But the bigger issue is getting Artest to fit in on the court. In the last couple places he has played, he has either been scoring option number one, or thought he was. Last season he tried to take over one of the Lakers/Rockets games (ignoring Yao Ming and hotter shooters) and just shot his team out of it with poor shot selection. All season Rockets opponents hoped Artest would break out of the set offense and try to take the game over. Then in another game against the Lakers Artest made the unwise decision of trying to get under Kobe Bryant’s skin. Sure, that won’t be a problem with Kobe as a teammate, but it makes you question his decision making.
The concern is obvious, Artest has never fit well in a highly structured offense, like what the Lakers run. This is a team that just won a title and now it has to deal with a guy who is going to be running onto the bus in his underwear. It’s all potentially very combustible.
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I don't know if the Ron Artest experiment will work. But I do know that Trevor Ariza was a heads down, no-nonsense, play-my-role, I'm-at-work-so-I'm-gonna-get-to-work kind of guy.
No part of that description fits Ron Artest, which is probably why even Phil Jackson (this time fully clothed) called Artest a mixed bag at best.
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