exactly. many posters here do not understand that elite defense is not something morey can just find off the waiver wire or teach one of our bench scrubs this offseason. the timing, anticipation, lateral movement, reach, intelligence, heart, and years of experience required all make it a rare skill that very few players in the league have. this is a major loss for this team.
i don't know if i said it, but i certainly thought it. why in the world would we not use our MLE on this guy? i mean tilman, you do have to pay for one of ariza or luc. i've pretty much had a "trust in morey" policy going on a decade now, but wtf and wtf and wtf.
Im a Melo believer and think being in an environment he wants to be in will do wonders for him. Whos leadership would you prefer to play under, BFF CP3 or Russ? And as for who he will get to replace Luc well thats the great unknown. However we are too far into this to not have a crack so i trust Morey will get some sort of playable piece in. Its still early, we all need to take a chill pill. Someone will shake loose and when they do Morey will be there waiting.
We lose Ariza 7 for 35 and Luc 1 for 5..... 8 for 40 against Warriors. 20% 3 pt shooting....not going to miss them. As for defense....Ariza’s Defense rating in the series was 116. Only EG and Green were worse. That includes both teams! Ariza was a great piece for a couple years but I think Morey may be going the Bill Belichick method here and letting him go a year early before they are washed up.
What was Ariza's Defense rating the rest of the season? You guys act like we're going to just waltz on up to the WCF again this year without a hitch, no problem. Guess what? We only got so far, so easily last year because our defense against everyone was spectacular, and it just got much, much worse. And a bonus? The west got tougher AGAIN
his shoulder dislocation might be a consistent problem plus he is not that good of a player in playoffs he might be better off on a non-playoffs team such as LAC
We will waltz back up to the WCF finals again. Who gives a crap about the rest of the season, when it mattered most Ariza sucks and always has. Now he Can go play in Phoenix where he doesn’t have to worry about being great in playoffs. Capela, Tucker, CP3 were the reason our defense was great. Not a layup missing shoulderless reserve player who disappeared in the playoffs just like Ariza did.
Losing two of your best long Doberman utility defenders stings really bad so far this offseason. Lets hope Morey has something up his sleeve with more than an older Carmelo Anthony (although I'll admit if only using the mid level exemption for him would be a coup). From what I remember this past season is when the Rockets played tough defense they usually did not lose.
If anything I think this means Morey is working on something substantially larger and Luc is just a casualty of that. Morey has flat out earned the benefit of the doubt in just about every move he does or doesn’t make at this point and if he didn’t want to commit to such a small amount it’s exponentially more likely that he’s either a. working on something significant or b. doesn’t think Luc is healthy enough. Bc otherwise letting Luc go doesn’t make a great deal of sense and anyone who is questioning Morey’s competency is simply being an alarmist.