Comments on: Ron Artest to the Rockets = ?

By: Jeeves

Jeeves — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:01:46 +0000

I remember when Ron played for the Pacers and they also had a nice squad of JO, Harrington and Miller! Yao is right chemistry is everything!

By: Evil E

Evil E — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:24:56 +0000

Here’s a brief article about Yao’s health, the pressures of playing in Beijing, and his courting of Mutombo.
http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/2008/07/yaos_feeling_the_heat_of_the_o.html

“I’m sore. I still feel weak,” Yao said. “I’m not in best shape now. I’d say 60 to 70 percent. We still have two more exhibition games to get better.”

He let out a loud sigh.

“There’s a lot of pressure,” Yao said. “I can feel it. From the country, from the fans, everything. But you know what? Life is hard. So enjoy it. Not many people can play in the Olympics at home. Sometime I’ll be able to look back and that’s my treasure.”

*********
Dikembe Mutombo will be arriving in Beijing next week to make a promotional appearance and Yao plans to get together to have dinner and make a recruiting pitch to get Deke to sign another contract with the Rockets for next season.

By: Damian

Damian — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:30:45 +0000

Looking at the bookmakers odds they are still the 5th best team in the west and I must respectfully disagree… jazz, hornets even spurs are no better than these guys above… I believe 16:1 (sportingbet) to win the NBA is a very reasonable bet and whoever loves gambling should try it…

By: elfboy

elfboy — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:05:00 +0000

I agree that Ron-Ron will probably have a superb season in Houston, maybe even taking them past the first round in the playoffs (making him a hero), but recent history shows one thing — Ron can only have one season of sanity per team. One, that’s it. So this is a rent-a-player scenario for Houston, and in terms of what they gave up, a rather inexpensive rent.

Ron though is far from done. Too many teams will want him once he’s done in Houston — and failing the NBA, you can bet some upstart Euro team, wanting to make a splash will show him the money. Can you imagine Artest in France? With the beret, carrying a baguette? Why does this seem like it’s so gonna happen?

The Kings got the best they could get I suppose — Geoff Petrie hopefully justifies his genius tag by getting the Kings way under cap for the 2009-10 free agent market (if they continue dumping their contracts, estimated to be 25 million under cap while having 7 young guys + Kevin Martin still on roster). Highly unlikely they’ll bring LeBron over, but Petrie is already planting the seeds for making the Kings relevant once more. Still, it seems they made out of this trade with 75 cents out of (a rapidly depreciating) dollar.

p/s: Kenny Thomas — if the Kings shipped him to Euroleague, will his contract come off the books?