The Artest Difference: My perspective

[NoBonus]

I was watching the Kings/Clippers game and a sense of actual hope came over me for the future of the Kings. I was trying to pinpoint why I felt this way... was it the new talent? No, they are good, but need some work. Was it a healthy (mostly) Kings squad? No. Was it the improvement of Kevin Martin and others in the offseason? Not really. Was it the implementation of the triagnle offence? No, as they have done little of that yet. It was one factor: Ron Artest is gone. When he was on the Kings there was always this feeling, that I did not realize at that time, that at any point, Artest could shoot and ballhog the Kings out of any game. Additionally, he would command big minutes that could be going to the youth/the future of the Kings. Kind of like a dandelion in a young vegetable garden... Now that he is gone, I feel a lot different about the Kings; more positive, less judgemental, more happy.

Does anyone feel this way?

 

[ForlornKing]

I didn't watch the game, but I remember hearing that Salmons wasn't playing...

 

[D13]

IMO Salmons ballhogs at least as much as Artest. The guy is a black hole... ball goes in, and the only way it comes out is a miss or a turn over... Same is looking like Bobby Brown... There is NO movement with those guys on the floor.

 

[Bricklayer]

Ron Artest was the best basketball player the Kings had. He had by FAR the best +/- of any King over the past three years. For all of the problems he could imapct a game in a way that no other King, not John, not Cisco, not Brad and not even Kevin could. Losing him absolutely hurts this team's short term prospects for victory.

However, this team is not in a postion to care about short term prospects. It needs to rebuild for the long term. And for that, Ron was a disaster, not only eating up minutes and shots from the kids, but keeping the team winning too any games to ever score another impact player. And that was before you even get to personality problem that made it virtually impossible for the development of any cohesive organized focused team mentality going into the future. He had to go so that we could move forward. But as he showed again tonight against us, we in no way shape or form are better off as a baseketball team, on the floor, this year, because we got rid of him. Even as an idiot, he is a force the likes of which we will not have again until we find another, hopefully stable, star/superstar type player.

 

[Prince_XY]

IMO Salmons ballhogs at least as much as Artest. The guy is a black hole... ball goes in, and the only way it comes out is a miss or a turn over... Same is looking like Bobby Brown... There is NO movement with those guys on the floor.

Artest is gone.

I hope Salmons is next.


.

 

[gunks]

Ron was my favorite player while he was here...

The whole 'Artest is going to ballhog us into a loss!' thing was overblown in my opinion. He did that occasionally...But he won far more games then he lost for us. Just look at our record with vs without Ron for last season.

Losing Ron was a step back so that we can (hopefully) make two steps foward.

And like D13 said....Salmons is just as much of a ballhog as Artest, but with less talent/brute strength (as tonights game showed).

 

[Aenadin]

an Artest looking for redemption to save his career on the kings team is always welcome.. during those times he is at his best... but after a while its best to trade him for some one good... i think the way to deal with guys like him is get his value high enough to get a young or a pick.. thats about it hes not a long term kind of guy with his attitude problems

well i feel good about this coming season and i consider him gone blessings in disguise same way i felt when bonzi's agent got greedy and turned down a contract.. saved us from a long term commitment to a guy who let him self go during the off season

the future is looking pretty good for the kings at the moment heres to hoping we shake things up sooner or later

 

[Kevin_Martin_23]

Salmons needs to go now.

 

[NewArena]

i said this before when everyone was complaining about Ron...Salmons has got to go. Now of course im not the only one who said it but Salmons is just NOT THAT GOOD to be holding the ball and dribbling a hole into the court. I have not watched much pre-season but i have watched him the last two years he has been here and i already know i dont want to see him on this team past the trade deadline.

It seems to me that he forgot the kings gave him his chance to have a prominent role on the team, so now he thinks he is as good as Kobe bryant. In Philly... Salmons was nothing.

 

[bajaden]

I have mixed emotions about Salmons. He's a talented player and now, probably the Kings best defender. That being said, I'm not sure he fits on this team. On one hand, the Kings want to push the ball and fast break when ever possible. John is great at running the court and is a very good finisher on the break.

On the other hand, the Kings want to run a triangle offense, which is basicly a motion offense with the ball moving by passing it. This is where John doesn't fit too well. At least at the moment. In a half court set, John is a one on one player who likes to drive to the basket, and, too many times this requires the ball in his hands for excessive periods of time, that defeats the whole purpose of the triangle offense.

I'm willing to cut him some slack in the pre-season, when players are trying to recapture their game, but once the season starts, I would like to see him adapt to what the team needs, if possible. Young players are susposed to learn from veterans, and Salmons example is not one that needs to be learned.

I've been disappointed with Bobby Browns game of late. I think he has forgotten what the word distribute means. There were a couple of times that he drove into the basket and had Thompson off to his left for an easy dunk and didn't give up the ball. I'm starting to think, that one good game where he scored at will, went to his head. He needs to be reminded why we signed him.

As for Artest, I think Bricky summed it up pretty well. At least all the Kings news, for better or worse, is about the Kings, and not about the complicated inner workings of Artest's mind.

 

[Kings113]

Ron rules

 

[Smills91]

I miss Ron, but I am happy B-Jax is back.

 

[Prince_XY]

I've been disappointed with Bobby Browns game of late. I think he has forgotten what the word distribute means. There were a couple of times that he drove into the basket and had Thompson off to his left for an easy dunk and didn't give up the ball. I'm starting to think, that one good game where he scored at will, went to his head. He needs to be reminded why we signed him.

I agree.

He needs to be reminded that the Kings are to build a " CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM " and " NOT EXCELLENT INDIVIDUAL SCORING PLAYERS ".

I don't know what's wrong with our "supposed" developing point guards specifically Douby before and now it seems Brown too. Both are pretty good ballhandlers and capable of bringing the ball wherever they want. Their priority in their development should be distributing the ball and raking in more assists than scoring more points.

I hope Brown does not turn out to be another " me-score-first " Bibby and develop the " me-savior-of-the-team " Artest/Salmons mentality.

Don't these little guys know that all they need to do is to averaged 10 assists a game and they can secure their position as among the best players in the NBA?


.

 

[VF21]

Bobby Brown is another work in progress.

It seems very odd to me how high some put expectations on lower tier players. Bobby Brown is NOT another Jason Kidd. If we're lucky he'll be somewhere between Jason Kidd and Jason Hart.

There's a reason we have pre-season games and a reason we have 14 players on a roster. You have to take some chances and develop players who will never be in your normal starting lineup.

Role players are, to paraphrase an oft-quoted comment by Bricklayer and others, as important as your stars.

 

[fnordius]

Regardless of how suitable and ready our roster is, I'm glad that Ron's moved on. Whether our team ends up with a worse WL record this year because of his absence, or not, is of no concern to me. Now if we could just get a similar deal on Salmons, Moore and Thomas...

 

[bajaden]

Regardless of how suitable and ready our roster is, I'm glad that Ron's moved on. Whether our team ends up with a worse WL record this year because of his absence, or not, is of no concern to me. Now if we could just get a similar deal on Salmons, Moore and Thomas...

That, my friend, is the stuff dreams are made of.

 

[fnordius]

That, my friend, is the stuff dreams are made of.

Yeah, I know. Remember that I'm a Kings fan; I don't have any expectations, but I have to allow myself some dreams.

 

[Kingster]

Regardless of how suitable and ready our roster is, I'm glad that Ron's moved on. Whether our team ends up with a worse WL record this year because of his absence, or not, is of no concern to me. Now if we could just get a similar deal on Salmons, Moore and Thomas...

I can definitely see getting similar value from Salmons as we did with Artest. Maybe more. Salmons doesn't have the talent of Artest, but he doesn't have the baggage either, so you can say one offsets the other. Regarding Moore and Thomas, there is little hope.

 

[Bricklayer]

I can definitely see getting similar value from Salmons as we did with Artest. Maybe more. Salmons doesn't have the talent of Artest, but he doesn't have the baggage either, so you can say one offsets the other. Regarding Moore and Thomas, there is little hope.

Moore has a semi-ending contract this summer -- if you cut him, you get half your cash back. So he might be moveable at midseason by a team looking for a little veteran help they can shed cheaply after the year is done or immediately after the end of it by some team looking for a way to shed $3 mil for tax/cap purposes. of course in the latter scenario that relaves us with another MLE/$6mil type playr in return, which we do NOT need.

 

[RalphySampson]

I can definitely see getting similar value from Salmons as we did with Artest. Maybe more. Salmons doesn't have the talent of Artest, but he doesn't have the baggage either, so you can say one offsets the other. Regarding Moore and Thomas, there is little hope.

I can't say that I completely agree with Salmons not having any baggage. I just can't really respect a guy that basically pouted all year last year when he came off the bench. To me, if you make millions of dollars playing basketball, you should be happy every second of your life and play hard every minute on the court. I mean, it didn't even make sense that he pouted and played bad off the bench. Did he really think that he was going to start over Ron? Ron is a superior player to John and I don't even really think it's close despite the fact that John may put up similiar offensive numbers this year.