It’s kind of like playing Caron Butler at the 2. Sure, it sounds good in theory, but it’s probably not a good idea.

Last year, Artest was dynamite when he played the small forward position, but his effect on the team was much less pronounced when he played the 4. He played 23 percent of the team’s minutes at the 4 with the Kings last year. During that time, Sacramento’s offense was 0.7 points worse than with Artest at the three, and more importantly, their defense was five full points lower with Artest at the 4. It’s probably because of the rebounding problem. Looking at Sacramento’s five-man units, only one unit that had Artest at the 4 had a positive rebound percentage (Udrih, Martin, Salmons, Artest, Miller). I should note that doesn’t include the now-defunct Bibby/Martin/Salmons/Artest/Miller unit or a couple units who barely played.

More importantly, Artest wouldn’t be taking Mikki Moore’s minutes; he’d be taking Luis Scola’s an Carl Landry’s. Both Scola and Landry are much better rebounders, more efficient scorers and far better defenders than Moore. Moreover, Houston’s defense is predicated on forcing misses and preventing second shots, so Scola and Landry’s rebounding is very important for them. Putting Artest at the four would mess up their length contesting shots and hurt them on the glass.

No, I think Battier is going to have to sit a little more, which isn’t as bad as I originally thought because his game does translate well off the bench and Houston didn’t have a backup 3 before the Artest trade.

I guess I think the trade is a necessary gamble, but it won’t help out much. They gave up practically nothing. Jackson is redundant after the Brent Barry signing, Donte Greene wasn’t playing much anyway and the pick is going to be a late first-rounder anyway. There’s also the fact that, if it doesn’t work, they can just let Artest walk anyway. I just don’t see how Artest’s game mixes well with the Rockets. They were already a tough defense-first team that had issues sharing the ball. How does Artest help that?

We can afford them with our tax situation, and we won’t have to give anybody up. We can’t afford Artest.

Adelman doesn’t run the Princeton. Sacramento ran the Princeton under Adelman because Pete Carrol was their assistant coach. Adelman’s offense depends on his personnel. He didn’t run the Princeton in Portland in the early 90s, after all.

Artest doesn’t play shooting guard. I’m not sure how that helps your argument.

And Houston is closer to a championship. They won 55 games without Yao for half the season. They won 54 the year before that and 51 two years ago. The Wizards won 43 games this year, 41 in 2007, 42 in 2006 and 45 before that.

The cancer stuff is not bull. When has Artest actually behaved for an entire season? Better yet, when was the last time Artest’s presence really transcended a team. It’s happened once in his career: 05/06 with the Kings. In Indiana, they were great until the brawl, but Artest was merely a cog in a well-oiled machine. Chemistry is not showing up your coach and not hogging the ball when there are more efficient scorers on your team. Sacramento had one player, Kevin Martin, who was better than Artest. The Wizards have three. Artest stole shots from Martin. If he pulls that here, he’ll be stealing from three players who are better than him offensively.

Also, his defense has slipped in recent seasons. He’d definitely be a boost, but there are guys who could be good defenders available for much less money.

So yes, it is both that we can’t afford him. He makes seven times what Bonzi and Miles make, and all three would be one-year investments). Additionally, he’s a knucklehead that won’t mesh well here, because he forces everyone to change positions and dominates the ball too much offensively. Better yet, he has a long, long history of chemistry problems, both visible and more subtle. I don’t get why they are mutually exclusive in your mind.

From what I know of Yao I dont think he would have meant to call out Artest. Who knows though, maybe he thought as the best player on the team (or at least the most important) he needed to lay some ground rules…. if that was his intent he will soon realize that Artest is absolutely uncontrollable. Let sleeping dogs lie…