Justifying the Landing of Ron Artest

(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

With Ron Ron signing with the Los Angeles Lakers Thursday, Trevor Ariza leaves, ironically for Houston Rockets. While numerous analysts and bloggers are pessimistic on Artest's impact for the Lakers, this is my own justification:

1) Ariza is younger, but does that really mean anything?  The Lakers are in their prime.  The core of the team (granted that Lamar returns) are in their late 20s, early 30's.  Many fans voice the need to choose the younger Ariza over the older Odom and Artest, but who really sees Ariza as leading the 2014 Lakers to a championship?

The Lakers, historically, don't need to build for the future early.  Star power just falls onto their laps.  They're just one of those sports franchises.  When Kobe retires, they'll be able to land another star within a few years.  Ariza, Bynum, and Farmar wouldn't have sufficed anyways.  

2) Ariza isn't as talented as Artest.  He just isn't.  He played in a system where he had open looks off Kobe Bryant double teams.  His defensive efficiency is statistically worse than Vlad Radmanovic.

He made big steals, but his man defense was overrated.  Artest brings solid defense.  He won't make the same steals that Ariza did in the playoffs, but he'll body up Carmelo and Lebron much better than Ariza could.  He shoots 31 percent from three, whereas Artest shot 39 percent last season. 

3) Ron's behavior should not be in question.  He had a calm season in Houston. All he really needs is a stabilizer.  He was in a good, but immature locker room in Indiana.  He really got under control under Rick Adelman in both Sacramento and Houston.

His ego goes wild when he's in a situation where he gets the slightest feeling that he's the best.  In LA, he's already acknowledged Kobe's dominance.  He'll be handled by veterans on the team.

The mutual respect with Kobe and Phil's history with dealing with knuckleheads like youngkobe/Shaq and Rodman makes this the perfect situation for Ron to prove his maturity. 

He averaged 17 ppg last season, more than twice of what Ariza did and slightly more than Hedo Turkoglu, yet he is settling for half of what Turkoglu is expected to make and about $2 million less than what Ariza demanded.  Thats a grown man decision and a clear dedication to winning. 

4) Makes sense financially for the Lakers.  Ariza presumably wanted five years at $6-7 million.  Getting Artest gives the Lakers two extra years for financial flexibility plus more money to resign Lamar.

5) Ariza gets more than what he deserves.  I mean, he plays for the Lakers.  He's on national TV frequently.  Look at guys like Devean George.  I don't even know if he still plays.  We all knew him as a Laker, but we sparsely heard about him afterward.  There are so many ex-Lakers that have received contracts from other teams then fall off the radar. 

The Lakers have clearly taken note of the fallout from resigning Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic.  Both players had very good contract years, but stunk after they received new contracts.  Ariza may very well could have been the same scenario. 

That being said, maybe I'm wrong about all of this and the Artest experiment fails and Ariza continues to flourish in Houston. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

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