Ariza v Artest for the Lakers

[Baller 24]

Who's a better fit for the Lakers?


I'll start first, and say Trevor Ariza is a better fit than Ron Artest. Being a Rockets fan and watching this dude for the past season + playoffs, it's pretty evident that his defense is wildly overrated in this league. Why?

---He's like Kobe, he lives off of his rep
---His lateral quickness absolutely sucks when given a shot at guarding the opposing teams best offensive player.
---He gets blown away continuously by the opposing team's offensive player due to his disabilites in lateral quickness
---He gambles on defense for steals, which causes the opposing team's offensive player to continuously take advantage of that
---Shane Battier continuously has to switch to the opposing teams best offensive player and bail his ass out, due to the main and following reasons, he's physical, but not physical enough where as he can't stay with the opposing offensive player. He's great against bigger guys that are slow like Pierce, but there's absolutely no chance in hell he's stopping the better more oriented offensive players in this league.
---Check out his games against the Blazers/Nuggets/Heat/Nets/Hawks/Mavericks/Spurs/Magic/Thunder (against Durant), he CONTINUOUSLY gets blown away defensively by the opposing team's best perimter offensive weapon, the lateral quickness is terrible, and like I said, he gambles far too much, remember the Trash Talk game with Kobe? Artest goes for the steal, but Kobe does a turn around for a wide open dagger in his face.

Why is he bad offensively speaking?
---He RUINS the motion offense, as the ball is being passed around
---He thinks he's turned into a great 3 point shooter, which is obviously a joke, he's a chucker, he hardly uses his inside post game and slashing game anymore due to the endless double team opportunities Yao provided. He's incredibly inconsistent.
---He NEEDS his share of shots, he wants touches, he needs the ball to be effective, and he demands the touches.
---Absolutely TERRIBLE shot selection
---And it's not like Ron Artest didn't play for his favorite coach and one of the best offensive minded coaches in the league with Rick Adelman.

The things I loved about Ron was that his personality is a thing that would mesh will with ANY team, his toughness and ability to stand up for his teammates and for himself, not take anything from anyone, be physical at all-times, but those are considered intangibles more than his overall game.

IMHO Ariza was just an athletic version of Shane Battier with slightly less defensive abilities, Ariza doesn't demand shots, he knows his role, he's EASILY a better defender than Ron Artest when guarding the opposing team's best offensive player, he can shoot better with much better shot selection and he brings an athletic game. Ron Artest is a worst fit than many think, and IMHO if people have watched him play this season, they will understand that his defense is HIGHLY overrated and is currently lived off of his rep.

[Mad Balla 15]

I'll definitely have to agree. Ariza is easily a better fit with the Lakers than Artest. Sure Ariza is starting to get a bit overrated but Ron Artest has been overrated for years now. Ron Artest definitely isn't going to be a good fit with the Lakers, especially for all the reasons you listed about his offensive game deficiencies.

[TMACFORMVP]

I definitely think Ariza is the better fit on the Lakers.

As I've strongly pointed out on the GB Board, Artest is overrated defensively, his lack of lateral quickness makes him a liability in isolation situations, he refuses to fight through screens, and gambles far too much, failing more time than succeeding. He's decent against bigger less agile SF's, but against the Brandon Roy's, or the Manu Ginobili's he's a poor option.

On offense he's a ball-stopper, a low percentage shooter with horrible shot selection. Ariza on the other hand knows his role and plays to his strengths instead of trying too much, doing things he knows he can't do. The Lakers will still likely win the championship because of the insane talent they have, but I strongly disagree with anyone claiming the Lakers are now a much better team, when in reality, they're roughly the same, if not "fit" worse. I'm not arguing Ariza is a better player than Artest, but on a stacked team such as the Lakers, Ariza is a much better fit. It's funny, Artest would be a better fit on the Rockets while Ariza would be a better fit on the Lakers.

[DaRkJaWs42]

$ for $ Artest is the better option. He gives LA some strength that it does not have at ALL. If LA has to face either Portland or Cleveland, they could have been asking for trouble, simply for the fact that they had nobody to really defend Lebron and nobody to play tough against a damn good offensive team in portland.

[Baller 24]

Toughness won't stop Portland, Ron continuously got torched by Brandon Roy.

[JordansBulls]

The only teams that could beat LA are San Antonio and Portland. Houston is a long shot unless Yao and Mcgrady come back to top form.

[Baller 24]

The only teams that could beat LA are San Antonio and Portland. Houston is a long shot unless Yao and Mcgrady come back to top form.

What are you talking about? We're not talking about that. It's a question of weather Ariza is a better fit than Artest or not.

[DaRkJaWs42]

Toughness won't stop Portland, Ron continuously got torched by Brandon Roy.

Houston beat a team 4-2, a team that the Lakers did not want to face due to the trouble they had against them in the regular season. Now what does that tell you?

[JordansBulls]

The only teams that could beat LA are San Antonio and Portland. Houston is a long shot unless Yao and Mcgrady come back to top form.

What are you talking about? We're not talking about that. It's a question of weather Ariza is a better fit than Artest or not.

Ariza was the better fit because he could just shoot whenever open. Artest will just force the issue.

[TMU]

They are better off with Ariza. Artest is inefficient without the ball.

[Baller 24]

Houston beat a team 4-2, a team that the Lakers did not want to face due to the trouble they had against them in the regular season. Now what does that tell you?

Artest wasn't the reason the Rockets won that series, his defense was absolutely terrible against the Blazers, IIRC Brandon Roy torched him for over 40 points in Game 2, here were his final averages:
.459FG .4713PT .870FT 26.7PPG 4.8APG 2.8RPG

Overrated defender.

[Speedlot]

Artest cost less. Ariza at 9 million is stupido.

Artest shot the three last year at 40%.
Ariza at a despicable 32%.

He's a bruiser as well, something lakers are always criticized for.
Robery Horrying steve nash... Artest could fill that role.

Ariza gives 24mins/game. Artest is 35mins/game

Artest does have muy stupido tendencies to chuck though. But with Kobe and Sasha doing the chucking, i expect artest's numbers to become 45% this year.

[Speedlot]

The only teams that could beat LA are San Antonio and Portland. Houston is a long shot unless Yao and Mcgrady come back to top form.

What are you talking about? We're not talking about that. It's a question of weather Ariza is a better fit than Artest or not.

Ariza was the better fit because he could just shoot whenever open. Artest will just force the issue.

Most of his threes were wide FRIGGEN open. ANd he shot at a 32% rate. What does that tell you. Mr Artest chucks like a moron and still makes it 40% of the time.

[Baller 24]

Artest cost less. Ariza at 9 million is stupido.

That's not the point, it's who the better fit is.

Artest shot the three last year at 40%.
Ariza at a despicable 31%.

Ron's also incredibly inconsistent shooting that 3 ball, he chuks

He's a bruiser as well, something lakers are always criticized for.
Robery Horrying steve nash... Artest could fill that role.

lawlz.

Ariza gives 24mins/game. Artest is 35mins/game

That could turn out to be a terrible deal, considering Ron's ineffective when the ball isn't in his hands, and considering he continuously ruins the motion offense basketball system. And his overrated defense, where Ariza is MUCH better in, if the Lakers are counting on Ron to guard the opposing teams best offensive player, that's a joke, have fun with that, considering he gets blown by.

Artest does have muy stupido tendencies to chuck though. But with Kobe and Sasha doing the chucking, i expect artest's numbers to become 45% this year.

LMAO @ 45%, considering he only shot that once in his entire career, that's frankly pure comedy for me. Ron shot 45% and 44% with the Kings, but he continuously used his post game and slashing abilities, now that Ron is the one getting the double teamed passes, he's a chucker at will.

[Baller 24]

Most of his threes were wide FRIGGEN open. ANd he shot at a 32% rate. What does that tell you. Mr Artest chucks like a moron and still makes it 40% of the time.

Playoffs:

Ron-Ron
.394FG% .2773PT% 15.6PTS 4.3REB 4.2AST

Trevor
.497FG% .476 3PT% 11.3PTS 4.2REB 2.3AST

Also if you check out Ron's game log throughout the season, he'd have games where he'd shoot 1-8 or 1-10, 2-9, 16%/22%/30%/000%, BUT he'd randomly have games where he'd shoot 73% or 67% from 3 point mark which extremely overrate his numbers. He's a chucker, he stops the motion offense, and probably one of the most overrated defenders in the league, we've all witnessed this throughout the season.

[kobe24forever]

Ariza is a much better fit than Artest for the lakers imo. Ariza just gets his points of hustle plays and has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Ron needs the ball to be effective and dribbles 10-12 seconds before taking a shot which kills the triangle offense. this is gonna be similar to gary payton in 2004.

[Baller 24]

Ariza is a much better fit than Artest for the lakers imo. Ariza just gets his points of hustle plays and has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Ron needs the ball to be effective and dribbles 10-12 seconds before taking a shot which kills the triangle offense. this is gonna be similar to gary payton in 2004.

This is a true Laker fan here, he knows his team.

[Phil Jackson]

Ariza probably is a better fit. He's not exactly a lockdown defender either but he has a high IQ for the game. Artest may be a better offensive player individually but the last thing the Lakers need is offense and Ariza does have the potential to turn into an all-defensive player.

It doesn't matter though because the Lakers are still going to win the NBA title.

[NetsForce]

Baller 24... Sometimes you try too hard.

Ariza is a bit quicker than Artest but against the Lakers only threat in the league, the Celtics (assuming the Celtics stay 100% healthy for the playoffs), Artest is more useful.

[The MVPlaya]

This is a thread for the other 29 teams in the league to feel good about themselves.

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