Top > Sport > 2006 > January > 2006-01-20

Rockets Need to Take a Chance

Have the Rockets extended the Pacers an offer for Artest? Industry insiders claim that they have. Houston has nothing to lose by trading for Artest. At the rate they are going they are not going to make it into the playoffs anyhow, so why not take the chance and get maybe the number one perimeter defender in the league. Other than Tracy and Yao, the Rockets can afford trading anyone on their roster. The only problem is that I can?t Indiana taking any of them, unless there multiple draft choices are attached.

There is no denying that Artest is a head-case, and any team that trades for him is open to the possibility of it biting them some time in the future, and Houston is no exception. The Indiana Pacers has had a hard time finding what they feel is good enough value for Artest due to the baggage he carries. If he messes up again, whichever team he is on at that time will likely be stuck with him unless they are prepared to trade him for a sack of potatoes and a future 1st round pick, because that?ll likely be the most any team will offer.

However, if you are the Houston Rockets, you have to ask yourself, ?Do we really have that much to lose?? Think about it. Last season, Houston took the Dallas Mavericks to Game 7 with Ryan Bowen and Scott Padgett as the PF rotation, a broken PG as the starter and a streaky shooting, defensive liability at shooting guard. The only role players that you would consider good at that time were Mike James and Dikembe Mutombo.