It really doesn't matter how many guys he locks up. It probably doesn't even matter if he comports himself with composure from now all the way through the playoffs.
Ron Artest will have to change the course of history to be known as the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year.
Maybe that sounds a bit drastic, but it's true. Perimeter players don't win the DPOY trophy anymore, and just this once you can blame the media. We've almost completely stopped voting for the Ron Artests.
Granted, it's also undeniably true that winning an individual award doesn't need to be Artest's focus. After his recent backslide with Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, staying focused needs to be Artest's focus. Yet it's still worth a discussion to examine why the ballhawks they always rave about on TV -- like Artest or Doug Christie or Andrei Kirilenko or Bruce Bowen -- are perennially overshadowed at season's end by Big Ben Wallace.
"If you look at what we have to do, nine times out of 10 we're guarding the guy who takes the highest volume of shots," said Bowen, brought to San Antonio in the summer of 2001 after Kobe Bryant shredded the Spurs in the '01 Western Conference finals.
"The injustice that you feel is that people don't realize you have to chase guys, go through three screens and then end up at the guy's disposal, so to speak. You're out there with (the offensive player) on an island and they get to go right at us. Don't get me wrong, Ben is a great help-side defender. But the big guys ... all they have to do is move from one block to the other block."
Big guys, of course, also grab rebounds and block shots, and those are significant advantages in the DPOY chase. There is little statistical evidence, apart from steals, to support the DPOY campaign of, say, Bowen or Christie. You'd like to think stats wouldn't hold such sway all the time, but a brief historical review confirms that the numbers are very persuasive.
The DPOY award was introduced for the 1982-83 season. Milwaukee's Sidney Moncrief won the award for the first two seasons, and perimeter players claimed it five times out of six to lead off, with San Antonio's Alvin Robertson, Michael Cooper of the Los Angeles Lakers and a Chicago kid named Jordan (in 1987-88) following Moncrief. Utah's Mark Eaton was the only post player to win in that span.
Then Eaton won again in 1988-89, and only one perimeter player -- Seattle's Gary Payton in 1995-96 -- has been named DPOY in the decade and a half since. With rebounding increasingly influencing voters, starting with Dennis Rodman's back-to-back DPOY run from 1989-91, the little guys have been further ignored. Stoppers like Scottie Pippen, who has never won the award.
"Post players undoubtedly get an inherent benefit being known as the last line of defense," said Mavericks assistant coach Del Harris, the author of two books on defense. "And then when they have to guard Shaq or (Tim) Duncan, everybody says, 'Well, nobody can stop those guys.' "
Payton has his own theory, suggesting that the recent rule changes that curtailed hand-checking made perimeter defenders even less noticeable.
"In '96, when I won it, we got to touch people and we could change the game," Payton said recently. "But now all we're doing is playing all the hard defense on the perimeter and funneling guys inside to the big men, and they get all the blocked shots. That's the way the game has gone. They don't look at guards shutting down people and changing the momentum of a game."
That's why, when asked to help us out, Payton insisted that he couldn't pick the game's best perimeter defender of today, in spite of all his experience and stature.
"I can't tell you because they don't let us play defense anymore," GP said.
The Glove, though, did say he's an Artest admirer, and it's hard not to be for anyone who considers himself a connoisseur of the art of blanketing a big-name scorer.
Artest has actually been forced to adjust his defensive approach since Carlisle's arrival, with the new coach preferring a much more conservative mindset from his defensive anchor. Under Isiah Thomas, Artest was encouraged to gamble more for steals. Not surprisingly, his steals are down slightly, from 2.42 per game over the previous two seasons to 2.03 this season.
Yet Artest is more effective than ever, concentrating more on contesting shots and smarter positioning. Carlisle has used him to guard every position except center so far, and the results have often been spectacular. Denver's Carmelo Anthony, for example, scored two points on 1-for-13 shooting when he got his first dose of the Artest Effect. Minnesota's Latrell Sprewell was hounded into a scoreless evening on 0-for-8 shooting later in November. It's not hard to understand why the Pacers are rebuffing teams that call to inquire about Artest's availability, in spite of the recent turmoil. He's really going to have to misbehave for a defense-loving coach like Carlisle to push for a trade.
What also makes Artest and Kirilenko so impressive so far is that both, like Jordan and Payton before them, have been hurting the opposition at both ends, as opposed to expending the bulk of their energy on defense. Bowen, meanwhile, says there are several fearsome defenders who get even less hoopla than he does.
Asked to pick his favorite defender, Bowen promptly nominated New Orleans' forgotten Stacey Augmon. "I know he doesn't play a lot of minutes anymore," Bowen said, "but he's absolutely still (a force)."
Two more entries from the veterans' committee are Wallace's ex-teammates: Clifford Robinson and Michael Curry. Robinson is now in Golden State, trying to teach defense to a Warriors team that has rarely played any for much of the past decade. Curry is in Toronto, serving as a backup power forward -- at age 35 and standing just 6-foot-5 -- for a club desperately lacking at the power positions.
"As far as off the ball, I think Ben's the best defender in the game," Robinson said, "As far as help defense, and being there to support his teammates off the ball, he's the best right now. But, on the ball, there's a lot of guys you can put in that category.
"It's two different styles of defense. A guy who's a good on-the-ball defender does a good job at forcing people to take bad shots. A good weak-side defender is there to help people when they get beat."
It has to be pointed out that the best perimeter defenders almost always have a great big man behind them to help make them such a nuisance. Artest is flanked by the fast-improving Jermaine O'Neal, who Carlisle argues is "another guy who's a very underrated defender in this league." Bowen, of course, has Tim Duncan. Trenton Hassell is finally getting some attention now that he has moved to Minnesota to play alongside Kevin Garnett. Wallace no longer has Robinson or Curry as defensive partners, but Tayshaun Prince is the new beneficiary of Big Ben's help. And when Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal are playing at their playoff peaks, the league doesn't see two defenders more dominant.
"In my mind, it's a two-horse race (for DPOY honors)," Carlisle said. "It's Ben or it's Ron. Their styles are very much contrasting, but their teams' defensive systems are both built around them. ... Ron's just raw defensive energy and will (can) carry our team past a tough opponent."
When the ballots go out in April, there will be other contenders. Kirilenko is certain to figure into the discussion because he, too, is unique, with length and athletic ability that enable him to get by at power forward -- even in the mighty West -- in a small forward's body. Minnesota coach Flip Saunders swore to me last week that KG has somehow improved on defense, which means he has to be a strong contender. Ditto for Duncan, as always, enabling the Spurs to routinely hold opponents under 80 points a game even with David Robinson in retirement.
That said ...
When the ballots arrive, I'm going to do more research. Talk to more players and coaches. Scour plus-minus stats and effectiveness ratings. I don't want to overlook the Ron Artests anymore.
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here. Also, click here to send a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.