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The NBA champion L.A.Lakers made a bold move recently with the acquisition of Ron Artest, but how does this move fit in the bigger scheme of things? Also, coming off their recent championship victory, the Lakers had all the right pieces in place. So, why did they break up their roster and essentially trade up-and-comer, Trevor Ariza for hot headed and unpredictable, Ron Artest?
To answer these questions, you have to look beyond the Lakers and take a glance at the whole league. The NBA champion Lakers are now the hottest target in the NBA. To take down the Lakers, all the contenders in the NBA have been stock piling talent. The Spurs acquisition of Jefferson, Cavs of Shaq, Celtics of Sheed are just a few of the many transactions that have taken place in the NBA by teams eyeing to take down the Lakers.
So, as a counter move the Lakers simply took care of their only glaring weakness, toughness. Ron Artest might be crazy, unpredictable, and hotheaded among other things but one thing he is not is soft. Artest will bring much needed toughness to the Lakers squad. Even after winning the championship last year, there were often questions about the Lakers toughness. They got pounded several times throughout the season including in the second round, where they seemingly had no answer for Denver’s Carmello Anthony during the first 4 games of the series. Luckily for them they were far more talented than anyone else in the playoffs and were able to win based solely on their talent. Now with teams adding more talent to match the Lakers, L.A. needed to shake things up a bit and what better way than to add arguably the best free agent in the NBA. Artest is a career 16 point and 5 rebound guy who shoots close to 35% beyond the arc. On top of that he is a strong bodied guy who can guard the best in the league from Mello, to Pierce, to James. Looking at all that he brings to the table, you couldn’t ask for a better starting small forward for the Lakers. However, one of the knocks on Artest is that he has the tendency to hold on to the ball and take bad shots. That might have been true in the past, but you have got to look at who he is playing with now. There is no way Kobe and Phil will allow Artest to stray away from the triangle offense. Kobe and Phil are two no-nonsense guys that will keep Artest is check which is exactly the kind of influence Artest needs to prosper. Even with the potential problems Artest brings to the triangle offense, one thing people are overlooking is what the Lakers will look like on the defensive end. Opponents will have a hell of time trying to score on the Lakers as they will have to go through two of the toughest perimeter defenders in the league in Kobe and Artest. Then if they make it past them they will have to finish around a bunch of 7 footers. That is not an easy task for anyone in the NBA. Artest might have his share of problems but no one can argue against the potential he brings to the table. If Artest and the Lakers are able to mesh, look for them to add another banner to their collection become one of the best teams to ever play in the NBA.
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