Rockets sign Trevor Ariza to 4-year, $32 million deal

It's really encouraging he chose us over Washington, which was doing pretty well. Shows commitment.

Countdown until people start explaining why Ariza's praise of McHale doesn't mean anything. . . .

 

Love where Ariza is as a player. Knows his role.

Elite wing defender.

 

Knows his role. Doesn't fashion himself as an up and coming superstar like somebody else we know that wants to demand a larger role instead of playing his role.

 

Ariza was a mess his last stint in houston, but he said he legitimately liked this city and wanted to stay here even when he was traded...

how many players can say that?

 

Ariza will perform... better believe it.

He also won't say he's the best SF on the court.

And Rockets fans are going to love him whenever we add that 3rd star... because he knows his role.

 

I definitely appreciate that. I love my city so I definitely get a little offended when players don't like it, just a homer I guess.

The only thing I don't understand about people who dislike this signing is why do they continue to bring up his first stint in Houston. We all know that Houston was experimenting to see if he was a first/second option type player and since we weren't competing for a championship, they gave him the green light. Definitely was extremely annoying to watching bobble the ball that season, but this second stint is going to be totally different. His role is completely different and he has Harden and Howard who allow him to have easier shots.

I am really excited about this signing.

 

So I was playing with some stats and discovered that Trevor Ariza is one of the most effective volume catch and shoot (3pointers) players in the league.

Of the 9 players that catch and shoot 3 point shots more than 4 times per game, only Kyle Korver, JR Smith and Joes Calderon have higher effective FG%. I imagine the Rockets are trying to implement a better post offense for Dwight, so having effective catch and shoot players will give him space because defenses won't be able to sag as much.

Kyle Lowry and Carmelo Anthony are pretty effective catch and shoot players as well, but don't have the volume of shots that Ariza has. Same story with Troy Daniels but if you give that guy minutes he'll be a name on that list next year. I wonder if this combination of stats is something Morey looked at in the offseason.

http://stats.nba.com/playerTracking...rowsPerPage=50&filters=FG3A*G*3**EFG_PCT*G*59

 

Another stat note... Rajon Rondo is 2nd in the league in points created by assists per game. The Clippers score 24.5 per game with Chris Paul and the Celtics scored 23.0 per game with Rondo's assists.

http://stats.nba.com/playerTrackingPassing.html?pageNo=1&rowsPerPage=25&filters=PTS_CRT*G*20

Kendal Marshall is up there too... why couldn't Morey pry him away in the Lin trade? (Lin only caused 10.1 ppg with his assists. If you are wondering why the number is so low... he's selfish.)

 

No, he isn't selfish. He just isn't very good.

 

I've talked myself into this Ariza return. Really excited to have an actual perimeter defender for a change.

 

I'm exactly the same way. Chandler's defense was getting to be a problem. Every team Dwight plays on should be solid on defense. He's about the perfect anchor with his rebounding and ability to cover so much ground.

Edit: I think Ariza will do for the Rockets what Kenneth Faried is doing for Team USA. Hustle makes a huge difference.

 

Biggest problem right now is that Wikipedia only has Trevor's old Wizards foto, and we want him in a Rockets dress.
Thus we need some good foto, with permission to be used on wikipedia. See

Does the author know the rights owner of this Trevor foto? Is it an official Rockets foto?
Can someone please clarify and upload a good one to wikipedia? I'm sure the front office has a few good ones.

 

Been thinking about this a while - When Morey brought Ariza over the first time, he was looking for Kawhi Leonard/JImmy Butler before Kawhi Leonard/Jimmy Butler. Taking a chance on a defensive guy with a decent 3 pt shot and hoping he develops into a good 2-way player. It turned out his ball handling skills were just too bad to salvage but I wonder if Morey's experience with Ariza is what soured him on Leonard.

 

It's possible. I think what soured him on Leonard is he was not known for shooting 3's when he was in college. His hands were too big and there was a stereotype of guys with big hands can't shoot and it turns out those big hands are part of what makes Leonard so great.

11 other teams passed on him 13 times.