Shaq on being with Lebron and on Kobe. My thoughts on Ariza.
Posted by: SPQR on Jul 05, 2009 - 07:03 PM
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Here is a good article in Sports Illustrated from Shaq's perspective on his move to Cleveland, being Lebron's bodyguard and his thoughts on Kobe. It is a nice piece with interesting observations by Shaq.
For those who wish to see what the big man has to say about his new team, teamate, his past championships with LA and Kobe's recent success here is the link, it is good stuff:
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ ... /index.htm
I couldn't find time to really be on here alot when Trevor left for Artest so I will give a few thoughts now for those who are interested.
Funny thing was, I saw two columns in the LA times: one praising the switch of Trevor for Artest, one castigating it.
First off, if I had my druthers we would still have Ariza, not Artest. There are a few reasons. We have already won a ring with Trevor. He knows the system and his place in it. Artest will be a new comodity to a team that had great synergy. Artest sometimes tends to want to shoot alot when he gets the urge, something Trevor did not do. He knew his place. With players like Kobe, Drew, Pau and (hopefully) Lamar on the team, you don't want a player deciding he is going to start to jack up shot after shot like Artest will do from time to time and Trevor never would. Trevor i also younger. Sadly, in three or four years, the Bryant era will end and it would be nice to have Ariza around, not an Artest who also will be leaving the sport. Also, Artest is much more worn goods than Trevor, who's best days are still ahead. Also, Ariza's amazing playoff three point shooting percentage was no small factor in our playoff run. Putting Artests 28 percent in there instead is enough to give one the chills. You always have to worry abit about Artest going off the deep end too. He has been a good soldier lately, but it is always there in the back of ones mind.
All that being said, if we had to lose Ariza, Artest is certainly a very nice replacement. At this stage of his career he is probably a better one on one defender and definatly more physical. He is a tough, enforcer type player, the one thing we have lacked. He is a smart player who can pass and score. He is a star calibure player and no second hand pickup. While losing Trevor hurts, Artest brings his own strengths to us, if not for as long as Ariza would have. The Lakers could have done alot worse than Artest for Ariza.
I read some people casting blame about his departure, especially centering on his agent. I agree with such LTB members as cuckooroller. Trevor is a grown man at 24 and in the end it was his call, not his agents.
I would say this only. If the Lakers wanted him back and did not really want to let him go for Artest, then when things started to go bad, Mitch should have called Trevor in for a face to face and said something along the lines of, "hey, this is getting out of hand. We want you here so lets you and me sit down here and talk about this before this goes to far."
If the Lakers did want to keep him and felt they could and Mitch did not make such a call when things started to spiral, then he carries some blame along with Trevor. If on the other hand the Lakers felt they actually wanted Artest in lieu of Trevor, then things went as they wanted. I doubt we will every really know how this went down or what the Lakers really wanted behind closed doors.
I guess in my perfect world, a few years down the road, when Artest retires and Trevors contract runs up, he may wish to return to his home town and by then we will be able to afford him again. But that is a long way off and who knows what will transpire with free agents and the Lakers when that time comes. Things may be so different by then.
On last thought. I think Orlando losing Turkoglu hurts. Even with the signing of Vince Carter, that guy had real game and was a terrific player for them. It is now apparent that the real Orlando deal was signing Vince and letting Hedo go. It will be interesting to see if Vince is as good a fit as Hedo was on that particular team.
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