[Thespiralgoeson]

If Artest is better than T-Mac, it's only because T-Mac's back has gone bad. A healthy McGrady is on a completely different level than Artest. Artest is a phenominal defender, maybe the best, and more than decent offensively. But McGrady is one of those very, very few players in the NBA who can completely take over a game offensively, and single-handedly win a game and do it on a regular basis. Players like that are very rare, they are true franchise players; superstars. I'll take any one of those guys over a guy like Artest anyday. McGrady is one of them, Kobe is one of them, so is LeBron, Iverson, Dirk, Wade, and to a lesser extent guys like Pierce, Arenas and Carmelo. I'd put Artest in Basically the same category as Garnett, Brand, Marion; they're all the versitile do-it-all kind of guys, but you just can't count on them to take over a game offensively.

Edit: I also forgot to mention that McGrady is by no means whatsovever a "defensive sieve." He's an excellent defender, and I have no idea why people don't seem to recognize that.

Iverson is no pushover defensively either, which is amazing considering how small he is. Just look at Iverson's career compared to Artest. Iverson singlehandedly took his team to the finals. I seriously doubt Artest could ever do something half as incredible if he played with the group of scrubs that Iverson's played with his whole career.

As for Arenas and Carter... Well personally I think both of them are extremely overrated. I'd probably take Artest at this point, but it's a tough choice.