I'll agree that Portland's style of ball fits him. That said, that team is stacked with 2's,3's, and mini 4's. Outlaw is just about as versatile a player but sits on the bench and plays low 20 minute games. If Paul Allen's goal is to win the award for greatest number of freakish athletes on an NBA team, and Ariza is willing to play less minutes, then maybe it'd work?
I'm not a fan. To me, he's Shane Battier at best with slightly worse defense and slightly better offense. He can't create his own shot. He's not THAT good shooting the three. He can't post-up. What's the point? Especially without Yao.
Give me a break, it's 2 days into free agency and players can't even officially sign yet. There's a difference in being slow to pull the trigger and knowing when to pull the trigger.
Man every player that is becoming a free agent, the Cavs are pushing for them. They pick up anyone and I bet ya they even pick up Luther Head if they can. Ariza is a nice player but there is really no point to having him. He needs a guy to really create for him and he is too inconsistent. If Yao is out for the rest of the season, might as well go lottery or save up for the 2010 offseason. I hate to say this but I think yao's career is over. I highly doubt that he will ever be the same player again. He has broken his bone 4 times in the last 3 season. This is really tough for the Rockets organization and the fans. Hopefully our rebuilding stage won't be so tough and we can finally get a promising young star talented player. The Yao and Tmac era is over. It ended faster than I expected. I still remenber the first time Tmac wore the Rockets uniform and the time when Yao's name was called on draft night. Man I believed that they will be like the Shaq and Kobe. But Tmac was not determined enough and yao was not dominant enough and our team over the years sucks. That includes having David Westley, picking up Stromile Swift and having J.Howard as our go to guy at one point. This season our team was amazing. I can honestly say that this team is the 2nd best in the NBA behind Lakers. I don't care what the media says about Cavs, Magics, and Boston. If the Rockets would play one of those team in the playoffs, we will rape them. This Rockets team is amazing and we were the only team in the league that gave the Lakers the push for their money without our 2 superstars. God Bless the Houston ROckets!!!!
i'd rather pay ariza than ron. since neither is great at creating their own shots right now. ron has lost all of his speed while ariza is still young at 24 and level headed. i don't think he'll cost any more than ron will so it'll be great. another defensive player who doesn't get sidetracked.
I agree. The only reason his stock is high is because he was on a winning team. Put him on most other teams and he will just be average. Now, if dm thinks he can improve drastically, then do it.
Artest's agent has already publicly stated that the tweet was from an imposter. If Artest is not re-signed by the Rockets, Daryl Morey very well may look at sign-and-trade options for Ron. If Artest wants to go to a particular team but wants more than the MLE (which he does), Morey can take a look at what that team has to offer in trade. Rather than losing Artest for nothing, Morey may be able to obtain another asset or two in exchange for making sure Artest gets a bigger payday.
No thanks to Ariza, I heard on ESPN that he wants more than the MLE. IMO he really doesn't bring much to the table.
Criticize Morey's negotiating results if you want, but it has netted us some DAMN good players for little money. Landry and Scola at 3M a pop? You can call them role player but I'm sure some teams would be willing to pay them double that for their quality of play. Basically the alternative you are advocating is a macho, testorone-driven "We are going to get this guy no matter what approach". Two words for ya: Mark Cuban. Some of the worst FA signings of his time (Desagana Diop?) and some of the worst trades of ALL time (Devin Harris and lots of picks and cash for Jason Kidd lol). The teams that have the best management are the ones that end up with the most prudent decision-making. The template is clear for winning a championship in the NBA: unless someone is a superstar worth building around, you do not splurge beyond what you think the value is for that player. And if you don't have a superstar that is capable of winning it all, then you do everything possible to angle yourself towards getting one. So long as you don't have one, David Stern ain't letting you sniff the kitchen so much as give you a seat at the dinner table.
It works for both rockets and lakers if we sign Ron, and trade him for Ariza. I think Ron asks too much, and he is old too. Ariza fits the long term plan for the rockets.
The whole point of not signing Ron to a long term deal is because the Rockets are NOT contenders without Yao and TMac for most of the season. Why sign Ron to a long term deal? Morey doesn't want to mess up the cap space for 2010. Sign and trading for Ariza is pointless, as, if that was the case, considering how much money is involved, the Rockets might as well keep Ron and the Lakers keep Ariza. The point is, the Lakers only want to give Ariza the MLE because they're over the luxuary tax. Why would they want to tack on a Ron Artest when they could keep a younger Ariza. think people
Scola is the only tradeable commodity. In the draft Landry was passed over by every team at least once and, during this season, we have had no serious offers for him. On the other hand, no, I don't want overpriced or past their prime players. For example, I'm terrified Morey will go after Ariza, who is only a step ahead of Yao in foot problems. I would like to see Morey adopt the Celtic plan (acquire youngsters and veterans who complement each other) or the Portland plan (acquire youthful, athletic players with ability). In ether situation the Celtics or Blazers had attractive contracts/players to trade. We don't right now. But, with a sound strategy, we could start. However, Morey has strict formulas in his head, and he doesn't want to change. So we will continue to acquire players nobody else wants, and I will continue to bemoan the fact that "In Morey We Rust."
That post is r****ded Thumbs. Portland was able to acquire young talented players in large part because they were awful and had lottery picks. But, for discussions sake, Brandon Roy and Rudy Fernandez are two guys that the Rockets made serious runs at. We had a deal in place to get Roy and Portland **** blocked us. They then nabbed Rudy right ahead of us. What is the GM supposed to do? As for Boston, they acquired the talent they have because they sucked, again, for quite some time and had bad contracts on the books to combine with their draft picks to go get high priced players. The Rockets unfortunately have been just good enough not to get great draft picks and have given bad contracts to undesirable players. Morey has completely turned the talent base of this team around since he's been here. Let's not forget that prior to Morey, this team had basically blown the draft every year save one and had acquired less than mediocre talent for big money via free agency this decade. Morey has brought us Scola, Landry, Aaron Brooks, Kyle Lowry, Von Wafer and Ron Artest without giving out any big contracts and without having any good trade assets to go get these players. He's literally made something out of nothing.
You are bizarre. Every team passed over Gilbert Arenas, too. What does that mean? And how do you know we had no serious offers? Just to be clear, you mean the one he helped create. We have it on good accord that Morey and Pritchard were after the same players in at least 2 of the last 3 drafts. And we beat them. You should've been there, it was great. Oh you mean like the Celtics who had a blossoming Al Jefferson taken mid-late first round and a developing Ryan Gomes taken 2nd round to trade for Garnett. Care to take a guess who was involved in those drafts? I do suppose Chris Taft is hanging out somewhere.
I've liked this guy since his rookie year in NY, and never understood why he devolved into end of the bench limbo until going to LA. That said, I think he's overvalued right now. He honestly is best used as a 7th man off the bench.
