Thanks for typing the whole thing up. That was one, if not the best, article of this long off-season. I have loved Ariza's game since I saw him play against our high school in Westchester. I couldn't believe the Knicks got him so low and we stupid enough to trade him. Now I am just glad he is a Houston Rocket. Hopefully Shane can be a good mentor to him and help him further develop his defensive skills. Definitely looking forward to seeing him in a Rockets jersey next year, even if it is on my laptop! Damn NBA keeping the Rockets off national tv!
I can't wait til Ariza gets in Houston and starts working out with the team. I'm suprise I didn't hear anything when he was looking for his crib.
Enjoy. I wouldn't type up the whole thing unless I thought it was something every Rockets fan needed to read. But anyways... Goose? Is that what we're expected to call Ariza? Brings back flashbacks from Top Gun. "GOOOOOOOOOOSE!"
I think Ariza gets it too, as evidenced by this quote... "My whole career, all I've wanted to feel is wanted, and I have that now," he says. "It sounds crazy, but the Rockets swept me off my feet. I'm telling you, I've never felt so comfortable in my life." Ariza plays the type of game that will fit nicely with Landry, Scola and Battier. And he adds what we've been needing... length.
My feeling is the Rockets know what they're doing when it comes down to evaluating defensive impact of players. It's something that most of us have a hard time with, because there aren't any good measures for it publicly available. But the Rockets have a wealth of information to base their defensive evaluations on -- you can be sure they're not simply looking at +/- or superfically tabulating rebs/blks/stls. So, if Morey is being sincere when he says Ariza is at the top defensively for his position, I'm excited about that. But how well you perform defensively can also be a product of the system you play in. The Lakers put heavy emphasis on zoning up on the strong side and forcing turnovers with aggressive traps. That plays to Ariza's strengths. Do the Rockets try similar things this year?
What the hell?! I was taken aback after reading that. and yeah. thanks a lot for posting this kkosh. great article
That kind of bon boyage can bring a smile to anyone's face. Ariza, though, has been smiling since July 2, when he listened to this voice mail: "Hey Trevor, this is Luis Scola. I would really like for you to be my teammate." At the time, he couldn't believe his ears. "I thought Luis was a jerk," he says of the Rockets' feisty big man. "Just because of the way he plays. But he's a real cool dude." Within hours, Ariza had heard from seven other cool dudes, some by texy, like this one from an unknown number: "You beat us and won the championship. Now you can help me get one. -Shane." That's a great line about Scola. He thought Luis was a jerk because of the way he plays? Hilarious! I'm glad to hear it. I always thought Scola got under the skin of the opposition. He never lets up, never takes a play off, and he's freakin' crafty. "But he's really a cool dude." Looks like the players did a great job selling the Rockets! Thanks, OP. Kudos!
Ha ha, Scola must have got under the skin of a lot of NBA players these days. He is such an asset to Rockets.
Didn't Scola get into it a bit with Odom or Walton during the series? I'm sure a lot of these guys think people on the other team are jerks while in the middle of a rather heated 7 game series.
Thank you kkolish for spending the time on typing up the article . Good read, I'm looking forward to seeing what Ariza can bring to the team. TA seems to be a player that will continue to work hard to improve his game. Welcome to Houston Trevor
Yeah that is true. but Scola never trashed talked during the entire confrontation if my memory serves right. . Unlike KG who trash talks all the time i think Luis just played tough . wondering why such players are considered as "jerks" maybe Ariza thinks Scola is a flopper .. and floppers are jerks ..
haha. maybe. but I don't think you can develop handles in a single off season.. good that he is trying though.
What do you think they're basing their information on then? Also, do you have any idea on what these private measures that are ostensibly in use to evaluate the defensive impact of players are or are you just saying that they exist?
I think a announcers during the playoffs said that one of the things Battier did when we played with Lakers was that the Rockets had statistic on how Lakers as a team perform when Kobe gets the ball at individual areas of the floor, and Shane actually worked at keeping Kobe from receiving the ball from certain areas based on that information. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some metric evaluating how a defensive player disrupts an offensive scheme by being on the floor (does the opposing team ISO more when a certain player is on the floor).
