What chemistry, if he does he sits. Ariza was big time in spurts but his absence won't really be that missed considering the talent on that team.
this is simply not correct. artest absolutely has complained and been upset about him not getting enough shots and that was on a damn good pacers team.
and PhilJax will have no problem benching him. They can still sign Odom. They won't miss Ariza at all and the reward of having Artest to hold the fort down to give their starters a rest is fantastic for them.
come on now. artest isn't going to be happy to be benched and things won't turn out well if he is. and if they bench artest, they certainly will miss ariza. ariza and artest are different types of players. ariza is a complimentary guy. he's not going to dominate anyone, he's going to fill in the gaps. artest isn't a complimentary guy, he needs to be a main component. he isn't happy if he isn't getting his shots on offense and won't put forth as much effort if he's not. he needs to be involved with everything and won't be happy to just be a role player. yes, artest is better than ariza, but trying to force artest to play the role of a role player isn't something that works. in that way ariza was a much better fit on the team and i doubt artest can contribute in the ways ariza did. he'll bring some other things to the table like some additional creativity when certain players are on the bench, but i don't think makes it anything more than a lateral move.
He can sit? Do you even know who Ron Artest is? Yeah that wouldn't be a distraction. He would throw Phil's thrown over on top of him. But I agree that he is worth the risk. But I am not ready to anoint them just yet.
because ariza fit better with what the team needed than artest does. ariza is a complimentary offensive player, artest thinks he's a go to guy. one of those two works very well alongside kobe and gasol, the other doesn't. i also don't think you're going to get consistent effort defensively from artest if he isn't happy with his offensive touches. i also question whether you'll get consistent effort out of him on either end of the floor if kobe/phil decide to challenge his horrible shot selection.
Ariza is kind of risky himself, he has no body of work and some foot problems. He's never had starter minutes an entire season. It is already a better move just from the financial side, we can't overpay for someone and Artest is a bargain. Ariza is more of a team defender, Artest is what LA needed on bulky bodies. In Houston he chucked a bit before that he was more efficient. Just go back to the Sac days or whatever, and he'll be fine.
it was a smart move of the lakers not to overpay ariza. he definitely doesn't deserve anything more than the mle. artest really have never been that efficient of an offensive player. career 42% shooter, 34% from 3. and his career playoff numbers are even uglier. i don't think he's going to cut the bad shots out of his game at this point.
Disagree with most of you. This move will blow up in LA's face. Ron Ron and Kobe will hate eachother. I can't wait to see this epic collapse.
Actually, if the Blazers had felt that need, we'd probably have Devin Harris right now instead of Frye, Jack and Outlaw. But they didn't, and we don't.
I don't know about that. The Lakers have Phil Jackson, who managed to win a world championship with Dennis Rodman on his team. If he can handle Rodman, he can handle Artest.
Phil Jackson is a pretty good handler of people, but he's not the Pied Piper for difficult characters. Keep in mind that the Lakers added Isaiah Rider and Jackson wasn't able to keep him in line at all. The difference was, the Lakers weren't counting on him for anything important, so it didn't matter. The Lakers will be counting on Artest for major contributions.
the blazers at that point weren't in a position to be trying to match moves with contenders, nor was devin harris a big name player that would have been brought in to do so.
No, iirc we were talking about "building a team that would hit the window together". This was before "let it bake".
i'm just saying that a non playoff team isn't going to feel the need to make a big splash because a contender does, and at the time devin harris wouldn't have been considered a huge move.
Just putting another Laker fan's viewpoint out here. I love the move. Absolutely love it. He's a better defender than Ariza is, he's a better overall offensive player than Ariza is, he's just a better player than Ariza. He's a good spot-up three point shooter, he's decent at getting to the hoop, he can guard and play 3 positions , and best of all, he comes at a bargain with only having to pay him the MLE. If the Lakers can manage to bring back Odom, the title will be theirs to lose.
