Artest will hurt more than he helps….

He’s on the overrated list (offense killer, not the defender he was in the past, a good defender but no longer all league defender, but he’s terribly undisciplined offensively even if he’s on good behavior).

There’s a reason the Rockets tried to trade him last year and aren’t interested in bringing him back.

Bynum, Gasol, Odom, Artest, Kobe as a lineup, if they want. They won’t even really have to try and they’ll play adequate defense.

It will be interesting to see if Kobe can hold Artest in check — if Ron Ron keeps jacking up off-balance threes we might see Mamba turn nasty.

even the damn champs are picking up talent and upgrading

and absolutely locked down Turkoglu. does anyone really think artest will be better than that? did anyone watch the houston-la series? artest is a huge ball hog. huge. i dont love this move by a team that was a lot of fun to watch this year.

Shaq to the Cavs looks like a mini-move next to the Vince Carter and Ron Artest acquisitions.

And poor Houston. They’re making all the right moves, and then McGrady gets hurt and sucks, Yao’s career could be over, Mutombo’s career is over, and Artest skips town. All their crafty moves and no luck, they might not even make the playoffs next year.

This don’t guarantee a repeat. It’s cool to stack up big names. But will Artest’s chucking ways fit in with the triangle offense? Will Gasol get mad that his touches go down because ol Ron Ron decided to jack up a 3 with 17 seconds left on the shot clock? Also Kobe has lots of miles on his legs and never got surgery on his finger either. At some point, it’s going to get to him.