Bob Cook

Houston’s acquisition of Ron Artest is the desperate act of a desperate franchise desperate to win a title — or at least get out of the first round of the NBA playoffs.

The Rockets are gambling that Artest in 2008-09 will put together one good, well-behaved year in a Houston uniform to give an underachieving team the toughness it needs to break out of the pack in the Western Conference. After all, in Chicago, Indiana and Sacramento, Artest has been capable of giving each one good year without becoming the human minefield he’s infamous for being. Unfortunately, that’s not always timed to Artest’s first year with a club.

Perhaps, the Rockets figure, with Artest a free agent after this season, he’ll put away the dramatics and focus on being the 20-point, five-rebound forward who can shut down (or at least severely slow down) Carlos Boozer one night and Kobe Bryant the next, thus leaving Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming out of the dirty work.

But having Artest on your team means you never know when there’s going to be an off-the-court domestic altercation, a threatened retirement, a demand to be traded, a fight in the stands, and humble begging for forgiveness for all the aforementioned acts. On more mundane terms, it means never knowing whether tonight’s the night Artest feels like never moving within the 3-point line on offense; even though he’s a decent outside shooter, Artest as a statue is not a good sign. It means McGrady or Yao never knowing whether Artest is going to share the ball or hog it.

Hence, why the Rockets aren’t giving Sacramento more than an expiring contract (Bobby Jackson), a low-drafted rookie (Donte Greene) and a first-round pick for a player whose numbers otherwise justify far more in return.

After all, Artest, who turns 29 as the 2008-09 season starts, is coming off one of his best statistical years in the NBA. Last year he averaged a career-high 20.5 points, shooting an above-average (for him) .453 from the field and .380 behind the arc. He averaged 2.3 steals, and his 3.5 assists per game were in part a result of him firing outlets after he dislodged the ball.

With a legitimate third scoring option, McGrady should have more room to drive, and Yao more room to move inside. Artest and Luis Scola are about the same size — 6-foot-8-ish and 245 pounds — but Artest’s ability to play small forward could create matchup nightmares if coach Rick Adelman, who, by the way, is Artest’s favorite NBA coach, wanted to play McGrady more at shooting guard, which makes sense considering that position is otherwise a Houston weak spot.

All this for $7.4 million, a veritable bargain.

But ...

There’s always a big but with Ron Artest. His central role in the November 2004 Pistons-Pacers brawl has been a drag on the Indiana franchise since the first beer cup hit Artest in the face. But it’s the everyday distractions that can make Artest a franchise-killer. With both Indiana and Sacramento, he threatened retirement and/or demanded to be traded, then begged for forgiveness. Various small suspensions, as much as injury, keep Artest off the court, including a seven-game penalty at the beginning of last season for pleading no contest for a domestic violence charge involving his wife. Especially strange, because he threatened to retire after 2006-07 in Sacramento to spend more time with his family.

Houston must figure it has had some success at turning around head cases. Rafer Alston, coming out of Toronto in 2005, had a reputation as a major head case but has been a steadying hand with the Rockets, especially when McGrady was out due to injury during the start of their 22-game winning streak last season. The Steve Francis re-acquisition didn’t work so well, but that was more about the degeneration of his game than his head.

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And the Rockets are in a desperate situation. Houston hasn’t gotten out of the first round of the playoffs since 1997, going 0-for-6 in that period. McGrady and Yao individually have never been out of the first round. McGrady's and Yao’s contracts aren’t up for another two and three years, respectively, but the team has a sense that the proverbial window is closing, given Alston’s age (32) and McGrady's and Yao’s increasing brittleness.

Actually, the biggest Artest-related problem for the Rockets, if they’re lucky, might be having him, McGrady and Yao on the floor at the same time. Artest over the last three season has played 57, 70 and 56 games. McGrady’s totals that same period: 47, 71, 66. Yao played more than 80 games each of his first three seasons, but his last three: 57, 48, 55.

But desperate times, as the saying goes, call for desperate measures. And a desperate measure is what acquiring Artest represents these days.

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