Expectations

22 games in a row? Lakers to game 7? no injuries(besides Yao)?

Why is anyone ruling these things out? Our front court is going to be dangerous.

Brooks - The word in the paper is that Artest was giving him some of his "Hood'ism" during the time that AB took over. SO could we expect more from this gem? My expectations for Brooks this year is for him to dramatically bring up his scoring and start to show more signs of a true pg. I want to see the drive and dish out to ariza. Can not wait to see what that looks like.

Battier - We all know what this dude does, and he is going to be our leader for these youngsters. He is going to gaurd that two or that three and going to do the best job he can do.

Ariza over Artest? - okay, so let us compare the pro's and cons.
PRO
Artest is a GREAT defender, a great spot up shooter and very versatile as he can guard play point gaurds and pf's.
CON
Artest also tends to overplay, psychs himself out of a shot, he's been know as a "ballstopper" and i believe it from this 1 year. He argues with team mates supposively and I am sorry but his shooting in the playoffs was inconsistent. His numbers might be decent, but he made the crazy shots, not the spot up easy ones. He made like three point fading banks off the glass.
PRO
Ariza is a REALY GOOD defender and to some gold and purple bandwagoners he is "great." He is an improving shooter and probably the most athletic Rocket now.
CON
I am very optimistic on Ariza's "cons." The word is that he has been known to have bad handles on a break. As long as he knows this, works on it I think it will be fine. Hopefully that means more passing, more ball movement.

When I think basketball, I think about teamwork and chemistry. Cheese aside, I believe that Aaron and Ariza making it happen. I can hear Clyde, Bill.. and i guess Matt making up names for the new fast break duo.