No complaints from me , played a great / solid game tonight . If he can keep hitting his threes and slashing occasionally he'll be fine . The improved ball movement tonight helped Ariza tremendously . Also having at least one big who knows his rotations helps him play more aggressively on defense .
You can't blame the locker room. If you win, the locker room is happy, if you lose, it's a bad place to be. Sure some veteran voices can turn a negative locker room into a positive one - but that's only temporarily. It sounds be really interesting to watch what happens if we go on a win streak now.. I bet all the numbers of our role players go up as a result of team effort..
This is almost like the team of last year. Great to see energy, spark off bench.. Keep it up. Don't give up, instead - PURSUIT!
Ariza has been guarding everything from Center to pg this season. Cut the man some slack. He's done everything asked of him, just like Dwight, Beverly and some others. It isn't Ariza's fault that Dmo has been out and we didn't have Josh Smith to help at pf. Also isn't his fault that when he's forced to play out of position at pf we don't have soemone else that can guard both wing positions because Harden doesn't have the time to do so.
Anyone who ever doubts Ariza is not a great player to have and the least of our problems, you should really consider watching some games (over box scores) and maybe get your head checked. You guys would've crucified Vernon Maxwell back in the day with all his horrible shooting games and 'just' playing good defense.
Some of you are bipolar an don't know anything about basketball besides box score watching. A guy doesn't play well for a few games - trade him! trade him! trade him! No basketball foresight or knowing the circumstances around the play. Like I said, Trev is the least of the problems. He does what he does at a bargain contract. Ariza has to often guard the best 1-4 of the opposing team. Everyone knows what he brings. Same with Lawson. Y'all clamoring to trade him not knowing that his value is at it slowest and anything we get back will not be remotely close to the potential this team has with Lawson integrated. Dumb dumb dumb
Wouldn't it be crazy if the Rockets miss on Durant then bring back Parsons after he opts out leaving $16 million on the table. (doubtful)
People wanting 3Za gone are just dumb, period. End of story. Dude's a ****ing bargain and one of the better 3nD players around. You think he sucks? Wait till he can't play and you have just Brew manning the 3 spot for an extended period of time so you know what sucking means. Being a good defender is like a good bass player, the better he is the more you don't hear him. The best defense isn't a block or a steal, the best def is your guy won't even attempt a shot and pass it to another dude which is what regularly happens to the guy 3Za is covering. His shooting is hot and cold but his ability to defend everyone on the wings, athleticism and 3 pt threat is something that is a rare commodity on the market, there aren't a lot of 3nD players floating around you can just grab. And ****ing Parsons? Really? Dude lost a ton of mobility and can't guard anyone to save his life, he relies on Matthews to cover for him. Just cause the guy goes for 30 on another team doesn't mean he'll go for 30 on the Rox, we have Harden and Howard taking most of the attempts already. Parsons compiles more stats but if you actually care about winning games 3za>>>>>Parsons. And at half price too.
We should re-evaluate since we picked up smith. The burden of Ariza is now reasonable since harden doesn't play D. Ariza is being unfairly pinned for his bad play but that is a result of how harden is playing. Harden isn't recovery, isn't doing anything D related. If harden can get away saying that all the playing on O makes him tired and misses on D. The inverse should be given for Ariza. Always guarding the opposing teams offensive player with defense he has not energy for O and that should be a reason on giving Ariza a pass for his bad play.
Yep - everything changes with Smith coming back. We really need to take our time - right up until the deadline - to decide who to move, if anyone. Smith is going to hurt some peoples' play (probably by taking their minutes) and help others (with better passing). Ariza is almost certainly one of the ones who will benefit.
Agreed, really dumb. The worst examples are those people that want to trade out best player and last year's MVP runner up. Those people are the worst.
Ok, except Ariza's defense has been bad this season. For whatever reason he can't seem to stay in front of anyone this season. I'm not sure how Harden is preventing Ariza from staying in front of his man but Ariza is primarily a defensive player but he hasn't played good defense this year. Our opponents TS% is +2.4% higher when Harden is on the floor than when he's off. That's what everyone expects, but our opponents TS% is +3.0% higher when Ariza is on the floor than when he's off. That's a huge dropoff from previous seasons and it's part of our problem. If Ariza is playing bad defense then he's below average on both ends of the floor. I realize that it's fun to blame everything on Harden but let's be honest about what's really happening on the floor.
