I'm going to miss you, Crazy Pills

by grungedave on Jul 3, 2009 12:12 PM CDT in Discussions about Badasses Comment 23 comments

Dear RonRon,

I'm gonna miss you. I admit, I'm a little weepy right now. You were everything we asked for when we traded Donte Greene and a draft pick to get you last summer. We always knew it might be a short-term relationship given that you were in a contract year. We didn't care. Nor do I feel cheated today. It was worth the risk. And I fully believe that risk paid off in spades.

You helped get the Rockets to the second round this year. Which for Yao Ming and others had to seem like a myth until they actually got there. (Tracy McGrady... still a non-believer.) You brought an aggressiveness and a mindset to Houston that had been lacking for more than a decade. No one bullies the Rockets anymore.

So, thank you, Ron Artest. I truly mean it.

I do not begrudge you in your decision to join Kobe and the Lakers. It makes perfect sense. Yao and T-Mac probably won't be suiting up in 2010. The Rockets are rebuilding, whether they want to admit it publicly or not. I'm okay with all of this. Which is why I understand that you had to do what is best for you, Ron. I absolutely do understand. And I wish you nothing but the best in Los Angeles.

Though, this does make this picture seem a little weird now:

Happy trails to you, Crazy Pills. And good luck. You're going to need it.

(I can't wait to see what motivational book(s) Phil Jackson gives to Artest... )

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Hey Rockets

Take good care of Trevor. We’ll miss him in LA. I think the indirect trade makes sense for each side. But it is far from a ‘no-brainer’ for either.

Who knows if Ron hogs the ball, explodes on the court or in the locker room. And he’s not as quick and young as Ariza.

But then Trevor had a break-out year and will he be able to get open looks without a healthy Yao and T-Mac? Still he’s real young, a good guy and should be around for years to come.

Kobe’s probably happy he won’t have to battle Artest (and Battier) when playing the Rockets. Should be fun to watch Kobe & Ariza match up.

by lazNirv on Jul 3, 2009 2:08 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I think Ron is a terrible fit for you guys

And I love the guy. I just have no idea what need he fills for you. For Cleveland he would have been perfect

www.TheDreamShake.com Co-Founder and Writer

by UofTOrange on Jul 3, 2009 3:01 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Some toughness to overcome the overcompensating panzies that are Derek Fisher and Sasha Vujacic? Maybe they were looking for more entertaining post-game conferences to keep the LA fans interested?

But yeah, in seriousness, the decision makes absolutely no basketball sense.

by oelayat on Jul 3, 2009 3:13 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

What I don't get about it

is that they played against him only two months ago. And he was awful for the whole series. They know first-hand what havoc he can unleash on his own offense, because they started leaving him open during the series. They wanted him to jack up shots and he complied. What makes them think other teams won’t recognize the exact same thing? Maybe they think he’ll reign-in his scoring attempts with Kobe next to him, but he’s never done that before in his career, so I don’t know why they think he’ll start now.

Your friendly neighborhood Dream Shake mod.

by Only_A_Lad on Jul 3, 2009 3:54 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

For the Lakers I don’t think it was about Artest as much as not ‘overpaying’ for Ariza. He was offended by the offer if our MLE. His agent was throwing $6, $7, $8 million a year figures out. That would be way too much for Trevor. The Lakers already overpaid for Sacha (Vujacich?) last year who went ZERO for 1000 in the playoffs plus an overpaid Luke Walton that they can’t trade or cut.

If Ron stayed with the Rockets and Ariza went to the Cavs or Spurs the Lakers would have been screwed. So they went for Artest as the best alternative.

We’ll see how it goes with Ron. He’s probably better at guarding LeBron, Pierce or Carmello than Ariza but who knows.

by lazNirv on Jul 3, 2009 4:40 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

My only qualm with that logic

is they’re paying a 30 year old essentially the same per-year amounts that we got Ariza for. They did overpay a few average role players in past summers, but on his current production alone, he’s already worth the MLE. If you’re in the camp that you believe he will only get better (which I am), then he’ll be a steal at the MLE.

Why wouldn’t Ariza take the MLE from the Lakers? They probably never offered him anything close to it. I imagine they were chasing Artest from the beginning (given how quickly they signed him) and that he was a higher priority than Ariza (which makes no sense btw). They probably then gave Ariza some real low-ball offer hoping he’d take a hometown discount or to save face with some of their fans.

by oelayat on Jul 3, 2009 5:30 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

You asked. . .

Why wouldn’t Ariza take the MLE from the Lakers?

The LA Times and elsewhere reported they were ‘insulted’ by the Lakers’ MLE offer.

. . . Ariza and his agent weren’t thrilled by the Lakers’ annual offer of $5.6 million over an unspecified number of years. Ariza, 24, was hoping for $7 million to $8 million a year. . . and Ariza is drawing interest from Portland, Houston, Cleveland, Toronto and the Clippers.

Elsewhere his agent said they would take another team’s MLE before the Lakers’. Who knows maybe he doesn’t like playing with Kobe.

So I think the Lakers went to plan B and got Artest. Because if Ariza left to a contending rival like Portland or Cleveland the Lakers would have had been SOL without Artest.

by lazNirv on Jul 3, 2009 6:15 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sorry to beat it all to hell

But if you’re interested, here’s the Hoopsworld account or the Ariza negotiations I was thinking of when I wrote the above. (It is about half way down the page.)

According to the article they offered a bit more than the MLE and Ariza’s agent didn’t like it. So they had to do something to avoid getting left out all together. I would have preferred that the Lakers keep Ariza, but oh well.

by lazNirv on Jul 3, 2009 7:00 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ariza is good defensively...

but he actually can’t guard the elite SFs in the league. He can harass them at times, come up with some steals, but over the course of the game, he gives up points, blows assignments, gambles too much on cross-court passes, and picks up too many fouls.

As an example, look at how the Lakers handled Carmelo Anthony and Ron Artest in the playoffs. While both players, when the games got tighter, killed their own teams chances without any help from the Lakers, in the early games it was actually Luke Walton who showed the skill and manhood to stay in front of those players and keep them down.

by tandur on Jul 3, 2009 6:23 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

skill and manhood

what an odd thing to write.

Your friendly neighborhood Dream Shake mod.

by Only_A_Lad on Jul 3, 2009 6:41 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I am pretty sure they track that stat over at 82games

by oelayat on Jul 3, 2009 8:29 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Luke Walton leads the league in Skill and Manhood. Adds 3 points to his PER

Actually, I remember Bill Simmons writing something about how Walton has an inexplicable way with the ladies, so this might make some sense.

I don’t see how it would help on defense, though. Do opponents just get distracted by the Laker Girls swooning as Walton gets into a defensive stance?

Your friendly neighborhood Dream Shake mod.

by Only_A_Lad on Jul 3, 2009 8:37 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Or perhaps the opponents themselves are swooned by Walton’s skill and manhood?

by oelayat on Jul 4, 2009 1:14 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

If the opponent is Reggie Evans, hil yis

by Snoopy2006 on Jul 4, 2009 2:38 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

True

Ariza can’t guard the bigger SFs. But Artest can’t guard the speedy PGs (Tony Parker, Brooks) that Phil loved to switch Ariza onto. Ariza’s quickness and length was great for guarding the little speedster type guys.

by Snoopy2006 on Jul 4, 2009 2:39 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

i don’t remember ariza guarding brooks or parker? ariza isn’t that fast. if he did, then he didn’t do a good job b/c parker kills the lakers and brooks had some good games too. if the lakers resign shannon brown, then d on PG will be solved.

by Shark Sandwich on Jul 5, 2009 4:44 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

We already have Shane to guard the top scorer

of the opposing team. What we need is more offense without the defense suffering so much. We couldn’t get that with Von Wafer, much as I loved the VonHawk for his aggressiveness. I hope Von Wafer decides to stay.

by RoxBeliever on Jul 4, 2009 6:52 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

good fit

offensively, artest has to be the floor spacer for kobe, pau, bynum and odom. basically, do what ariza did, hit WIDE open threes to keep the D honest. shouldn’t be too hard. then a couple times in the game make cuts and catch the ball under basket and make wide open layups or dunks which is what ariza did. anything else is an added bonus. phil likes guys who can post up and ariza had ZERO post up game. artest can do this but it has to be within the offense. defensively, artest can do just about everything, but with the lakers he’ll have to play more team defense and help with double teams.

by Shark Sandwich on Jul 5, 2009 4:52 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Lakers Rewarding Artest

Ron Artest was instrumental in the Lakers Championship run last year. Were it not for his dismal shooting during the Rockets/Lakers series the Rockets may be the team that went on to win a championship.

Had Artest made a decent percentage of his shots like Ariza did then perhaps the Rockets would have went on to play for the NBA championship.

I guess this is the Lakers way of saying thanks!

by ztitans1 on Jul 3, 2009 4:32 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

well if phil can manage rodman, artest should be doable as well.

13 points in 39 seconds. Enough said.

by Duhoh on Jul 3, 2009 4:35 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I’m sure the Rockets front office was frustrated with Ron’s carelessness on offense last seasson. But I think Adelman was in a tough position, having coached him before in Sacramento, he many not’ve felt comfortable approaching Ron and saying “listen, why don’t you do this or that.” Phil is starting with a blank slate and has the credentials to back up whatever he says.

When McGrady went out, the scoring burden fell on Ron, to a large extent. With Kobe, Paul & Odom I think he’ll be able to focus mainly on playing tough defense.

The Ariza signing was the best thing on the table for the Rockets. They could be burdened with him for a while, or they could be getting a steal. The ‘10 draft should be a fairly impressive class. If they’re rebuilding—and they should be—they would be foolish not to fall into the lottery stakes.

by 8ThugPoetLA on Jul 3, 2009 4:39 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Oh yeah. . .

I meant to ask above, youse guys aren’t expecting Artest level scoring from Ariza, right? You know he’s not ready for that. Although he can slash to the basket more than he did with the Lakers who always had Kobe, Pau, Bynum & Odom clogging the damn paint.

Plus, best of luck to Yao. Hope they’re able to put him back together again (sincerely, no sarcasm).

by lazNirv on Jul 3, 2009 4:51 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

(I can’t wait to see what motivational book(s) Phil Jackson gives to Artest… )

Classic line GD.

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....

by pookeyguru on Jul 18, 2009 7:51 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs