Did the summer go by too fast for anyone else? Not that I enjoy NBA downtime, but it seems like it gets shorter every year!

The Purple and Gold have added Ron Artest and I had the privilege of seeing him in action against Golden State in the preseason game played at the Inglewood Forum. The Lakers lost, but I saw a lot of solid play out of the newest addition as well as the occasionally awesome Andrew Bynum. What I saw then hasn’t changed three games into the new season, although Artest seems to be struggling with his shot a little.

The Lakers look like a team on a mission, if not always in sync. That will improve as the season progresses but I fully expect some nasty bumps in the road as the Lakers are NOT, I repeat NOT, on the level of the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls team that went 72-10, for the best regular season record of all time. Comparisons to that team and expectations of play on that level are ridiculous, unfair and unproductive for the Lakers right now. Kobe got it right in an interview aired during the Laker loss to Dallas when that question was posed and he said they are nowhere near a place where they can actually even think about anything like that. He’s right, and he knows better than any other active player how hard it is to take a team through the modern NBA regular season, come out on top and blast through the playoff to a championship. When he says they’re nowhere near, that means we shouldn’t even be talking about it until the team’s record is something like 50-3.

Now that the rant is done, let’s get down to some bball! Let me recap why I love the Artest-Ariza trade for the Lakers. Ron Artest is a stronger, more powerful and much more intimidating defensive and offensive presence than Trevor Ariza. While he is struggling with his outside shot at the moment, just watch him box someone out under the basket on either end of the floor. It looks so intense, I’m convinced it’s painful for whoever is playing him at the moment. He’s amazing to watch without the ball and I haven’t been this proud to watch Laker hustle since we had AC Green or maybe Mark Madsen (and a shudder runs down the spine of the reader…).

The intensity, focus and hunger for a championship that Artest brings could not have been coaxed out of Ariza by the best of coaches…he’s a young, talented guy who just won his first championship in which he played a major role…you go convince him to work as if he hasn’t won it yet. With Artest, no one has to do that, because he hasn’t won it yet and he’s surrounded by teammates sporting the most ridiculous piece of championship bling the NBA has created yet (each ring has a laser etched image of that individual player’s face on the side, a first in NBA championship ring history). He’s so motivated to do well and just dominate his position on both ends of the floor that it’s probably creating the situation in which he is now essentially tripping over his own feet. Unfortunately for everyone else in the NBA, Phil Jackson is a master of harnessing that energy that star players have and slowly, quietly molding it into championship glory. Artest couldn’t be more ready to learn some new tricks from the league’s resident Zen Master, and the Lakers couldn’t be more ready to enjoy the fruits of that labor.

Speaking of enjoy fruits of hard labor, when is the rest of the league going to realize that Shannon Brown is a freak of basketball nature? When a 6-3 guard is out-jumping and dunking on the 6-11 power forward on his OWN TEAM with his freakin’ EYES STARING AT THE RIM, what is it going to take? When Shannon Brown and Ron Artest trap someone, or Shannon Brown and Jordan Farmar even, the chance that the Lakers will end up with the ball seems to be inordinately high. It’s hilarious to me that other teams seem not to care, or know what to do to contain him, so for now Mr. Brown seems to be continuing the upward trajectory he began late last season. On a related note, I really feel strongly that it needs to be made a flagrant foul whenever someone pushes or bumps an offensive player who is in the air on the way to the rim. There have been too many times when Shannon Brown has taken off and looks poised to posterize someone, only to be low-bridged and potentially seriously injured. It is a growing problem as the league becomes more competitive and athletic with every new wave of talent.