Ariza has been amazing thus far this season, no doubt. But I still think it's a little premature to hail him as savior to this team, just yet as it has only been 4 games. If I remember correctly, Ariza's first few games as a Rockets his first time around were very good as well. The Rockets were winning games and I remember NBA.com had him as a top three MVP candidate after the first few weeks of the season. We all know how quickly his stock declined as he tried to do too much and lost efficiency. All I am saying is that we need to reserve judgement until there is a much greater sample size. If Ariza can maintain a >40% from deep (somewhat likely) and keep his defensive intensity (very likely) throughout the season, then we can make the doubts eat crow all day long
I thought bringing Ariza here the first time was a horrible idea. He was coming off an obviously unsustainable three point exhibition in the playoffs and getting wide open shots with the Lakers that he would never get with that Rockets team. To that point in his career, he was a very streaky shooter with no real offensive game. Why Morey thought he could come here and suddenly learn to dribble, create his own shot, create shots for others and be a leader is beyond me. In retrospect, I guess Morey always knew he could flip him if the gamble didn't pay off so no harm done. This time, the guy has a very clear role that plays to his strengths and keeps him from needing to play beyond himself. I was stoked when I heard he was coming back to be a ROLE PLAYER and he hasn't disappointed and I doubt he will in the future.
Yeah, the real problem with what happened with Parsons isn't that he was replaced by Ariza who's arguably a much better fit for the Rockets. It's that the team let Parsons walk for nothing and wind up with a division rival who's looking pretty damn good themselves right about now. Granted, Dallas overpaid badly to get him, but imagine if we'd gotten Ariza and then shipped out Parsons for a draft pick or help at the 1 or 4/5 spots. As for Ariza, it's still early in the season and the competition has been weak, but it's hard to find anything to complain about so far. He's on fire from the field, he's getting steals all over the place, the entire Rockets defense seems to have taken it up a notch from last year, and he's letting the game come to him instead of forcing it.
I doubt I posted in the thread in question - however, I will eat crow for this post in this thread. That was really not long ago at all and I had no idea how much Ariza's game had developed compared to 2010. I'm a big supporter now.
Ariza is playing like the guy that the Rockets hoped to get in 2009-- the guy who was great defensively for during the Lakers 2009 playoff run and hitting the 3s at an unusually high %-- and much better than the guy that the Rockets actually got back then. It is early this season still but Ariza played much like this last year with the Wizards, too, so there are reasons to believe that he can keep up the good work.
What the Rockets wanted to get that year from Ariza was a TMAC-lite, or Harden. It was obvious thst wasn't going to happen a few weeks into the season. Now that Ariza is back to the role he had with the Lakers and Wizards, he is playing much better.
Crow shouldn't taste that bad if prepared correctly. I've had small birds that were a million times better than chicken or turkey.
The surprise to me isn't that he's making 3s but that he's getting 3s. Once we start playing some better defenses, perhaps that will drop. But he's clearly an offensive force if he can just get ~7 open looks per game that he's on pace right now.
Bimathug is your friend on subjects like this. http://rockets.clutchfans.net/7664/houston-rockets-salary-cap-breakdown/ Spoiler Parsons contract starts at $14.7mil. Even if we took out the Terry Trade, only $5mil left to spend. No chance at Rondo, no chance at Horford, no chance at anyone significant. You really like Parsons that much? I don't. Parsons contract
Not letting Chandler walk meant the Rockets could not offer Bosh the maximum, which he did not take anyway. Parsons had absolutely nothing to do with Howard, who was already on board with a multi-year contract. Parsons had a cap hold in the final season of his four year contract for $1M. Any speculation about underhanded "deals" with agents is just that. Speculation. Or perhaps you can provide me with an on point quote from Parsons, Howard, their agent or the Rockets organization? Thought not. http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...rd-rockets-free-agency/#24999101=0&24500103=0
The thing I love about Ariza is that he is always making the right play on both ends. We all know what he does on defense, but it's great that he is always swinging the ball or looking for the open man on offense.
If Ariza continues at more or less this level of play (let's say he even drops off a bit), then he was an absolute steal. I can live with losing Chandsome. He was getting full of himself and his numbers-chasing and no-defense did not match well with James Harden. I just wish Michael Jordan had been the dude who b.s.'d Parsons with, "Even if LeBron says 'I want to play for your team', YOU'RE my guy'." Because I hate Mark Cuban and the Mavs and I feel the whole Parsons thing was engineered from the moment he signed with Fegan. We were played like Hyman Roth played with Frank Pentangeli, Michael Corleone and the Rosatto Brothers. Anyway, I'm liking this Ariza more and more. GREAT acquisition. Now go settle the power forward thing, Morey.
