via LA Lakers blog Forum Blue and Gold:
Lebron James. Carmelo Anthony. Paul Pierce. Kevin Durant. Brandon Roy. While this is an amended list, it’s these (types of) players that the Lakers were thinking of when they signed Ron Artest as a free agent. Sure, the Lakers were optimistic that Ron’s all around offensive game would mesh in with the Triangle, but we’d be kidding ourselves if we didn’t acknowledge that improving the Lakers defense wasn’t on the minds of Mitch Kupchak and Phil Jackson when the green light was given on this acquisition. However when looking at that list of great wing scorers, you don’t see a member of the Utah Jazz.
I found this interesting because it conjured remembrance of a similar dilemma for the Houston Rockets. Anyone watching last year’s playoffs saw just how vital forward Shane Battier was to the Rockets’ success. But in the team’s previous two trips to the postseason, I felt that not only was he a non-factor, but maybe even a liability.
The Utah Jazz are unique among the elite in not having a star wing. For this reason, Shane Battier’s strengths were largely wasted making his weaknesses unjustifiable. You could live with Battier’s offensive inabilities when he was hounding Brandon Roy and Kobe Bryant. But when chasing menial role players through screens, the lack of offense became hard to swallow.
It’s true that few in the league are better than Shane at chasing cutters off screens. Kyle Korver probably would have gone off more were it not for the Duke grad. But for the most part, Battier’s defense, one of the Rockets’ greatest strengths in that previous era, was largely wasted. For a team starved for offense, you might have fared better in the net result with a scorer at the ’3′.
