What Has Happened to Ron Artest Defense

[Purple Reign]

When Artest was brought to Sacramento, it was to anchor the Kings pourous defense. But this year it seems to have disappeared.

Over the last ten games the Kings are giving up 105.5 ppg, 45.0 percent shooting. And the players he used to give fits have lately been giving him problems, especially going to the basket.

Josh Howard 12-16, 28 pts
C. Magette 7-15, 21 pts
Kobe 11-21, 42 pts
B. Roy 8-15, 23 pts
Lebron 14-26, 34 pts

What is the issue here?

 

[TheJoker]

The issue, is Ron's defensive weaknesses show when there is no team defense. anyone but Ron knows the word defense on this team. but when his defense is not there hes useless especially when his shots aren't falling.


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[SacKings384]

I disagree that it's because of the teams weaknesses. I mean obviously its hard to be a tough defender when your team is awful at it. But last season Ron was LOCKING PEOPLE DOWN with the same exact team. He was getting steals, blocks, frustrating guys, starting fast breaks etc. He did it all on defense. This season he seems like more a freelancer. Something I suspect has to do in part with the "I may have to guard two people" comment. As the team struggles Ron probably feels like not only does he have to guard his man, but the guys that Bibby, Kevin, and Brad guards. If you pay close attention Ron simply free-lances on defense. He often leaves his man and just roams around, and then gets back just in time to get a distant hand up. I would prefer him to just stay on his man. Because he is ineffective at free-lancing, and now his man is pwning us night after night. It's not necessarily because of the weaknesses as much as it is the losing. As the team loses, Ron will try to be "the man" and much like he normally does on offense he will put too much on his plate on defense. And in both cases it's a detriment to the team.

 

[jon e]

nothing... its january... he leads the league in steals

 

[Entity]

Ron I think is trying to help way to much this year. He is constantly doubling down on the PF that is killing ours as usual and he steps toward the direction of every pass. All are good traits of good team defense except he is the only one doing it so it just doesn't help and meanwhile makes ppl asks questions about his 1 on 1 defense.

 

[Kev.in]

When Ron came here his reputation was as a lock-down one on one defender who would focus in on the man in front of him, occasionally to the detriment of his team defense and defensive rebounding. That's how he played last season as a King but with Musselman too much was asked of him to start the season. They wanted him to handle backup pg, they wanted him to help on out on the defensive glass, they wanted him to help out on the interior defense. Basically, we were asking him to be Chris Webber mixed with Doug Christie. He was putting up 18ppg, 3+apg and leading the team in rebounding, steals and blocks for a few weeks and then his back started aching. Maybe the car was to blame, maybe it just made an overworked back worse. Then the knees. This is a guy who keeps himself in shape and gives his full effort so we know he's not physically falling apart. This is the effect of fatigue and this is why you see/hear people say that this isn't the same Ron Artest as last season.

 

[Purple Reign]

nothing... its january... he leads the league in steals

Leading the league in steals is not a good indicator of being a good one on one defender. Allen Iverson is third and Gildbert Arenas is fifth and neither one of those guys could guard either of my grandmothers and they are both deceased.

 

[BMiller52]

When Ron came here his reputation was as a lock-down one on one defender who would focus in on the man in front of him, occasionally to the detriment of his team defense and defensive rebounding. That's how he played last season as a King but with Musselman too much was asked of him to start the season. They wanted him to handle backup pg, they wanted him to help on out on the defensive glass, they wanted him to help out on the interior defense. Basically, we were asking him to be Chris Webber mixed with Doug Christie. He was putting up 18ppg, 3+apg and leading the team in rebounding, steals and blocks for a few weeks and then his back started aching. Maybe the car was to blame, maybe it just made an overworked back worse. Then the knees. This is a guy who keeps himself in shape and gives his full effort so we know he's not physically falling apart. This is the effect of fatigue and this is why you see/hear people say that this isn't the same Ron Artest as last season.

Great post.

 

[SacTownKid]

We are asking out #1 man to man defender to be a help defender thus sacraficing his individual game.

 

[VF21]

I had to vote other...

Ron isn't happy. He's surrounded by players who do not want to or cannot play defense consistently. He's been saying the right things but this is beginning to look more and more like Indiana...

The ticking is getting a lot louder.

 

[NikateeN]

Ive seen some pretty good defense from his so far this season, but nothing great, then again, is anybody on the Kings doing anything great?

 

[ReinadelosReys]

Funny, watching the past few games I asked myself the same thing. My conclusion? You are only as good as the people around you, as a good a player as the people around you. The players around Ron? To say they are not the best defenders ever would be an understatement.

While I agree it could be other things, such as he's not happy or not right physically, playing for the Kings has exposed Ron's weaknesses. Playing for a team like Indiana who had people play defense not only every game but throughout every game can do wonders. Now with the Kings, I think he's over compensating and the spotlight on him has gotten even brighter. If he got beat off the dribble in Indiana it was overlooked when you had guys at the basket to help, or guys to step in a stop them at the key. Now he gets beat off the dribble and the guy scores. And people take notice.

 

[KINGSFAN-FROM-L.A.]

its not rons fault... its a bunch of BS around him thats causing it... he did a lot of working on his game over the summer(well he did go on tour and did things for his CD and what not, but he also still did things with the team in which he couldnt really do before he got traded here so i dont know whats the problem with his defense and overall game intensity)

 

[ReinadelosReys]

its not rons fault... its a bunch of BS around him thats causing it... he did a lot of working on his game over the summer(well he did go on tour and did things for his CD and what not, but he also still did things with the team in which he couldnt really do before he got traded here so i dont know whats the problem with his defense and overall game intensity)

Now I gave him a bit of an excuse in my previous post, but this "its no his fault" is rubbish. Yea we're all human with emotions but the guy is getting paid, and quite nicely, to play basketball.

 

[slugking50]

Hes hurt.



But i'm not counting out that he may have been replaced with an alien clone

 

[reyes13]

We had Bonzi!

 

[nbrans]

I think SacKings384 and Kev.in make very good points above about Ron feeling like he has to guard everyone and about his possible fatigue. If I had to choose from above I'd pick "all of the above." It's probably part mental, part physical, part emotional, part organizational.

But make no mistake -- Ron is not the defender he was last year. There are any number of reasons why. I can only think of a few games where Ron really looked like the lockdown defender of old -- the game where he slowed down Baron and... well, I guess the first half of guarding LeBron? I'm sure there's another that I'm forgetting. Or maybe that was it.

But if you notice, Salmons is the guy who has become the designated defender. Muss put Salmons on Nash, Salmons on Wade against Miami, Salmons on Crawford... Salmons came in to defend Roy when Artest was having trouble. I'm not saying Salmons is a better defender than Artest, but Artest is really having trouble with quick players, and for those guys Salmons ends up being the best option. And that's scary.

 

[vfettke]

i think its the overall team defense. it doesnt matter how good a defender Ron is, certain guys, like Kobe and LeBron, are gonna get past him or around him some way. Ron will still make them work and make it tough for him, but they'll eventually get by. The problem is that once they do the work to get past him, no one's there to back him up.

 

[LilMissDiva]

I had to vote other...

Ron isn't happy. He's surrounded by players who do not want to or cannot play defense consistently. He's been saying the right things but this is beginning to look more and more like Indiana...

The ticking is getting a lot louder.

Wouldn't that fall under emotional?

Seriously, I think it might actually be a little of everything. He's been injured recently, so that might slow someone as physical as he is down. Then you have all the unhappiness issues. He may deny that, but the truth is right in front our faces.

The time bomb is most definately ticking.