I was hanging with some old school Lakers fans in Southern California this past weekend and heard Ron Artest is headed to LA.
Also heard today that Boston has Rasheed Wallace. Did the Celtics make a trade for him? I don\'t feel like doing ESPN research when you guys have the answers readily available. Did Rondo end up staying or leaving? TIA
Artest signed for three years. Wallace was a free agent pick up. Not sure about Artest as a Laker, great player (esp. defensively), but his \'tude doesn\'t fit the purple and gold imo. I think Wallace to the Celtics is a great fit though. If everyone stays healthy they\'re going to be so tough to beat in a 7-game series.
i\'m still bitter about artest in, ariza out.
i know artest is a great player, better/more proven than ariza, yadda yadda, but what a fuckin\' tough guy to root for.
and the lakers don\'t win a championship without ariza this year. no way. so that irks me. he saved their ass a LOT in the playoffs.
but unfortunately, we don\'t have control over these things, so i\'ll just hope that artest becomes a fantastic laker, and hope for the best for ariza, except when he plays against the lakers.
Any other teams beefing up via trades?
Gordo, did I hear that Gordon is out of Chicago?
i\'m still bitter about artest in, ariza out.
I forgot about the Ariza part of the equation. I know Artest has a history of shuffling around the league & bouncing off every year or so whereas Ariza could have been an anchored Laker. Either way, can\'t wait to see how this turns out. Artest would probably be serving a life sentence somewhere if not for the NBA.
I\'d love to get to cheer for Artest. dude is solid gold. luckily we\'ll have SHEED which in itself makes the Celtics the most gangsta team in the history of professional sports.
i\'m still bitter about artest in, ariza out.
i know artest is a great player, better/more proven than ariza, yadda yadda, but what a fuckin\' tough guy to root for.
and the lakers don\'t win a championship without ariza this year. no way. so that irks me. he saved their ass a LOT in the playoffs.
but unfortunately, we don\'t have control over these things, so i\'ll just hope that artest becomes a fantastic laker, and hope for the best for ariza, except when he plays against the lakers.
If they had lost Ariza w/o getting Artest I would be right there with you.
However w/ Artest and Bryant The Lakers now have the best defensive backcourt in the league.
Finally The Lakers have a player that will not be lazy on Defense and will not allow his teammates to do so either.
Artest is a beast on defense and no slouch in the scoring deptarment.
Ariza was a major cog in the the recent Championship yes but L.O. is way more important to sign and Artest is a proven player.
As for his wild ways, that is no problem for Phil and his staff.
The Lakers Front Office did what they needed to do to give the team the best chance to repeat as NBA Champions.
Gordo, did I hear that Gordon is out of Chicago?
Gordon went to Detroit. I\'m okay with that. Although he was our only stone-cold scorer, you can only watch so many 30+ point games w/ZERO assists and a counterpart also dumping in 30+. I\'m really gearing up for the free agency summer of 2010. There\'s gonna\' be some crazy
**** going down with the list of superstars open for business. My hope is that the Bulls pool up their money they freed up with Gordon, get rid of a couple players after next season (esp LUOL DENG\'s overrated
**** ass) to pocket more spending dough, and lock up Dwyane Wade. The Chicago bred backcourt of Wade and Rose would be unstoppable, and the frontcourt would have to start falling into place within a couple of years. Look out for Noah to improve drastically too. He\'s serious about basketball now, and his last 2-3 months of this season were very strong. And I like the fact that he\'s hated by opponent cities.
Noah looks like a rat.
Totally forgot about the Shaq-Lebron deal till someone mentioned it at a dinner last night.
I\'d love to get to cheer for Artest. dude is solid gold. luckily we\'ll have SHEED which in itself makes the Celtics the most gangsta team in the history of professional sports.
Sheed is a GREAT pick up. Grant Hill is on the way too.
As for the Lakers fans I think you\'ll like Artest. He\'s the Rodman to Kobe\'s MJ. He\'ll be on best behavior. The Celtics proved this with Marbury. (though his game was lacking he was a boy scout in Boston) There\'s nothing like an established core of stars with shiny new championship rings on their fingers to keep a knucklehead in line.
4 teams stand out as contenders.
Celtics- With Rondo\'s improvement and Rasheed Wallace on board the Big 3 is now the Big 5.
Cavs- Shaq only needs to play 20 minutes a game. He\'s still dangerous as 2nd or 3rd option. Not to mention they still have Ilgauskas who could really dominate another team\'s back ups
Lakers- Odom is a moron if he doesn\'t re-sign
Spurs- Jefferson is everything Michael Finley used to be when SA was dominating.
I think Denver caught lightening in a bottle last year, and will be hard pressed to get the same quality of play out of everyone.
Orlando was better with Hedo than they are with Vince. Not to mention Howard beat the C\'s last year w/o Garnett. Now he may have to deal with KG AND Rasheed.
The power houses all got better. It\'s going to be a fun season in the NBA.
Celtics- With Rondo\'s improvement and Rasheed Wallace on board the Big 3 is now the Big 5
does this mean Rondo locked up a deal? (i don\'t really follow a lot of sports news)
Celtics- With Rondo\'s improvement and Rasheed Wallace on board the Big 3 is now the Big 5
does this mean Rondo locked up a deal? (i don\'t really follow a lot of sports news)
Rondo is not a free agent. There were trade rumors, but none that made any sense from the C\'s pov.
The Celtic\'s FA\'s are Mikki Moore and Marbury (who cares?) Leon Powe (Wallace has his old minutes and then some) and Glen Davis (restricted free agent) who I hope they can resign.
I\'d love to get to cheer for Artest. dude is solid gold. luckily we\'ll have SHEED which in itself makes the Celtics the most gangsta team in the history of professional sports.
Sheed is a GREAT pick up. Grant Hill is on the way too.
As for the Lakers fans I think you\'ll like Artest. He\'s the Rodman to Kobe\'s MJ. He\'ll be on best behavior. The Celtics proved this with Marbury. (though his game was lacking he was a boy scout in Boston) There\'s nothing like an established core of stars with shiny new championship rings on their fingers to keep a knucklehead in line.
4 teams stand out as contenders.
Celtics- With Rondo\'s improvement and Rasheed Wallace on board the Big 3 is now the Big 5.
Cavs- Shaq only needs to play 20 minutes a game. He\'s still dangerous as 2nd or 3rd option. Not to mention they still have Ilgauskas who could really dominate another team\'s back ups
Lakers- Odom is a moron if he doesn\'t re-sign
Spurs- Jefferson is everything Michael Finley used to be when SA was dominating.
I think Denver caught lightening in a bottle last year, and will be hard pressed to get the same quality of play out of everyone.
Orlando was better with Hedo than they are with Vince. Not to mention Howard beat the C\'s last year w/o Garnett. Now he may have to deal with KG AND Rasheed.
The power houses all got better. It\'s going to be a fun season in the NBA.
Great post man. Very hard to disagree with anything here. I\'ve been swayed with Artest\'s signing in the past 24 hours, and I think you might prove to be on point with said reason.
i hate the lakers. that being said, you guys are crazy. the lakers are 5 times better then they were last year because artest is 5 times the player ariza is or ever will be. my celts are looking good if everyone can stay healthy. cavs got stronger. orlando got stronger. mavs got stronger. should be a great year for basketball
still waiting on Boozer............
Lakers start off with a bunch of home games which should give them a nice cushion in what will be a tough Conference this year.
Boston still sucks and their fans will be disappointed 2 years in a row. It\'s gonna be awesome.