I'm not violently opposed to the idea (see Ellis, Monta) but I don't think it makes a lot of sense either. Granted we are so desperate for even league average production at SF that a lot of frogs are going to start looking like princes but when you break this down, Ron Artest is not nearly the defender that he was when he was here before. His freakish combination of strength and quickness is mostly gone at this point and he can still muscle guys around but he's not able to chase them all over the perimeter too anymore. Add to that he's never been a very efficient offensive player. To this point in his career he peaked as a #2 option with us and Indiana, then slid down to being a solid #3 but he's on the tail end of even that type of production. That said, he's still clearly an upgrade over what we've had here and fits one idea of what we want to do (get better on defense) if not the big picture (high character guys, team chemistry, players who are hungry and humble).
The funny thing is, I actually would have been in favor of this idea two weeks ago. Because even if he has been a loose cannon at times, I like hard-nosed players that won't ever back down from anyone. And even if he's not the defensive monster that he once was, his attitude alone on that end is what you want rubbing off on a young team. He'll take more pride in locking you down than in getting his own points. With Evans/Cousins/McLemore in the lineup together you don't need scoring from anyone else in your starting lineup -- you need defense and hustle. Add a defensive specialist at PF too and you're a pretty well-rounded team with three young talents and some veteran presence. But with Tyreke gone you do need someone else to step up and be a go-to scorer. And with Vasquez and Landry expected to play key roles next season, I don't see that Artest's defense is going to make all that much difference. The expected ceiling for that group is so much lower that I start to question how adding two or three year rental vets is helping you to accomplish anything other than competing for that 8th playoff spot. It's a domino effect. Once we jumped the tracks from two young potential stars to one, we're in a whole different place now going forward.
