Artest to Houston

Well, what to make of the Artest trade? My first thought is that he's more trouble than he's worth and a known ball-stopper, so why bother?

But the more I thought about it, the more I'm convinced that Houston is the perfect place for him. Consider the following:

- Artest seems to really like Rick Adelman.
- Donte Green was literally never going to play behind Tracy McGrady
- The future first round pick will likely be mid to late 20's (teams don't even want this pick anymore because of the cap hold; they'd rather have an early second rounder to play with)
- Battier and Artest form one of the best defensive forward tandems in recent NBA history
- Artest can operate on the block, freeing Yao at the high post and T-Mac on the perimeter
- He has the kind of mixed bag persona that could ruin the Rockets ... or take to them to the next level, and at this point, you take the risk

Of course, Artest is coming off an injury -plagued season and now joins McGrady and Yao to form the most brittle trio in the league. And Houston now has three guys who play best at the same position (small forward, although all are versatile enough to fill out positions 2-through-4, certainly). But at Artest's salary and with his skill set ... why not?

Let's just hope he and Rafer Alston don't kill each other.