Time will tell, I suppose, but this sure smells a lot like that Lakers team that had Karl Malone and Gary Payton...
I don't see this being a done deal anywhere.. but I guess it'd be nice to see him go East rather than stay in the West and be an annoyance to Brandon. Houston having Battier/Artest was one of the main reasons they had our number. If it's just Battier, and then no Yao, then that's some good news.
That team often gets mentioned as if it's a bad thing, but people tend to forget they were steamrolling until Malone got injured. Payton never really fit, but he didn't exactly hold them back, either.
all you should be worried about in regards to the rockets is yao. no yao, no need to worry. it's not like artest slowed roy down at all in the playoffs and artest hurt the rockets more than he helped offensively 4 of the 6 games against portland.
Just how much payroll does CLE have anyway? Maybe they can afford to grab like 11 more all star players this off season?
You know, it's pretty amazing what a mediocre GM can do with expiring contracts, "trash" players and an MLE.
I think over the long haul, losing their All-Star 7-6 center and an All-NBA defender is going to hurt them more than help them. For stretches, they played better without them but for an 82-game season plus playoffs.. they're going to miss them.
