yup. The knock you’ll constently hear on Artest (besides the “he’s crazy” thing) is, “he’s over dribbling” and “he taking bad shots”

I’m hoping against hope he takes a role that makes him 100% maniac defender who plays within the offense and hits all those open shots he’s bound to get.

Ariza was a bad/mediocre shooter last year. He shot something like 31% from the 3pt line. Artest is a good shooter. He should get those same looks and make around 40% imo. He’ll get some touches in the post backing up Kobe at the 2 (Sasha who?) and if he plays his role he should put up 14ppg.

I hope that satisfies him. It should. The name of the game is winning and he’ll do his best to help the team win by contributing what’s needed of him not by over dribbling and over shooting.

I think he knows this.

I’m a die hard Lakers fan. I watch the pre-season games with my nose on the screen. I throw things (like glass bottles) at the TV when they are playing bad. My family sadly has to deal with me living vicariously thru the team and with that I have no problem saying the Lakers were KILLED in the 2008 Finals.

Game 4 was horrible. No team had ever given up a bigger lead to lose a Finals game and it was a HUGE game to lose.

Game 6 was even worse. No team had ever been beaten worse in a Finals deciding game. It was a lose of epic proportions. It was atrocious. It was disgusting. It was embarrassing. Game 6 was the worse Lakers loss I ever had the horror of seeing with my own eyes and I imagine it was probably equal to whatever happened pre-1970 in terms of bad losses.

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anyway, Go LAKERS! I hope to see this line-up at least a little. Maybe even during pre season.

Bynum
Gasol
Artest
Kobe
Odom

PLEASE Phil. They can play it against the Mavs. I know that.

Aside from typing in all caps (a blog comment no-no as you’ve already seen), you do bring up something that made me cringe- You take the phrase “pretty much blown away” and turn it into “swept” or “got killed.”

Re-watch the finals against Boston- the Lakers WERE pretty much blown away. Losing huge leads, getting absolutely blown away in the final game, etc. I’m a huge Laker fan and I can admit it was a shellacking dealt by the Celtics that year. Why so bitter?

Back to the post: It’s a shame Phil mentioned that Trevor Ariza didn’t need plays drawn up for him to be happy with his contributions and failed to mention how he felt Ron Artest would feel in that regard. To be honest, it’s one of my chief concerns with him being on the team- he’s not a ball hog; he’s an attention hog (see everything he’s done this off-season for proof). Sure he’ll get some acclaim as an excellent defender (especially on the Lakers which provide much more exposure for him) but will it be enough? 2 or 3 steals a game and holding a leading scorer under 15 points is great and all but it won’t jump out at you on the box score. Will the entertainer and showman in Artest be content with not being the flashiest player on the team?

PAY ATTENTION TO HIM!!!