"The Luc Effect" Top 5 defense has coincided with him being on the floor this season....can't be a coincidence the Rockets dropped down to very mediocre to poor when he got hurt He fill in all the gaps and covers for everyone's slack. Very sound, fundamental and doesn't make many mistakes like silly fouls or getting burnt gambling for steals.
Luc is perfect off the bench. Our defense our 6th best in the league earlier this year with Ariza in the starting lineup. Ariza is a better shooter (barely) and a better passer. He's also a better defender one on one and very disciplined. Honestly, I'm fine with whoever starting, we're lucky to have both to fill all the minutes at SF.
I agree that ariza earned the right to start. starting isn't about who's the better player... ending a close game is. ariza starts at SFunless we get george or lebron to replace him. i think luc should start at PF. his defense against starting PFs will help the rockets jump out to early leads, while ryno will have an easier time scoring against bench guys. however, morey would never torpedo ryno's trade value by benching his $20M man.
Maybe keep Luc in 2nd unit and trade for a defensive upgrade at 4? That way our D efficiency not so dependent on ONE player.
Respectfully, I completely disagree. Trevor has always shot within the confines of an offense without over-forcing the issue. Sure, his shot has gone cold many times, but when it has counted, he's knocked down those threes. Luc has had a great season so far, but he doesn't have that track record yet. To his credit, I think he's a bit quicker off the dribble at this point, but he hasn't played as long as Trevor, nor has he come close to Trev's minutes. As much as I know Trevor is part of the glue that holds this team together, I'm aware of his weaknesses as a player. With that, he's still our best chance to win a title at the SF spot.
All the Ariza cheerleaders seriously need to calm down, because they're blind love and stubborn insistence on Ariza are really starting to hurt this team. Here's the fact: When Luc is on the court, our defensive rating is 97.4. When he's off, that number drops to 108.6. When Ariza is on the court, our defensive rating is 106.2. When he's off, that number ACTUALLY IMPROVES to 101.6. https://stats.nba.com/team/1610612745/onoffcourt-advanced/?sort=DEF_RATING&dir=1 Obviously who they usually play against has to be accounted for, but Luc has started 8 games for us, and in those games our D has been stellar with defensive rating of 97.0, which is even better than Luc's usual DRtg (https://stats.nba.com/player/201601/advanced/) Luc is also 1st in defensive RPM among all PFs and 6th overall who average more than 25 minutes per game. Ariza actually has NEGATIVE DRPM (-0.07) and is measly 44th among SFs in that category. Luc's opponents shoot -1.1% worse than on average, and - 4.7% worse on 3-pointers (https://stats.nba.com/player/201601/defense-dash/) Ariza's opponents shoot 3.4% BETTER than on average, and -3.1% worse on 3-pointers (https://stats.nba.com/player/2772/defense-dash/) Ariza is a better shooter, but shooting is not what we need in our line-up. We need a top-notch elite defensive specialist who can lift the entire team's defense up, and Luc fits that bill perfectly and Ariza doesn't. At least not anymore. Lastly, Ariza's defense doesn't even pass the eye-test. He can barely stay with his men as they easily blow past by him, and there is literally ZERO lock-down effect whenever we put Ariza on an elite offensive player. It has not worked for the past 2~3 years, and it just drives me crazy as to why we keep doing this when there is absolutely no benefit to be gained from it. It's time to acknowledge that Ariza simply isn't a great defensive player anymore. He's closer to average at this point in his career, and all the relevant data back this up. If Roberson can successfully start for OKC - which we now know had much more impact on OKC's team defense than we thought - there is no reason why Luc can't start for us. As for Ariza, it's been a good run, but it's time to slowly move away from him.
Yeah not a bad idea. Won't really affect minutes but Ariza has always been dramatically better when well rested and I feel like our starting line up needs every bit of athleticism it can get. I feel like Luc is more of a threat in transition and right now with CP/JH taking 15-20 3's per game, there are not enough shots for both Ariza and Anderson. Ariza would be coming off the bench playing with Gordon, CP3 and Tucker a lot which is incredible lol. Our bench could probably get HC in the East lol.
You are not reading these stats correctly. Remember that these numbers are heavily dependent on the person you're replacing/joining on the court, which is an interesting comparison, but it's not telling us one player is better than the other. To understand this, you have to understand the possibility that if you started Luc, these stats may just switch between them as well and by your logic, we would have to then swap them again over and over again.
I don't care who starts, I just wish we could get everyone healthy so MDA can really figure the best combinations. We have had very few games with the entire rotation healthy. But yes, I've been very impressed with Luc.
If you read my entire post, I address that exact point right below that paragraph. 1. Among those games where Luc started for us, our DRtg is still much better than usual 2. DRPM is a stat that accounts for who you play with & against, and Ariza still comes out poorly by that metric.
Ariza won one championship with LA. His play did not lead to “some [] championships” Washington has zero championships.
I see. So if more people liked Luc more than Ariza, MDA would make the change? How would he even find out? Should we write a group letter and give him our thoughts? Surely that would be sufficient. This must be done NOW!
Both Ariza and Mbah a Moute will be resigned next season unless Lebron gets into the mixed. One of them will be gone. But I pick Ariza.
We play so well with Luc starting, it's almost treasonous to suggest that Ariza should start over Prince Luc, because what? loyalty? team victory > player's feelings.
Man . Maybe we do keep Moute and PJ starting and bring Ariza , Ryan , and green off the bench . Having CP , Clint , Luc , and PJ on the floor makes our D insane . James is no slouch either right now . There are 96 minutes at the 3 and 4 . We could give 2 guys 25 The other 2 , 20 And still have 10 left for green if we took 5 mins from either the 5 spot or from the 1/2 We should use our depth to keep everyone fresh .
