The Rockets have ascended to elite status in the western conference. There pending acquisition of the leagues preeminent bad boy Ron Artrest allows Houston to go to toe-to-toe with the likes of the Lakers, Spurs, Suns & Jazz. The much maligned Artest gives Houston a new look at both ends of the court. An outstanding perimeter defender, Artest allows the Rockets to throw out long, pesky line ups with Ming, Battier, McGrady and of course Artest. On the offensive of end Artest takes some of the pressure off McGrady to instigate the offense, something that has been a problem in the playoffs.
Of course the whole thing could blow in their faces if Ron Artest does his best Ron Artest imitation. But the Rockets have a couple of things working in their favor. Artest only has one year left on his deal meaning he will not be a long term drain on their fortunes if problem persist. Also, Artest is playing for a big pay day something he has somehow managed to avoid thus far in star crossed NBA career. Finally, aside from Artest Houston is a relatively vanilla team. Its not like Ron-Ron is going to the 2002 Portland Trailblazers. If there was ever a situation to put Artest in, this it it.
In the Artest deal Sacramento nets promising young F Donte' Green, a 2009 1st round pick and a salary filler in G Bobby Jackson. Moving Artest signals that the Kings are in full blown rebuilding mode. Green joins this years 1st rounder Jason Thompson along with C Spencer Hawes and scoring machine Kevin Martin as the Kings chief building blocks.
All things being equal, the Kings failed to get anything resembling full value for Artest. The bright side if you can call it that is that they will have a lot of lottery balls to land a potential impact guy in the 2009 NBA Draft.
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