting and they both go after offensive rebounds.
Whats there to love about the guy? He's only been here half a season and was injured a bunch of games. Sure he plays with a lot of intensity, but did ya'll forget its a contract year for him? I'll hold the love until he resigns with us at a reasonable amount of money, and shows the same effort.
"Ron shouldnot play All stars He plays like a crappy dancer" That does seem to be the way nowadays....Though to be fair ages ago when I played on the court we'd all talk about Dr J, Bird, Magic, Jordan, Dominique, Barkly, etc... Teenagers generally have never been a good source for sports wisdom. Just maybe more of them are brazen enough to ACT like they know as much as the big boys. I also partly blame the NBA, but thats another thing.... I dont hate Artest. Just that he's notgonna get granted exceptions as new guy. And I think thats whats behind all the "Why the Artest Hate" thing, cuz deep down people probably sense there's reasons to criticize.
There's no reason to hate on Artest. It's just too bad that Michael Vick couldn't have been friends with Artest several years ago: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6bLKmAZPZpo&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6bLKmAZPZpo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Even as you approach the big 50 grand in posts, you remain the most misunderstood and possiblly vilified poster in clutchfans history. How can this be? You think we might be illiterate?
What the hatahs didn't understand is that Ron wasn't settled as far as his role defined and sticking to that role with the lineup changes and because he wasn't 100% with his early injury. He's had the all-star break to spend with his children and chill, and his ankle is feeling better and he has more lateral movement and it's no surprise he's moving better and playing his game. It's just things settling that will elevate his game and Battier's as well. The dust has settled and all that's left now that everyone has defined rolls that coach is gonna stick with, it's all about hustle, playin' D and just staying within each player's game. Just wait til Landry comes back and the team can get Cook on the court at the 4 and have him on the perimeter to space the floor for Yao and he starts nailing those longer range shots that the Rockets aren't used to having the defense respect except when Battier would briefly move to the 4 last year.... Things are falling into place and defined roles that aren't constantly changing is and will continue to make this a more focused team. You can't focus on what's not clear to you as a player or keeps changing. Focus is taking the place of adapting to change and it will pay. We have a team of true professionals who shouldn't be underestimated when they can retain some consistency which will create a cohesive squad. The haters haven't understood that Artest wasn't allowed to get into his flow physically (early injuries he played through) or mentally (several lineup changes and not playing with the same players regularly made it hard to learn each player's tendancies). How do you become a good passer when you haven't played with certain groupings of players and can develop anticipation? The haters don't get it....They underestimate Artest....but they will see the real Artest comin' down the stretch.... Ron's a loyal, talented, hard working, good teammate that's just coming into his own as a Rocket and he'll do just fine if he stays healthy. He's also a good dude who has had his head straight and changed his outlook for a few years now...Bet on Ron Ron....
