He is in a slump. He should get out of said slump soon. Hopefully Oh hell- just play D and learn to dunk and I'll be ok.
he has been shooting pretty poorly but if you look at his january game logs, his percentages are improved due to the addition of brewer and smith leading to less minutes. his 3% for jan was 36% i believe.
I mean yeah, if it was a choice between being both great at 3 and D, I'd pick that. But if we're talking about a tradeoff here I'd rather have Ariza than Parsons. Not to mention slumps are temporary. Bad defense is a result of bad effort or bad lateral quickness and that is harder to fix.
I would like to send him to down to RGV for a few games. He would probably be insulted so it wouldn't happen. But he could shoot 20 threes a game down there and no one would care. I believe Troy Daniels was so hot come play off time because he got to jack up so many threes down there.
Like getting a layup? What was Ariza, like 1 for 5 at the rim last night? Look... Ariza had a great offensive year last year shooting the ball, but if you look over the span of his career, he is who he is. Take this lesson to the bank when looking at free agents. Especially in CONTRACT YEARS they are more likely to come back down to earth the following year if you see a huge spike in production. What you want to look for is STEADY progression in production. Not hills and valleys. That being said, the Rockets are getting what they paid for with his defense, and intangibles. He's still been great for this team, and is still a better fit than Parsons would have been. Especially if they get a secondary play maker in the next couple of weeks.
Ariza's numbers are pretty consistent through the years if you put his numbers on a per minute basis. The increases are simply due to better shooting. And his shooting steadily improved over the past 3 seasons. So "contract year" Ariza is a myth.
Dead legs .... He was playing far too many minutes prior to Brewer coming over which led to a slump that he really hasn't broken out of since. It may take a while to recover from all those miles / minutes , could probably use a game or two off to get him several days off consecutively. As for continuing to shoot , if he's open he has to let it fly. The only way he'll find his stroke is to keep shooting.
The clock has struck midnight and offensively Ariza has turned back into a pumpkin just as I expected...
If we had Kyle Korver, our 3-point shooting would skyrocket. I love his shot. But at the same time, our perimeter defense would drop significantly. And it isn't that Korver is necessarily a bad defender, but he is nowhere near what Ariza is. And he also isn't as good of a rebounder. Korver works on the Hawks because they have Demarre Carroll for defense and Jeff Teague/Dennis Schroder for playmaking. Even though I would love to have Korver on the Rockets, IMO he wouldn't be as good of a fit because that would leave us with only Beverley for a perimeter defender- same as last season.
This is what I don't get. I would rather have Harden shoot a contest 3 than Ariza shoot a wide open 3 at this point. I know our offense will suffer if Ariza stops shooting 3's but it seems he is more of a hinderance. If someone is even remotely near him he should not shoot period. There is no chance it goes in when he is contested. No shot of his should ever be off balance either. If you are off balance or not in rhythm don't shoot it! frustrating
I think it's interesting that people are reacting to his slump by wondering if he's really the right SF for the team. I almost go the opposite way...to me it has seemed like as Ariza goes, so go the Rockets. On the (admittedly rare nowadays) games when he does go 3 for 5 from outside, it brings the Rockets offense to a level that Harden alone can't do. If he manages to rest his legs and catch fire again starting in, say, March, he's a hugely valuable playoff differencemaker. There is precedent for such a streak - just look at his shooting in Washington. Sure, "contract year" explains some things about Ariza, but contract year doesn't change whether you hit or miss shots (at most, it explains the shot selection quality). Ariza has shown the ability to be a shooter and the ability to be a bricklayer. The Rockets won't win a title with Ariza playing like he has recently - but he brings enough to the table on D that they can afford to roll the dice with him for a while hoping he catches fire at the right time.
