[no1Participant]

Which is the bigger acquisition the spurs gettin RJ or lakeshow signing Artest. I think LA signing Artest is huge this guy is a great player and depending on who u ask is the best lock down defender in the league. Early Prediction Lakers REPEAT!!!

[trueone313detroitParticipant]

Better player, can defend more positions, 2 thru 4, better body to bang with strong forwards and power guards, good feet on the outside, more aggressive then a post. Both are streak shooters. And If Phil can Deal with Rodman, Artest is a walk in the park.

[NJnetskiddParticipant]

simply because he is the perfect player to matchup against LeBron. Ron is one of the only players in the league strong enough and quick enough to bang bodys with the King without getting worn out by the end of the first half. The Cav’s have no one who can guard Kobe w/ the exception of LeBron, but thats asking alot to face a former defensive player of the year and then turn around an guard best scorer in the league. Against the Magic he could easily shut down Rashard while Kobe guards Vince, and Gasol/Bynum can alternate guarding Dwight. The same can be said for any other target Pierce Jefferson, Melo ect.

[Ace Da RenegadeParticipant]

werd one of my teams are da rockets and wen dey lost artest it wuz like damn, but dont get me wrong Ariza iz solid but not better den artest. i think da lakers are betta now den b4 offensively and defensively.

[Meditated StatesParticipant]

Better overall player. Shoots the three at a higher percentage too. Great team defender and on the ball defender. Will harass the best scorers into poor shooting nights often. Lakers looking like the favorites, but other teams can make other moves to compete with them. They are not running away with it. They won it without looking too impressive last year.

[doubledribblerParticipant]

I think Artest is a headcase in only two situations. When he is surrounded by other headcases and when he is on losing teams. These are two things the Lakers won’t have to worry about. The only thing that I am worried about is that Kobe in Artest might potentially get into some altercations. If you look at how their team was built the past few years, it has been built exclusively around Kobe. He has a bunch of guys who are all around him that are willing to defer to him. I am not saying that Ron won’t do that, but by the same token, sometimes the ball sticks in his hands on offense and sometimes he goes out and wants to do his own thing on the offensive end. I can see Kobe getting pissed about that.

Regardless, Ron plays defense like few others in the league. He plays extremely hard and plays both ends of the floor very well. He’s an excellent 3 point shooter on top of it. Plus it looks like they are getting him for the mid-level exception. 20 point scorer, lock down physical defender for a little less than 6 million a year. He basically said that the Rockets messed up with contract negotiations and only offered him one year. I think they don’t know what to do now that Yao is hurt, but that also makes sense why they were trying to trade Battier recently.

Right now I would say the biggest thing that needs to be done is to sign Odom back. If they can do that, then they should be competing at the top for the next few more years. If their bench comes back to life like they were the year before last, then this team is going to be ridiculous to try and beat.

So yeah, I like Jefferson, but hands down Artest is the better pickup. I wonder if San Antonio would have considered signing Artest though, especially at that price.

[gatorheelsParticipant]

I gotta agree with the majority here….Artest is the better player. Huge pickup for the Lakers

[JNixonParticipant]

Who does Trevor Ariza think he is? He is a mid-level player and wants more than the exception, tisk tisk. Artest will make a huge impact, even though he’s a trader. Kobe was disrespecting him the whole playoffs, and he signs with them lol…Guess if you cant beat em join em.

[OldSkoolBasketballParticipant]

Some idiot thought Ariza was better than Hedo. Only reason Ariza played so well was he had a good team with him. He isn’t worth what the Rockets are giving him.

[gatorheelsParticipant]

I agree…I think the Rockets shouldve just saved their money or at least signed somebody different.

[sheltwon3Participant]

Jefferson was a bigger pick up because it made Spurs a relevant team. Lakers pretty much trade Ariza for Artest so it is not like it was a full addition because they lost some things as well but i do believe that Artest will be a better fit than Ariza was.

[gregoden08Participant]

Artest EASILY. Artest used to be one of the top-10 best players in the NBA before he kind of fell of the map. Jefferson is just one of those players who will never get recognition because his stats aren’t good enough to be an all-star and his team is not good…It’s not like he makes them much better.

[Stanford hoopsParticipant]

id say lakers and even with other teams getting free agaents they still cant match up wit the lakers you gotta understand artest is a all star talent both offense and defense he can replace everything that ariza replaces plus add more..he is a good enough shooter to hit wide open threes like ariza and gives kobe more of a rest since he will be guarding the best guards, small foward….ariza/his agent for got what he was (as kalheard said) ..on top of all this we got artest for less money which we can use to not only resign odom but also give shannon brown the raise he deserves…and tru the lakers didnt look very impressive early in the playoffs but if bynum( big if considering the last 2 years) is healthy and artest brings toughness which rubs off on teammates, this will be a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong season for the rest of the west

[auberParticipant]

This is not even close, Ron Artest hands down

[OldSkoolBasketballParticipant]

When was Artest a top ten player? I don’t remember.

[maravich44Participant]

No contest. Artest is the better player. He comes with baggage, but Phil Jackson will deal with him. The champion Lakers just got better. No automatic repeat, but the title goes thru the Lakers.

[Stanford hoopsParticipant]

the year that the fight happened..he was one of the top three for mvp that year

[OldSkoolBasketballParticipant]

??? He played 7 games that year and he was consider top 3? Wtf

[Stanford hoopsParticipant]

maybe it was that year then..one of the years he was in the mvp race…as well as being top 5 because of his offense and defense..

[Stanford hoopsParticipant]

but back to the post subject yeah i think this pick up works wonders for the lack show..though the jefferson trade helped the spurs jump a couple teams

[tuck243Participant]

I wrote a forum about this, but Artest hands-down… You might consider him the best 1-on-1 defender of all-time because he has the hand-checking against him and still lock-up cats… Honestly I don’t know how the Lakers DON’T repeat unless someone gets injured… And Lets face it ARIZA is OVERRATED like hell…

[imfatanduglythe2nd]

neither. who gets Gerald Green will be the biggest winner.

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