Artest's Signing With Lakers: The Good & The Bad

(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Two days ago, I heard that Trevor Ariza was leaning towards leaving the Lakers and I couldn't believe the report as every team rumored to possibly sign with him wasn't close to as good of a fit for Ariza as the Lakers. No one was able to offer more than the midlevel exception out of the rumored teams, which the Lakers were offering.

Then, out of nowhere yesterday, I heard the breaking news that Ron Artest was signing with the Lakers for the midlevel and I couldn't believe it and then immediately afterwards I heard that Ariza signed with the Rockets for the midlevel exception. This didn't make sense to me as why the hell would Ariza leave the Lakers to sign with the Rockets for the same money the Lakers were offering when the Lakers were a perfect fit for him as a team, were legit championship contenders and he was from Los Angeles. 

Eventually, I found out that Ariza's agent, David Lee, didn't like the Lakers' offer of the full midlevel exception worth just under $6 million a year for 5 years as he felt Ariza, who averaged just 9 points and 4 rebounds in the regular season, was worth $7-8 million. Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak didn't fall for his bluff and reacted quickly by signing Artest for the midlevel for three seasons as he was their plan B. 

Lee couldn't believe that the Lakers signed Ariza and he had no offers for more than the midlevel for Ariza, so Ariza had to settle signing for the same money the Lakers offered with the Rockets and instead of playing for a title contender in the best place to play pro basketball in his hometown where he fit perfectly, he now will have to adjust and play on a team bound for the lottery due to Yao's severe injury. 

Now let's look at the bold and surprising move the Lakers made to help them defend their title. There are several positives and negatives from the addition of Artest to the Lakers and here they are. 

Overall, Artest is simply a better basketball player than Ariza is. Defensively, Artest is better than Ariza, who is very good, as he defends bigger and stronger players such as Carmelo Anthony, Lebron and Paul Pierce much better than Ariza does. Artest is also better defensively as he is more of an intimidator than Ariza as Artest often get into his opponent's heads with his constant trash talking.

Offensively, Artest can create his own shot by scoring in the post, driving and finishing and shooting from the outside, while Ariza is a dependent offensive player who needs a superstar like Kobe or Pau to give him open looks so he can knock down the outside shot, which he still is extremely inconsistent in even though he had a brilliant shooting playoffs. This move also helps Kobe as Artest will now always guard the opponent's best offensive player, which means Kobe will be less tired at the end of games so he can close them out more often. 

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