More Roy praise from Artest

[Rastapopoulos]

Albeit indirect:

His teammates say he grew into the role when Tracy McGrady suffered a season-ending injury and he knew they were counting on him to help replace T-Mac offensively. He learned to be patient with his shots and to think team first, rather than shot first. As a result, he became a wiser player, something he regrets that it's taken 10 years to do.

"I wish I would have matured as fast as guys like LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Brandon Roy," he said. "When I got a little college fame, got into the NBA, I veered to the left and wasn't focused on team so much, was focused on myself. It took me 10 years, unfortunately took me so long for me to understand that."

Nice company.

Notice, however, that it was Battier who guarded Bryant for the most part. I'd still much rather have Battier than Artest.

 

[andalusian]

Artest is a better player than Battier - because his offense is so much more versatile. But - the question comes down to - can you trust him going forward to stay out of trouble or not? This is not a problem with Battier.

 

[OddEnormous]

On 570am here in Larz Angeleez they made a commercial using Artest's comments about BR7 to hype the Lakers series.

Basically they play the Artest's comments and then the voice over says summat to the effect of "Oh no he did not just say that"


Oh yes he did you cunts.

 

[Tince]

Will we ever see a day where Brandon Roy missing 19 shots in one game?

 

[Wizard Mentor]

"I wish I would have matured as fast as guys like LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Brandon Roy," he said. "When I got a little college fame, got into the NBA, I veered to the left and wasn't focused on team so much, was focused on myself. It took me 10 years, unfortunately took me so long for me to understand that."

What's cool is that it is usually Carmelo Anthony listed with those other two players. So, Roy has replaced Anthony, at least in Ron Artest's mind.

 

[KingSpeed]

I really loving Ron Artest lately. I would love to have him on our team. Can we realistically get him?

 

[Nikolokolus]

I really loving Ron Artest lately. I would love to have him on our team. Can we realistically get him?

Sure. Anything is 'realistic' if you have the capspace, the trouble is I'm increasingly worried that KP might have fallen too in love with his players. The comments about Outlaw and Blake yesterday on Courtside and in the paper last week perked my ears up -- calling Steve "Blakey" and suggesting that Travis has lots of room for further development -- I'm guessing we end up keeping both guys and only have about 6-8 million in cap space this summer which would not be enough IMO. But, yeah Artest does look tempting.

BTW, Does anybody else have this sick feeling the pit of their stomach that KP is going to sit on his hands this summer, at most doing a couple of minor deals to fill the end of the bench and maybe just adding a backup power foward?

 

[donkiez]

I think Ron Ron is planting the seeds to try and become a Blazer next year. Personally Im torn on the idea, he has skillz and has been doing well lately, but he's still kinda crazy.

 

[PapaG]

Sure. Anything is 'realistic' if you have the capspace, the trouble is I'm increasingly worried that KP might have fallen too in love with his players. The comments about Outlaw and Blake yesterday on Courtside and in the paper last week perked my ears up -- calling Steve "Blakey" and suggesting that Travis has lots of room for further development -- I'm guessing we end up keeping both guys and only have about 6-8 million in cap space this summer which would not be enough IMO. But, yeah Artest does look tempting.

BTW, Does anybody else have this sick feeling the pit of their stomach that KP is going to sit on his hands this summer, at most doing a couple of minor deals to fill the end of the bench and maybe just adding a backup power foward?

I wouldn't mind that much at all. The team won 54 games and lost in 6 games to a Houston team playing perhaps the best ball in the league outside of Cleveland right now.

 

[andalusian]

Sure. Anything is 'realistic' if you have the capspace, the trouble is I'm increasingly worried that KP might have fallen too in love with his players. The comments about Outlaw and Blake yesterday on Courtside and in the paper last week perked my ears up -- calling Steve "Blakey" and suggesting that Travis has lots of room for further development -- I'm guessing we end up keeping both guys and only have about 6-8 million in cap space this summer which would not be enough IMO. But, yeah Artest does look tempting.

BTW, Does anybody else have this sick feeling the pit of their stomach that KP is going to sit on his hands this summer, at most doing a couple of minor deals to fill the end of the bench and maybe just adding a backup power foward?

I think KP knows something has to be done - there will be a minute crunch at the SF position and we can use an upgrade at backup PG and a banger PF.

If KP really believes that Bayless is a long-term solution at the PG - I will not be surprised if the only change we make is ship Sergio out of town and let JB take the backup PG minutes. I was never Blake's greatest fan - but while we can use an upgrade in the starting PG position - I do not share the belief that it is as critical as some of you seem to. Even the problem of dealing with quick PGs might be less of one if only JB is the designated backup PG and plays longer minutes when Blake can not contain one of these super-quick PGs like Brooks. Let's face it - having ruled JB out of the rotation for the playoffs - Nate basically had no answer on Brooks because no matter how bad Blake looked against him - Sergio was going to be worse...

Let's also remember that even if we lose our cap-space on a minor upgrade or a backup PF - having all these young, cheap and promising talent still allows us to improve as time goes on with trades - it is a real shame that Webster was out all of this year - because we could not really see how he fits with the core that is going forward...

This team has grown a lot this year - the need for veteran help is nowhere near as high as it was earlier in the year. Quite frankly - if Greg Oden does not improve any facet of his game other than being able to play 33MPG instead of 22 - this team will take a big step forward...

 

[RR7]

A little more towards the end, again lumping him in with Wade and Lebron:

Brandon Roy ... that comment was made because I really enjoy watching young fellas in the NBA," Artest said. "And I really enjoy just how talented they are. I mean, I'm 29, these guys come in, LeBron came in, I guess he's five years younger than me, these guys are coming in getting MVPs, playing great and leading their teams. I look up to that. I'm finished looking up to Kobe. That was a couple of years ago. There's young guys in there to look up to now. Like Brandon Roys and LeBron Jameses and Dwyane Wades, you know? O.J. Mayos ... I would like to give those guys all the confidence in the world, I want to see them do well."

 

[Natebishop3]

Sure. Anything is 'realistic' if you have the capspace, the trouble is I'm increasingly worried that KP might have fallen too in love with his players. The comments about Outlaw and Blake yesterday on Courtside and in the paper last week perked my ears up -- calling Steve "Blakey" and suggesting that Travis has lots of room for further development -- I'm guessing we end up keeping both guys and only have about 6-8 million in cap space this summer which would not be enough IMO. But, yeah Artest does look tempting.

BTW, Does anybody else have this sick feeling the pit of their stomach that KP is going to sit on his hands this summer, at most doing a couple of minor deals to fill the end of the bench and maybe just adding a backup power foward?

I have felt that way since the trade deadline. If Pritchard does nothing this summer, I will be severely disappointed.

 

[Nikolokolus]

I have felt that way since the trade deadline. If Pritchard does nothing this summer, I will be severely disappointed.

Maybe I'm just still reacting to Barrett from the last segment on Courtside the other night; I know he's supposedly 'close' with KP and I wonder if his incessant "everybody stays" approach comes from his talks with Pritchard or if it's just his own inclination. God knows that if MB had his way the roster would be set at 30, with draft picks loaded 4 deep at every position.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Maybe I'm just still reacting to Barrett from the last segment on Courtside the other night; I know he's supposedly 'close' with KP and I wonder if his incessant "everybody stays" approach comes from his talks with Pritchard or if it's just his own inclination. God knows that if MB had his way the roster would be set at 30, with draft picks loaded 4 deep at every position.

We're still waiting on the consolidation trade - it should have come already.