Ron...PF Starter?

[tisbee]

Part of the discussion about Ron is he coud start at the PF for the Rockets. Could he,really?
The advantages are:
Keeps Battier's 3pt shooting on the court,
Puts the team's best defenders on the court,
Adds Scola's scoring to otherwise offensively challenged reserve bigs,
Creates possible match-up problems for other teams forcing them to go small whether they want to or not.

The disadvantages I see are:
Rebounding. The Grizz and Rox tried Battier at PF and failed. Not so much because the bigger players overpowered Shane but simply the other team dominated the boards. Shane is not a rebounder. While Artest is certainly stronger,he is not a particulary good rebounder either. Last yr he ave'd less than a rebound a game more than Shane-or McGrady. To avoid getting killed on the glass the Rockets will have to keep everybody in to rebound,making fast breaks that much more difficut.

Offense. While the thought of Ron taking some PF out away from the basket and driving past him has a nice appeal,reality may offer up a different vision. Namely,Ron is not the best decision-maker/passer on the move. One of his strengths is in posting up as he can over-power most 2/3s. Not so w/PFs. And we're basically talking about Ron going 1-on-1,Tracy going 1-on-1,dumping it in to Yao and watching him go 1-on-1,all of which has the rest of the team standing around,which is NOT what Adelman wants out of his offense. Not to mention other teams may simply tell their PF to "guard" Battier,as he does not exactly stay in motion on offense.

Weak-side defensive help. W/Ron at the 4,smart teams would relentlessly attack the basket,trying to get Yao in foul trouble,knowing that there woud be no other shot blockers to worry about.

My view is the Rockets would give up too much rebounding and not gain enough offensively w/Ron starting at the 4. I think Adelman will prefer to keep a standard starting line-up and make in-game adjustments to teams where Ron coud get significant minutes at the 4. so i think he either starts at the 3,or is the 6th man-not the starting PF. My opinion,what's yours?

West C/PF combos-
Spurs......Oberto/Duncan
Hornets..Chandler/West
Mavs.......Dampier/Dirk
Memphis..Like it matters
Lakers.....Bynum/Gasol
Suns.......Shaq/Amare
Warriors..Biedrins/Cast of thousands
Clippers..Kaman/Camby
Kings.....Warm Body1/Warm Body2
Jazz......Okur/Boozer
Blazers..Oden/Aldridge
Nuggets..Overpaid injury waiting to happen1/Even more overpaid injury in waiting2
Wolves...Jefferson/Sidekick to be named
Thunder..Wilcox/Lucky fan in first "hey he couldn't do any worse and we won't have to pay him"

[BaYBaller]

It's hard to say how well Artest can rebound at the PF spot as he's never seen serious time there. And considering who we have at that position (Scola = unathletic, Landry = undersized but athletic, and Hayes = very undersized but strong) I don't think rebounding will be a big issue if Artest does get playing time there.

Artest's greatest asset (to this team) is his offense. We already get good production out of our PF rotation (high efficiency, good rebounding, and good offensive production considering the number of touches). Our PFs simply aren't going to get a lot of touches because of Yao. Artest's offensive talents will be better utilized at the SF position and will be a huge upgrade offensively from Battier. Artest's strength is also more his slashing ability than his post-up game (which isn't all that great, he just can do it at times because he is very big @ SF).

That said I'd be very, very surprised if Artest is not starting (at least by season's end) at the 3 and getting his remaining minutes at the 2. If he plays anything at the 4 it'll probably only be spot minutes.

[ShaY]

Artest will only get very few minutes at the 4 imo.

But if we play the Jazz again in the playoffs I like this lineup to finish the game:
Barry on Brewer
Mcgrady on Deron Williams
Battier on Kirilenko
Artest on Okur
Yao on Boozer

[G-Heel]

I think Artest will see plenty of times at PF if Landry doesn't resign. If the core of Scola/Landry stays intact, then I see no point giving Artest a large amount of time at PF.

[BlueLancerEvo]

Starter, No. Never.

yao,
scola,
battier,
tmac,
rafer will start the season.

when Yao goes rest or is in early foul trouble, scola slides to C , Landry comes off the bench, ron off the bench for batman,and tmac stay in with rafer and we'll Run n Gun .

Scola (or hayes or dorsey depending)
Landry
Ron
tmac
Rafer to push the ball. (alley oops to landry / ron/ tmac/ dorsey ! and this would be a good defensive squad as well..

THen when yao comes back, Ron slides to PF , Battier guards the best perimeter guy, tmac starts moving without the ball and Barry initiates the half course play and so artest and yao could both post up both sides of the blocks. barry/battier will bury the three while a pass to a cutting Tmac would likely result in a dunk or and 1.

then the all star break happens and we have more chemistry, more defined roles and we can see a)if steve can contribute b)what injuries we have to deal with and c)figuring out the best starting line up/bench combination which i believe will be :

Yao
Scola
ROn
Tmac
Francis** (maybe even brooks, serious)

WHen yao and tmac both sit if we are in a comfortable lead and resting i'd love to see as our second unit..

Scola
Leunen
Ron
Barry
Francis**(or strawberry/brooks depending on matchup of course)

Our fourth quarter lineup willl definitely depend on the score. iF we're behind, obviously we go with the starters and try to find the hot hand, replace brooks/francis for rafer is hes suxxing .. however if we have a comfy 20 point lead i'd say ..

DOrsey
Leunen
Battier
aartest
strawberry.

This team will never score, u say? The offensive rebounds from dorsey and hayes and artest will be wild.. not to mention artest can still post up and battier/leunen will wet the 3 if they double him. strawberry will make it difficult to penetrate our interior which will already have hayes and battier taking charges while dorsey will come for the weakside block. Dont underestimate Leunens rebounding ability either.

Yao Okur
Scola Boozer
battier Korver
Tmac Kirilenko
Francis Deron
Scola Brewer



Muahahahahahahahaahahahaha.

[McGrady2Head]

this is the worst thread ever. We have ron artest now, who cares about battiers 3 point shooting lol. he averaged like 8 pts a game, he didnt hit that many. battier just needs to come off the bench, play his 25 min. of playing time with unbelievable defense, hit one 3, and ride artest, tmac, and yao to the title

[b-ballwizard]

Keep the same starting lineup as last year. Make Artest the 6th man ala Manu Ginobili.

[tha_rock220]

this is the worst thread ever. We have ron artest now, who cares about battiers 3 point shooting lol. he averaged like 8 pts a game, he didnt hit that many. battier just needs to come off the bench, play his 25 min. of playing time with unbelievable defense, hit one 3, and ride artest, tmac, and yao to the title

In case you didn't know, the NBA players lost in the Olympics in 2004 because they sent 12 and 8 guys who were completely useless without the ball in their hands. You need players who can keep defense honest.

[iamworthy]

its gonna be hard to keep ron-ron under control if Houston makes him a six man considering he's in a contract year. he's gonna want to start.

[kwelis fiasco]

ron cant start pf. hes notta good enough rebounder to grab boards over 6'10+ guys on a nightly basis. then he has to guard them, and he has had injury problems. we should use him at pf but not always, specially in the west. in the east it would work mos definently.

[mackzone]

its gonna be hard to keep ron-ron under control if Houston makes him a six man considering he's in a contract year. he's gonna want to start.

ron already said that he would not have any problems doing the sixt man. anyway, the fact that he's in a contract year is what guarantees that he won't do nothing against the decisions of the coach. if he does anything idiot, he loses any chance to have a high contract next year, it's really simple

[moofs]

Still can't see him regularly starting, though spot minutes (and possibly spot starts) are not out of the question.

West C/PF combos-
Spurs......Oberto/Duncan
Hornets..Chandler/West
Mavs.......Dampier/Dirk
Memphis..Like it matters
Lakers.....Bynum/Gasol
Suns.......Shaq/Amare
Warriors..Biedrins/Cast of thousands
Clippers..Kaman/Camby
Kings.....Warm Body1/Warm Body2
Jazz......Okur/Boozer
Blazers..Oden/Aldridge
Nuggets..Overpaid injury waiting to happen1/Even more overpaid injury in waiting2
Wolves...Jefferson/Sidekick to be named
Thunder..Wilcox/Lucky fan in first "hey he couldn't do any worse and we won't have to pay him"