Not To Down the Lakers' Artest Signing, But Is He Truly an Upgrade From Ariza?

With the fluster of moves in what has been a busy NBA offseason, from the likes of Vince Carter to the Orlando Magic, or Shaquille O'Neal to the Cleveland Cavaliers, one thing is certain, the NBA's rich just got richer.

One of the headline moves was the Los Angeles Lakers essentially swapping Trevor Ariza for the more talented and hostile Ron Artest.

Artest, the media claims, takes the Lakers to even greater heights, possibly even 70 wins. Their reasons? That Artest is a player that will allow Kobe to operate offensively and exert less energy having to defend the other teams best player. While that's true to an extent, one of the biggest misconceptions is that Artest is still an elite defender.

Don't get me wrong, he still has the ability to be an effective defender, but as he gets older, his lack of lateral quickness is apparent, and his refusal to fight through screens is an issue the Rockets faced all season.

Take the series against the Portland Trail Blazers for example. Brandon Roy torched Artest by continuously coming off screens and picks and finding himself open for the jumper, or a wide lane to the basket.

Others might point out the defensive game Artest had against LeBron James earlier in the season and while the stats would show Artest did a better job on LeBron than anyone, it was the true epitome of team philosophy and a strong defensive gameplan.

That gameplan was to clog the paint, and force the offensive player (in this case LeBron) towards the perimeter. Everytime LeBron used a pick, the Rockets defenders ran to the paint, and dared LeBron to beat them from the perimeter.

The result? LeBron took the bait, and went on to miss more field goals than he made, all primarily from the perimeter, so Artest's lack of fighting through screens in that particular game wasn't exposed because the plan from the beginning was to never fight through the screens.

His decline in his lateral quickness was never more apparent in his steals per game. Normally near the top of the league, and well over two per game, Artest has always been one of the biggest gamblers defensively, and the NBA's top thieves.

But this past season with an average 1.5 steals per game, Artest continued to gamble as much as he did in the past, but was unable to effectively create a turnover to the extent he did in the prime of his career.

A play that perfectly sums up his defensive IQ, was gambling for a steal (one in which he had no chance) late in the fourth quarter, leaving Bryant wide open for the dagger, and ultimately the game-clinching three-pointer.

Offensively, Artest might be underrated, his three-point shot is near money when his feet are set, and he has a nice backdown game with the little ten foot jumper fading away, but he has his faults on that end of the floor as well with his porous shot selection and streaky shooting. He can and will be a ball-stopper at times, but he's a better passer off the dribble than people give him credit for.

This wasn't intended to be an Artest "hate" article, more that Artest isn't some large upgrade over Ariza, especially in a team setting as Artest can be a ball-stopper and tremendously overrated defensively.

Kobe never traditionally guarded the other team's best player regardless of the supporting cast (see 2008 NBA Finals, where he guarded Rajon Rondo the majority of the series, compared to Ray Allen or Paul Pierce, both of whom lit the Lakers up).

The Lakers could very well repeat, and should be the favorites for the NBA championship once again, but that is not because Artest makes the Lakers a substantially better team, more so an adequate fill-in for the role Ariza had on the team last season.

Talent is important, but once you have enough talent, well defined roles and the "little things" are what makes champions. On a team as stacked as the Lakers, Artest's role on the team isn't as well defined as it was with Ariza.

It'll be interesting to see how he copes with a championship team, and how the Lakers' season will play out, the addition that could potentially take them to the top once again, or be enough a deterrent to the point they could fall short to the new and revamped elite teams of the league.

One thing is for sure, we're gearing up for what could be one of the most competitive NBA seasons in a long time, where there's legitimately 5-6 teams that could win an NBA championship.