The Lakers did offer Ariza the same money Rockets offered, but Ariza wanted significantly more, felt insulted, and ended up taking MLE money from Houston. So the Lakers did find worth in Ariza. To me, the one issue with Ariza isn't that he couldn't play with next year's cast-- having Martin probably made his life easier after the trade. The issue is minutes: Will Ariza be happy getting, say, 24 mpg, so that Martin, Battier and Budinger can all get their regular run? Remember that when all 4 of them were healthy and available (not that many games, I recall), Budinger's minutes were getting squeezed. I kind of doubt it. Ariza signed what was an below-market contract (Toronto offered him more) with a 5th year player option with the expectation that he'll get enough minutes to show his skills to get a good next contract (probably the last one in his career).
Not sure this is a great move for the Rockets in the short term. Leaves us thin at the 3 spot. Battier is aging and not as durable - and frankly was never an offensive player. C-bud is still learning and improving. But we'll miss Ariza mostly there. And Ariza struggled a lot but he did indeed put up respectable numbers in the 2nd half of the season. And that was a very encouraging trend. We will miss Ariza's length and ability to play the 3 well....Lee is too short to really be a 3 against a lot of the teams.
He's less likely to b**** if someone beats him out for minutes. Not his personality and he's also still on a rookie deal.
I don't know, a young player used to starting and getting 33 minutes a game suddenly the number 2 option and getting 20 minutes? I don't think he'll be happy for very long. Hopefully I'm proven wrong.
No man, DD got it right. Ariza was a Lakers kid. He grew in LA, and just played an important part in their last title run. IF Mitch Kupchak had offered Ariza a contract he would have accepted it. He admitted as much when interviewed by LA radio.
Whhhhhhhaaaatttt? At the 3 spot (which is interchangeable with the 2 spot BTW) we still have: Battier Cbud Jeffries Then you have players that could play the 3 in a pinch: Martin Lee And we are most decidedly, most assuradly NOT thin at the 3 spot. Not thin...(repeated for emphasis). Yeppers, this is true. DD
If Lee and Budinger prove to be deserving of minutes, you can always give them some of Shane's minutes next year -- and all of it the year after that since Shane's contract expires. I am sure Adelman will put the lineup out there to best win games.
You shouldn't really count on Jeffries giving us valuable minutes at ANY position, or even him still being here.. The dudes trash..
I really liked what he did with the Magic in his rookie season Proves he can play with a dominant center in the middle. and from what I hear, his defence is pretty damn solid too. so this is a good trade IMO too bad we never gotta see Ariza playing to Yao thought
yeah its fun to root for the underdog when they are nice hard working type of guys... but i'd still rather have miami's roster.
That's true, I've never really thought about how Yao may have impacted Ariza's game. Battman definitely plays better when Yao's playing, see's a lot more quality looks.
You're telling me you'd rather have Bosh, Wade, and James, instead of Yao, Martin, and AB?!? Come on man, what are you smokin'?
