No Thanks Artest

I’m scrapping the grades for now. It’s a used up idea and too many other blogs do the same thing. Plus, it’s really too subjective for my tastes. So, moving forward, there is talk of perhaps trading Odom for Ron Artest and the deadweight contract of Kenny Thomas. While one cannot rule out a bounce-back effort from Thomas, at 6-7 he’s undersized at the 4 and would seal the fate of Turiaf going elsewhere.

And, I like Turiaf. On my team that is.

Kurt from the blog, “Forum Blue and Gold” had this insightful information on why he believed Artest is not a great fit. http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2008/07/05/lamar-odom-ron-artest/

While I agree with a lot of what he is saying, I can’t agree that Artest wouldn’t be a major upgrade to the defense. What Kurt fails to recognize in his blog (it’s a great blog don't get me wrong) is that Artest is usually matched up against the opposing players best player. That means he’s guarding Kobe. He’s guarding Paul Pierce. He’s guarding Lebron. Sure, Lamar takes some of those small forward duties occasionally, but as the starting power forward this year, he was usually banging with bigger guys.

Also, who else on that Kings team can play defense? The Kings ranked 22nd in defensive rating last season.

Kevin Martin, for all of his offensive brilliance, is a decent defender at best. Brad Miller is slow and un-athletic, but has mastered the hard foul. Bibby, when he was on the team, and his successor Udrih, are, simply put, not good at defense. John Salmons is undersized at both the 2 and 3 and not quick enough for the 1. Mikki Moore is too skinny and not a good shot blocker despite his height (.56 blocks per game last year, .58 for his career). Garcia’s pretty decent and Thomas used to be decent.

Bottom line, their defense wasn’t good. Artest was the only guy, and when he decided he didn’t want to try (which, was quite a bit), the defense was even atrocious.

Odom had Bynum and Pau backing him up for much of the season, and Kobe on the perimeter. While the Lakers defense was labeled “soft” in comparison to the Celtics, there is no denying that they were still one of the better defenses throughout the year (ranked 5th).  

Look, it’s possible that Artest can fit in like a good soldier. In 2005-06 when he was traded for Peja Stojakovic, the Kings ended up going to the playoffs. He helped boost their defensive rating to 12th in the league (up from 23rd the year before that). Artest also had a well-rounded statline of 17 ppg, 4 apg, 5 rpg and 2 spg.

Of course, going from being the man to playing second and third fiddle also helped his shooting percentage to drop to 38.3 percent and his 3 point shooting to a ghastly 30.8 percent.

The next season, when he decided to be more assertive on the offensive end, the Kings went 33-49 despite their defensive rating jumping all the way up to 9th.

So, sure, Artest can make a difference on the defensive end. A big one. But, getting better at defense while sacrificing nearly 15 wins, does not seem like a good tradeoff.

No thanks.