Be honest, do you miss Trevor Ariza & Luc Mbah a Moute?

Luc has only played 61 minutes this year, appearing in only 4 games, after being completely ineffective in last year's playoffs.

The Luc I miss is the healthy one, not the one who finished the season with us in June and is currently sitting on the Clippers' bench in street clothes.

 

Luc if healthy is without a shadow of a doubt a top 10 perimeter defender in the league but the problem is he is never healthy.He has already missed the bulk of the clippers games this season due to injuries.

 

I miss both of them at their peaks in play / pay in Rockets uniform. Both went out in a fizzle here.

 

we have some team chemistry issue with new players this season. i still have my hope up for Ariza in the buy out market so we can give him melo's money. i don't miss luc with the shoulder issue. he didn't even play that much this season. but yeah the more 3 and D dudes the merrier for the Rockets.

 

I certainly miss what they did for us last year and the cohesion / chemistry they obviously contributed to. Same could be said for early season Ryno. Hell we won 65 games. It was a fun season and in theory we only lost “expendable” parts. Well now we know how important and fragile chemistry is. We don’t know what the departure of Trevor and Luc has done to team chemistry and comradery. I know cp may have aged some. Maybe James got his MVP and said f it. But I can’t help but think if we had the same crew as last year we would be doing better ( assuming luc health ). Maybe Trev would hold guys accountable or fire them up?

There is nothing inspiring about this squad and season. At this point I have not seen anything that gives me any confidence that this season will turn around. 2015/16 had a spurt here and there that made you think maybe they were coming out of it. But ultimately they were a 500 team that ended up being a warm up act for the warriors.

I know we are calling for Daryl to make changes. But really. What can he do? Sign vet min players off the dung heap? What assets does he have to acquire someone that could come in and get this group back on the right track. Daryl might be a good GM but he doesn’t have a Harry Potter wand to transform the likes of green Chriss knight mcw Hartenstein nene Clark house and washed up caramel to traceable assets.

Maybe our first round picks are starting to gain value since we are a rancid turd of a team right now. But what will that fetch us that will help us this season. I didn’t expect us to be a 65 win team again but I sure as hell didn’t expect the window to be slammed shut, boarded over and then the house burned down on our championship pursuit. Run it back. More like get back I got the runs.

 

There were more players last year, than just Trevor Ariza and Luc, that at least contributed to the team. Tariq Black brought defense, toughness, rebounding. Ryan Anderson brought deep shooting before getting an ankle injury last year at least he brought some deep 3 pt shot in which it is easier for Harden and Chris to attack the basket. Rockets didn't replace those TYPES of Specific Players.
Not Drafting in the 1st Round the Last Four Seasons is the Result of the Lack of Talent on the Rockets.

 

Even with Ariza and Moute back, the Rockets wouldn’t be the same team as last year. The team last year had a level of dedication and focus that is very hard to replicate, especially losing the way they lost.

Also Ariza hasn’t played well this year. He is noticeably slower and his offense is bad. As for Moute, he hasn’t been a factor this season at all.

There are players out there that can impact the Rockets more than 2018 Ariza and those players are available.

FWIW Ariza has looked like he is in his own personal hell in Phoenix. His teammates do not properly switch, they double at wrong times and they have no clue how to set him up on offense. His passes are not appreciated when his teammates don’t cut properly.

To everyone looking for a buyout, I can’t see it happening. He is mentoring a dysfunctional team so he has value to them. Also if he were bought out, he would likely choose the Lakers and Warriors over the Rockets. Ariza is from LA and has wanted to play with LeBron for years. Plus he has expressed the sentiment that the time once Houston was played out.

 

THIS is what some people - like @DaDakota - fail to comprehend... They envision pre-injury Luc and rant about how DM and Tilman 'gutted a championship roster' while not understanding that he is not the same player as he was before... and if he got paid and was sitting on the bench, then folks would be ranting about keeping 'damaged goods' on the roster... smh...

Ariza.... he's looked like crap this year... i suppose one could argue that were he still in our system he may be playing better... although then he may be the same guy that went 0-12 in game 7 - but a year older... so there's that... and 15M...

but people are always going to play armchair GM while thinking they are so much wiser than the guy in charge...

So, sure I miss them - but wouldn't necessarily want them in their present incarnation...

I miss Hakeem too... but Idk if I'd want him suiting up for us... although he could prob still fill 10 min/night reasonably well... lol

 

Luc has been a non-factor this year for the Clippers so while I wish he didn't leave, I don't think it would have mattered had he stayed. He'd be on the IR in street clothes more than likely.

As with Trevor, at that price you have to let him go. Keeping him for 15 million is just way too much for what he brings. Yes, he was a long time reliable staple of the team in the Harden era, but the Suns threw the bank at him and he took it. You cant blame Morey for not doing that, he has a budget and cap implications to work under. On top of that, Ariza isn't anywhere near as productive this year with the Suns. Could that be new system? I think so. He just doesn't fit well over there.

Anderson, for as much hate as he gets, when he was on he helped us more than the eye could see. A deep threat big who spaced the floor wide open (despite his shooting woes) for both James and Chris to operate. Losing him closed the lanes all up. Now the guys don't have room to operate as efficiently as last year.


I wish we had the healthy, good shooting and affordable versions of the players above. Unfortunately we cant and for some reasons that are beyond our control.

 

Morey never adequately replaced either of them...brought in a bunch of scrubs and tried to act like everything was all good

“Run it back!!”

Rockets took like 2 steps backwards, and now I’m just hoping that we can get back to the WCF and not get embarrassed by GS

 

This is probably the 10th time we've had this thread.

 

While the team might not have been just as good as it was last season, they should have been kept to retain chemistry.

We should have "Run it back"the proper way....by bringing everyone (except Ryan) back and then adding one or two more quality pieces to what we had last year.

The exact same team from last year and say Ennis + another prolific shooter would have been an improvement. And wait to turn the Knight + Chris contracts + picks for better players.

This off-season mess has left us in too big of a hole.

 

I miss who they were with the team from last year. Both us and them are different now and I have a feeling we would be in a similar boat even with them this year

 

Maybe. But I like this one.

Dude created an account and has his actual pic as his avatar.

 

Of course i miss them, last year's team had something special just like the team in 2008/09, and it also ended in the same way smfh...

But like others said i don't think having Trevor would've changed much, for how good he was for us, i don't think swapping him with Ennis can make the contender we were 6 months ago the team we look today.

I also don't think chemistry is an issue here, after that horrible start we won convincingly some games against good teams until we lost that game in Detroit, and i mean, the Pistons are a dangerous team, they were on a mission and multiple things worked against us...refs, luck (Griffin 3 pointer in the end of the 4th), Harden doing two big mistakes...after that, Paul and Gerald injuries led to short rotations, big minutes for the healty guys, btb and/or games with ot...i don't know, but short roster might be the only problem here.

 

Trevor has been on the down slide for the past couple of years.

Last year: 41.2 (FG%)......36.8 (3P%)...11.7 pts/ gm....114 ORtg.....107 DRtg.....11.8 PER
This year: 37.2 (FG%)......35.8 (3P%)...10.0 pts/ gm....104 ORtg.....114 DRtg.....10.1 PER

Ariza from basketball-reference.com
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/arizatr01.html
I agree Ariza is mIght get last years numbers while with Houston this year....but not worth the risk @$15M.


Luc is too often hurt nowadays. Sitting on the Rockets bench in street clothes, helps us not.

 

The key to Trevor is reduced minutes especially given his age.

All we needed to do was reduce his minutes and he would have been a solid contributor for us. Let Ennis eat away into his minutes over time.

When his minutes are managed well, he has been solid for us. When he plays too many minutes and tries to do too much, he has not been good.

Also, Trevor on that garbage Suns team is not the same as Trevor in this team.

As for Luc, unless he has a career ending injury, signing him for the price was a no-brainer. He could have helped us with his defense once he would have been back. Better than anything we have and most likely going to get.

Morey thought CP and Harden can make any scrub look great. He thought MCW was Luc's replacement lulz...

 

There is great irony in Ariza thriving for this Houston team. The Rockets do not fit anyone's vision of egalitarian basketball. Ariza long ago accepted that. When Houston veers too far toward isolation -- when entire quarters go by without role players doing much beyond standing around on offense -- he might express some mild discontent to the relevant parties, team sources say.

When Lowe's article came out during the WCF, this part struck me in particular. Supports your claim that his time in Houston's iso heavy system is done. @ch44 seems to think that Ariza wants to come back to HOU, though. Hope he's right!