He is declining rapidly. He is not as quick and his offensive abilities do not fit a read and react offense with tons of freedom. That said, If you deal Ariza you better bring back something decent in return.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Trevor Ariza is an open 3 pt shooter Defense 0-4 feet: 7-35 (20%) Defense 4-6 feet: 23-76 (30%) Defense 6 feet+: 37-91 (41%)</p>— David Locke (@Lockedonsports) <a href="https://twitter.com/Lockedonsports/status/684146655478722560">January 4, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
It's not that simple, and although the "head coach" title is new for him, J.B. isn't new to this game. Obviously, he's made some mistakes, but I respect the fact that he has made many evident changes, and he continues to make changes during games. With Kevin, we would ride or die with the same "play," "system" and players on the floor. J.B. is a completely different animal than Kevin was. Could we have a more experienced coach? Absolutely. Could we have a "better" coach? Yeah, for sure. However, when you change coaches early in the season like we did, it's smarter to go with someone your team is familiar with and has some level of respect towards. If George Karl were available during the time that Kevin was fired, it still would have been a mistake to bring him on. He wouldn't know our guys, their personalities and the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Karl, or any coach outside of the current coaching staff, would spend a significant time with the duration of the season simply becoming familiar with the team. That's a dangerous risk to take, and I don't think Les was willing to throw in the towel just yet by clearing out the entire bench of coaches. Chris Finch is going to be a head coach one day. He's being groomed for that. Buck is a great assistant coach and he's respected by players, especially Trevor, for his defensive mindset. It's hard to be patient when we want the best for a team. It's early. Our coaches have adjusted, and if they were starting out fresh, with their own identity, I'd bet J.B. would be praised instead of criticized. One of the serious issues with this team is the lack of identity, partly because McHale didn't establish WHO the team was this season. Last year, although the identity was weak, it was there. In comparison, this season, he appeared to be allowing the team to work on the formation of an identity. It rarely works out that way, especially when you have two All-Stars with incredible talent, along with fairly complex, developed egos. That's tough to manage if you don't foster an environment that is genuinely specific to how you want a team to function together, both on and off of the court. This has to happen on Day 1. It's like a college class without a syllabus: no expectations, "due dates," teaching philosophy or "goal" for the year. It's one thing to keep a team "loose" in the locker room. It's another to improvise an identity from game to game. This certainly includes practices, pre and post-game routines, media behavior, but most importantly, how you want OPPONENTS to see you. JVG was all about toughness, with a focus on defense. However, with JVG teams, no matter who was playing, you could expect a fight until the end. Rick kept things somewhat "loose," but like JVG, he came in with a proven, winning system that players respected. He expected results and, as we saw, he would take guys out that weren't playing well. Even then, the same players respected him because he was still loyal to their minutes the following game. Veterans who played for Rick have mentioned that in interviews to the extent that they knew their minutes were going to come because RA/staff believed in them. With that confidence, I'd say that Rick's teams, including the teams with severe talent deficits (compared to the league), knew their expectations, for the most part, and either met or exceeded them. J.B. doesn't have the stats to back up his approach, but he's definitely experienced, respected and is devoted to winning. He's also not afraid to shake things up, which can be a good or bad thing for him, depending on who's looking at it. I'm trying to figure a bit more out on why my guy LowKeyMT has fluctuated in different ways, but overall, I think JB is doing a pretty decent job with cleaning up a mess and trying to build something bright, from the depths of darkness that our Rockets began this journey in.
Damn, that does make a lot of sense. Bev/Lawson Harden/Terry Smith/Brewer Love/Dmo Mozgov/Clapela Irving/Delly Thornton/Shumpert Lebron/Ariza Thompson/ Dwight/Verajao ...except the Cavs have no reason to do that trade right now.
i agree everyone should be available but ariza should be high value like bev he can be a lot more useful if he doesnt play heavy minutes 35-40mpg is too much and thats what hes been doing UNTIL dec his minutes have been trending down, hopefully they stay in the high 20s
I wouldn't want to lose Ariza. Maybe he's lost a step but we would be screwed if we lost Ariza and didn't get back someone who can guard the best opposing wing and play help defense too. This team needs Ariza and Bev as long as Harden is around. Not necessarily to start, but we need them around as options. They have fantastic contracts and they are hard workers. Unless we were getting something really really good in return, I'd not pull the trigger on anything.
Why would the Cavs trade for Dwight? Tristan Thompson does the same job except he can hit freethrows & doesn't need plays called for him. They have no need for Ariza either when they already have Shumpert & JR Smith on their roster.
Basically you are saying Bickerstaff is a bit better than average. The Rox should have higher standards than being a tad better than mediocre by now because they tasted mediocrity for a long time now thanks to Alexander.
No, actually. I think J.B. is underrated. He's heavily scrutinized right now because of our record and because it's his first season as "head coach" of the Rockets. He's been in coaching circles for a long time. He knows how to play and how to win, regardless of what our record shows at the moment. Kevin had the title the last couple of years, but that doesn't mean his voice mattered. You can actually "hear" and "see" J.B. coaching. I wouldn't be surprised if he stays a bit longer...
This would have really upset me last season. Not so much now. My list of untouchables last year: Harden. Dwight. DMo. Ariza. My list of untouchables like 2 weeks ago: Harden. Capela. My current list of untouchables: Harden. Capela barely. Idk, I am just disappoint. Yes, disappoint.
Players are just not playing up to last year or normal standards of a championship team. That being said, I'm not so keen on moving Ariza at all!! You want Brewer to start?? KJ?? The new rookie from RVG people keep slobbering over??
