Basketball Blog

By Alex of NBAtipoff

Ron Artest is out to prove to everyone that he is serious about winning.

In an interview he did with ESPN, Artest talked about how he’s changed since the brawl and how much he wants to win.

While this is all talk and the Houston Rockets are only good on paper, I like what I’m hearing from him. He doesn’t care that he lost seven million, embarrassed the league and sent a chill through the sports world. It’s about winning and being the best. That’s what any sport is about.

by Paul Gartlan

In my opinion, this is a fantastic move for the Rockets. Who knows how Donte Greene was going to develop, and Bobby Jackson only has so much left in his tank. Ron Artest brings that second perimeter threat that Tracy McGrady has been longing for to make that push passed the first round of the playoffs.

By Alex of NBAtipoff

The Toronto Raptors have changed their squad quite a bit this off-season. In are Jermaine O’Neal (other players from deals), and Will Solomon, a guy who was playing overseas. Sure these moves sound good, but how good are the Raptors?

I don’t think they’re anywhere near a title, but I like this shakeup. O’Neal has the potential to make the Raptors front line really strong (playing alongside Chris Bosh). I think he, of course, has to healthy and he needs to show that he has something to prove. His stock has been hurt over the last couple of seasons because of injury and the fact that his team was spiraling out of control. He needs to come into training camp with Kobe-like competitiveness. That will send a message to the guys that, “hey, we aren’t as bad as the Canadian national team!”

By Michael Spadaccino

They have said that this is the best team USA mens basketball squad since the original dream team. Lebron has already guarneteed the gold. With Kobe, Lebron, D-Wade, & Melo this appears to be the most explosive team to hit the Olympics in years. So, just give them the gold and get it over with…right?. Well, they may in fact leave China with the gold medals around their necks but it wont be as easy as some people may think. Here are four reasons why Team USA may be in for a more difficult time than people think:

Can anybody claim to not be surprised? At the beginning of the free agency period, no blogger, American fan, or NBA executive would have listed Olympiakos as Josh Childress‘ number one option — it wouldn’t have even been on the list.

Now, Houston Rockets big man Carl Landry has a nice bargaining chip considering nobody would have taken Landry’s remarks about playing overseas serious.

With Childress, Landry, and the straight-to-Europe Brandon Jennings — not to mention USA Basketball preparing for the Olympics — all of the attention is about how the NBA will attempt to remain at the top of professional basketball world.

Team USA has played several exhibition games and they have looked pretty good in all of them. Even though they are winning by a pretty good margin keep in mind they will be playing much better teams during medal play.

If the US wants to stay on track and win the …

The Houston Rockets, a team that is already good defensively and a team that was able to win without Yao Ming just got better. They have worked out a deal to bring Ron Artest to Houston. The Rockets played half of their season without Yao Ming but where able to …