RSS
Home
Lakers make significant upgrade with Artest; Rockets back to square one
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
Ron Artest and Derek Fisher will be on the same side.
So Ron Artest is heading to Los Angeles.
The move makes a lot of sense for the Lakers. Artest provides the one thing they were desperately missing -- toughness.
If the Lakers get the player the Rockets had, they are considerable favorites to win the title again.
If they get they get a pouting Artest, it could be a real problem, especially meshing with the petulant Kobe Bryant. Bryant's juvenile acts won't play well with Artest, and Artest's need to get the basketball won't go over well with Bryant, either.
But Artest will bring defense, attitude, and hunger to the Lakers, and that should be enough to get past the Spurs in the West.
Artest was a model citizen -- at least on the court -- for the Rockets.Behind the scenes? Not so much. But they were a better team because of him.
As for the Rockets. they are pretty much back to plan B. The window on the team that pushed the Lakers to seven games is officially closed. It was a team built around Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest. With Yao and McGrady essentially gone and Artest officially gone, the Rockets are officially in rebuilding mode.
They are reportedly talking to Trevor Ariza, who would be a mistake. Ariza is an overrated player who benefited from Phil Jackson's system. He will be overpaid, and is unlikely to be effective elsewhere.
As we mentioned earlier, they are also in the running for Marcin Gortat.
Regardless, the Rockets have taken a couple of big blows in the past few weeks. GM Daryl Morey knows what he is doing, however. There will be a bold move at some point that gets the Rockets back on the map.
Right now, they are a long way from the team that beat the Blazers and took the Lakers to seven.
And the Lakers just got a lot better.
